Oscar De La Hoya is shortsighted, misguided or just naive, but – please – he isn’t an enemy of the free-market system in comments this week about wanting to sign all of the talented fighters and secure the best television dates.
De La Monopolist, he is not.
In telling Broadcast & Cable that boxing needs to be run more like baseball or the National Basketball Association, De La Hoya is being as American as the New York Yankees. Since when haven’t the major leagues been able to sidestep anti-trust laws? Baseball has an anti-trust exemption.
In 2007, economist Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College and author of books on the sports business, told The New York Times:
“Each league is a monopoly and exercises significant market power by, (among other things), extracting significant public subsidies for the construction of facilities.
“The players in each league share in the monopoly booty.”
Enough said.
Unfortunately, De La Hoya said a lot more, too much more in the Q-and-A format. First, the Golden Boy Promotions president said he did not want to take over boxing. Then, he said, “in a way, yes, we do want to take over.’’ He wasn’t finished. In the next sentence, he said, “Well, we don’t want to take control of boxing, but we want to do the right thing for the sport.’’
De La Hoya is more of a politician than Congressman Manny Pacquiao. More than annoying, the yes-no-maybe spin is a unifying call for promotional rivals, who are having a tea party of their own in an overreaction to De La Hoya’s comments.
Not to worry. Boxing is the Balkans. Allies are temporary and always an imminent enemy. If it sounds like anarchy, it is and has been. Leave it to somebody else to decide whether that’s good or bad for business.
This week, at least, Paulie Malignaggi will probably says it’s very, very good after Golden Boy signed him to a contract in the wake of his last fight, a loss to Amir Khan, that prompted even him to concede that retirement was a consideration. In an attempt to expand the Golden Boy brand from west-to-east, from Los Angeles-to-New York, De La Hoya needed a well-known New York name to sell a deal to promote at the new Brooklyn arena, the Barclays Center, starting in 2012. There are questions about whether Malignaggi can still fight, but absolutely no doubt about whether he can talk through 2012 and beyond.
Above all, Malignaggi’s signing exposed – all over again – the game’s defining characteristic. He wasted little time and no apologies in a rip of his former promoter, Lou DiBella, whom he said did not market him enough. It was as unfair as it was embarrassing. But it was boxing. It illustrates a business guided more by bitter rivalries that unity.
For three decades, it was Bob Arum-versus-Don King. Now, Arum and King talk like old friends and loom as business partners if an agreement for a Pacquiao fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. can ever be reached.
For Arum, however, the rivalry – a little bit like oxygen – is still there.
In De La Hoya, Arum has another one, which makes some fights tough to make and makes all those worries about a monopoly just look foolish.
Carbajal’s legal fight continues
Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal, a retired junior-flyweight from Phoenix, appeared Thursday in court with companion Laura Hall for a hearing to retain an order of protection against his neighbors, Carbajal niece Josephine and Jose Espinal.
Carbajal alleges that he and Hall were assaulted by Espinal and a couple of unidentified assailants on the night of Sept. 6. Through an interpreter who translated his Spanish, Espinal called the allegation a lie. He said he was not there. No charges have been filed. A criminal investigation is underway.
At the hearing in downtown Phoenix, Hall wore a cast on her left arm. She said two fingers had been crushed in the alleged incident. A bruise from a black eye was still evident. Photos of her injury and cuts to Carbajal’s face and head were provided as evidence.
Josephine alleged that Michael Carbajal had been drinking. Police officers, who answered the 911 call, said that they smelled alcohol. The hearing was continued. It will resume on Oct. 20.
It is just the latest battle in Carbajal’s star-crossed life. Brother and former trainer Danny Carbajal, Josephine’s father, is still in prison for stealing an estimated $2 million from his brother, who earned about $8 million over 49 fights. Danny Carbajal is scheduled for release in October 2011. Danny Carbajal’s wife, Sally, was murdered in Feb. 25, 2005, three days before they were scheduled to be in divorce court. The murder has never been solved. More than five years after Sally after was found dead from a gunshot, the murder is still a cold case.
Josephine entered a guilty plea for her role in the theft from Michael, who is trying to recover what was stolen from him in civil court. She was sentenced to probation. In April, she and Espinal moved into Danny’s former residence next to Michael’s boyhood home. Michael Carbajal said they moved into the house in an attempt to provoke him.
“They’re trying to make me to do something that will put me in jail,’’ said Carbajal, who continues to battle a drinking problem. “That’s what they want. It’s about greed. That’s what it goes back to. That’s what this is all about.’’
Notes, quotes and a couple of counters
· Golden Boy is suing Top Rank for allegedly trying to hide money that De La Hoya’s company says it is owed from three Pacquiao fights. Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz reacted to the lawsuit suit, telling AOL: “I guess since Golden Boy doesn’t have any boxers to promote that are of any high quality, they have to find a fight somewhere, so they have chosen to fight in the courts through frivolous litigation.” Say what? Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach might disagree. Roach trains the Golden Boy promoted Amir Kahn.
· And the International Boxing Federation is threatening to strip Devon Alexander of its junior-welterweight title if he fights Timothy Bradley instead of South African Kaiser Mabuza, the No. 1 contender. Where is the trash can that Riddick Bowe made so in famous in 1992? That’s where Bowe deposited the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight belt. That’s where the IBF’s 140-bout belt belongs right now.
