Oscar, Hopkins Team Up

Two months ago at the MGM Grand Hotel, Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins stood toe-to-toe in a middleweight title fight.

Saturday, they stood side by side in the same hotel at a news conference to make three announcements:

De La Hoya will promote his own fights through his company, Golden Boy Promotions, severing his ties with longtime promoter Bob Arum.

Golden Boy Promotions will also promote Hopkins.

Hopkins will become a part-owner of Golden Boy with the title of East Coast president. He will concentrate on signing East Coast fighters, primarily African Americans, while De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer, the founders of Golden Boy, will continue to focus on West Coast fighters, primarily Hispanic.

“Bob Arum is getting too old. He’s stepping down,” Hopkins said. “Maybe the dinosaurs of the sport realize that there is new blood. The young guns are taking over.”

Hopkins was referring to a recent announcement by Arum that his stepson, Todd duBoef, is taking over as Top Rank’s president.

Contacted at his Las Vegas home Saturday, Arum said DuBoef’s promotion was to reflect his taking control of the day-to day operations.

“I’m not retiring,” Arum said. “Tell everybody, Bob Arum is alive and kicking.”

As for De La Hoya’s leaving Top Rank, Arum said, “I was successful promoting Oscar’s fights because I know how to promote. I know how to gauge the [guaranteed money]. But I could no longer give Oscar the guarantees he wants because there has been such a fall-off in his performances. His [pay-per-view] numbers are down because of a backlash over the way he came in for the Felix Sturm fight [a controversial decision victory in June].”

Schaefer disputes Arum’s claim De La Hoya’s numbers are down.

Arum had indicated that he would testify for Hopkins in his lawsuit against promoter Don King over revenue from previous fights. But after Saturday’s announcement, Arum said, if he testified for anyone, it would be King.

“Bernard Hopkins is the only man in boxing,” Arum said “who could make Don King look like a saint.”