No Longer Fighting Mad

Twenty-four hours after an angry Bob Arum threatened to expose an alleged conspiracy involving the selection of judges for Saturday’s Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley super-welterweight title fight, a kindler, gentler Arum conceded he had no evidence that could overturn De La Hoya’s defeat by Mosley on a unanimous decision.

The strident protests of the decision by De La Hoya and Arum, his promoter, turned into calm reflection Tuesday.

“We’re not looking for [the Nevada State Athletic Commission] to order a rematch,” Arum said. “Theoretically, they could vacate the title, but we are not looking for anything like that. We want to show what happened here not as a means of affecting anything that happened last Saturday, but as a way of preventing these things in the future.”

With a demand Tuesday from Mosley’s camp for disciplinary action against De La Hoya and Arum for their public insinuations of corruption, Arum insisted he wasn’t questioning the integrity of the judges.

“How can I do that?” Arum said. “Everybody sees things differently. Their results differ so much from mine that I have to say they didn’t do a competent job. But I have no evidence of corruption or improprieties in scoring.”

De La Hoya, who, in the heat of defeat Saturday night at Las Vegas’ Grand Garden Arena, had announced he was launching an “investigation,” issued a statement Tuesday also softening his stance.

“Last Saturday was not that bad if it was the beginning of the ultimate fight, the fight for a better future of boxing,” De La Hoya said in the statement.

Arum also backpedaled on his insistence that he would never again promote in the state of Nevada unless a federal boxing commission is formed to regulate the sport. He said Tuesday it comes down to whether or not he can co-exist with Nevada State Athletic Commissioner Flip Homansky, who has been accused by Arum of having a personal vendetta against Arum’s Top Rank boxing organization.

“I have a choice,” Arum said. “If I want to promote in Nevada, I have got to live with Homansky. If I can’t, then I won’t promote in Nevada.”

Homansky has denied any involvement in the selection of Saturday’s judges other than giving his final approval as a member of the commission.

Luther Mack, chairman of the five-member commission, has scheduled an open hearing for Oct. 15 to discuss all the charges and countercharges that have been flying since Mosley won the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Assn. 154-pound titles.

At the crux of the controversy is a letter from Renzo Bagnariol, WBA championship committee chairman, to the Nevada commission, protesting the selection of Stanley Christodoulou of South Africa as the WBA representative on the three-man judging crew. Arum’s contention has been that, when he approved the selection of Christodoulou by Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada commission, he was not told that Christodoulou had not been on the list of candidates submitted by the WBA.

But while the promoters and sanctioning bodies can offer input, the final decision on officials rests with the commission.

Meanwhile, Judd Burstein, Mosley’s attorney, has called for action to be taken against De La Hoya and Arum.

“The suggestion that Mr. Mosley’s victory was the result of a ‘fix’ is outrageous and dishonest.... This irresponsible attack upon the integrity of the commission, as well as the legitimacy of my client’s hard-fought victory, must not be countenanced.... If, as we believe to be the case [De La Hoya and Arum] are merely engaged in a disingenuous effort to avoid admitting that Mr. De La Hoya lost fair and square, there should be consequences,” Burstein said in a letter to the commission.