DiBella Easily Lands His Jab Against Arum

He is boxing’s newest contender, a fighter who is already exchanging blows, even though the bell for his first match won’t ring until tonight.

He is Lou DiBella, who spent 11 years at HBO building that cable network into the most powerful television force in boxing.

Then, last May, he left and formed DiBella Entertainment, announcing that he was redefining the traditional relationships between fighters and handlers. He would be neither a promoter nor a manager, DiBella said, but a “matchmaker-television packager-marketing advisor,” who would focus on the financial well-being of his fighters.

DiBella struck swiftly, signing six fighters from the 2000 Olympics, three of them U.S. medalists. Five of the six will make their professional debuts tonight at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Not surprisingly, the opposition struck back. Several promoters have blasted DiBella, labeling him a phony who is trying to use semantics to mask that he is nothing more than another promoter doing business as usual.

The biggest blast came from promoter Bob Arum.

“What DiBella is doing is totally nuts,” Arum said. “They fired him from HBO and then gave him a golden parachute. He and [former HBO president] Seth Abraham didn’t get along.

“If you’re going to go into business, be a promoter or be a manager. Don’t BS. The way he’s trying to do it, he would not be subject to any responsibility.”

DiBella reacted to Arum’s remarks the way a gas pump would react to a flame thrower.

“I was never fired,” he retorted. “That is factually incorrect. As God is my judge, if I had changed my mind and decided to stay, they would have been happy to have me.

“Arum must be insane to say these actionable things. He must be emboldened because this is the Chinese ‘Year of the Snake.’ Bob does not have to worry that I will sue him over these remarks even though I have a slam-dunk case. Remember, this is a man who has already admitted in a court of law in New Jersey [in the trial of former International Boxing Federation president Bob Lee] that he lied, cheated, and bribed people.”

HBO president Ross Greenburg backed up DiBella’s account of his departure.

“We would never fire Lou DiBella,” Greenburg said. “Why would we, based on the success he has had for us? Boxing is better off because of Lou DiBella. He was the heart and soul of HBO boxing. He gave us some of the greatest matchups over the last 11 years. He was at the very core of the sport.”

DiBella still has a relationship with the cable network. HBO has been supplying some of the money to sign DiBella’s fighters--for as much as $1.5-$1.6 million--for the right to televise some of their fights.

In questioning DiBella’s novel approach, Arum uses Olympian Jose Navarro as an example. Navarro, one of those making his debut tonight, is managed by former welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya. DiBella’s contract with Navarro is being analyzed by the California State Athletic Commission.

“The California commission refused to approve [DiBella’s] contract with Navarro because they don’t know what he is,” Arum said. “He’s either a manager or a promoter. He can’t go with whatever way the wind blows. If he’s a . . . promoter, he’s got to register as a promoter. He thinks the law does not apply to him because he’s not a promoter.”

Rob Lynch, the California commission’s executive director, says no decision has been made on the DiBella contract.

“This is something the likes of which we have never seen,” Lynch said. “Usually someone is a promoter or a manager. It appears to me that Lou DiBella is a matchmaker. We are going to meet with his lawyers and see what we can accept or can’t accept.”

DiBella was quick to point to Arum’s difficulties in this state. A judge ruled earlier this month that De La Hoya’s contract with Arum was no longer valid.

“If Bob Arum understood California rules, Oscar De La Hoya wouldn’t be a free agent,” DiBella said. “Why is he so preoccupied with what I’m doing?

“But I have empathy for Bob Arum. He’s a brilliant guy, he has been a great success, he has been one of the best promoters. But now he’s hitting the twilight of his career and his legacy is going down the toilet bowl. At the age of [69], he’s never getting it back. That’s why he is so bitter.

“A lot of the troubles of this sport rest squarely on the shoulders of Bob Arum and others who made millions, yet the good of the sport never crossed his mind. He never gave anything back. Nothing. He has failed the sport of boxing, did nothing for its integrity. He has a hell of a lot of nerve defaming and libeling me.”

THE OTHER FIGHTS

Tonight’s card at Madison Square Garden, called “The Night of the Olympians,” will include Ricardo Williams, a silver-medal winner as a light welterweight, against Anthony Simpkins (5-0-1, two knockouts); Jermain Taylor, bronze as a light middleweight, against Chris Walsh (17-4-1, 6); Clarence Vinson, bronze as a bantamweight, against Adrian Valdez (3-1-2); heavyweight Michael Bennett against Andrew Hutchinson (1-1-1), and Navarro, an Olympic flyweight, against Mario Rodriguez (4-3, 2).