Pacquiao, Top Rank Settle Defamation Suit with Oscar de la Hoya, Golden Boy Promotions

The news has been rumored for around a week now, and today it's official. Top Rank sent out a release revealing that their defamation lawsuit with Golden Boy Promotions has been settled out of court. Terms are confidential.

Golden Boy released this statement from Richard Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya:

"Richard Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya, on behalf of themselves and Golden Boy Promotions, wish to make it crystal clear that we never intended to claim that Manny Pacquiao has used or is using any performance enhancing drugs, and further state that we do not have any evidence whatsoever of such use.

"Manny Pacquiao is one of the greatest fighters of all time, and we apologize if anyone construed our prior remarks as in any way claiming or even suggesting that Manny uses or has used performance enhancing drugs."

As much as this is good news, the settlement and public statement reminds me of one of those bets you make with someone where you have to declare their superiority should you lose.

As for the the defamation suit against the Mayweathers (Floyd Jr, Floyd Sr, Roger), that's still out there. But it's another step toward Top Rank and Golden Boy working together again, which is the big news here.