Staples Won’t Be Site of De La Hoya-Mosley Fight

Staples Center President Tim Leiweke was confident his arena would be the site of the Sept. 13 rematch between boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley. Leiweke had made the high bid of $7 million and had a handshake agreement with promoter Bob Arum.

But Wednesday, an angry and disappointed Leiweke learned that the fight had been awarded to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

What hurt most, from Leiweke’s standpoint, was that MGM’s bid was only $6.8 million.

“We are obviously disappointed,” Leiweke said, “Considering that the first time they fought, it was here because we took the risk, considering that these are two L.A. fighters, considering that the demand, I think, would be greater here than in Las Vegas, it’s a shame the fight will be in Las Vegas. I feel sorry for Oscar. Now he will have no chance to redeem himself in his hometown.”

De La Hoya lost on a split decision to Mosley in June 2000.

“The last time I checked, both Oscar and Shane still live in L.A.,” Leiweke said. “Shouldn’t these two ultimately be allowed to fight in their hometown instead of making their fans have to fly to Las Vegas and pay for rooms there?

“I am not happy with the way this has ended.”

Arum said he’d accepted the lower bid because of his concern over whether the fight would sell in Los Angeles, and because of his concern, as a Las Vegas resident, over what the loss of the fight would mean to that city’s economy.

“I have come up with a huge, huge guarantee [De La Hoya will receive $12 million, Mosley $4.5] and I feel there could be a real problem at Staples in this economy,” Arum said. “It’s a great venue but unless the economy really picks up, I couldn’t see how they could sell 5,500 to 6,000 seats at $1,200.”

In Las Vegas, said Arum, the hotels take many of the high-priced seats for their high rollers.

Leiweke said, “If he would have called me and told me that, I would have told him that, on every national [concert] tour, Staples has done better than any place in the country. I am absolutely certain we would have moved those tickets. We do 250 events a year here and draw 3 million people.”

Leiweke added that he had devised a plan to lower the price of some seats.

“We were going to take 800 of the $1,200 tickets and auction them off on the Internet to the highest bidder,” he said. “That was a unique, creative concept which would have guaranteed that every ticket did not have to be sky high.

“So I humbly disagree with Bob Arum. I assured him there was no risk with two L.A. fighters in a rematch after they had a great first fight here. That’s my opinion, but I was willing to spend $7 million on that opinion.”

Arum conceded that there had been a handshake.

“But I didn’t sign a letter of intent,” he said. “I’m very sorry it worked out this way, but we all have to protect ourselves and make the best deal we can.”

And, Arum said, he was protecting his hometown.

“There was an enormous amount of pressure on me to hold the fight in Las Vegas,” he said. “Business has been really bad here. September is usually a big month for Las Vegas, but there was a feeling that a significant amount of people wouldn’t come here if there was no fight.”

Would Leiweke deal with Arum again? “Bob has to make a decision about dealing with us,” Leiweke said.