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This one is up there for all-time great Oscar De La Hoya moments. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Oscar De La Hoya called Bob Arum greedy for wanting to build a temporary, 40,000-seat venue for a potential fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr ... while also suggesting that they should just hold it at the MGM Grand and raise ticket prices to unheard-of amounts and also increase the cost of the pay-per-view.
"Floyd Mayweather guarantees his own purses . . . the 40,000-seat venue is baloney," De La Hoya said. "Have we ever needed a 40,000-seat venue for me? When I fought Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., we could've filled a 100,000-seat venue.
"But how greedy do we have to be? The MGM [Grand] is right there. There's enough money to go around, we don't have to be pigs here."
De La Hoya agreed ticket prices at MGM would likely be steeply escalated from their normal big-fight range, and that the pay-per-view price would similarly be bumped up.
If anyone really thinks that Oscar De La Hoya is "doing it for the fans :) :) :)" any more than any other promoter is, please take this to heart. Oscar De La Hoya just wants to jack up the prices on you for this fight, but he starts it by accusing Arum of greed. This is easy -- Oscar knows that if you say something bad about Evil Bob Arum, a lot of people will go, "Yeah! Finally someone's calling that guy out on his bullshit!"
The problem is that De La Hoya plays the same crap games that Bob Arum plays. In response to this statement, in the same LA Times article, Arum called De La Hoya "stupid," and says he "knows nothing."
Where do you think he learned boxing promotion? A seminar with Don Chargin? Did he order some video tapes from Don King? He learned it by watching you, dad! I mean, Bob Arum.
"Big fights" in Vegas are already high roller business. Your average boxing fan cannot afford to go to Vegas, buy a ticket for a Mayweather or Pacquiao fight, and enjoy any kind of personal connection with the sport. I understand that they still make more money in Vegas than anywhere else, and that fights happen there for a reason, and that's not soon going to change.
The idea of building a temporary outdoor stadium in Las Vegas is not new. It was done many, many times in the past, and honestly it's a great idea for this type of fight, particularly pushed back to November. No, they can't make that happen in May. But truthfully, I see nothing wrong with the suggestion. As much as I want to see the fight in May, the suggestion itself is not a bad one.
Poor Oscar, he just doesn't understand that he sounds just like every other promoter. He wants your money. And if he's going to be involved in making this fight a reality, he wants, like, all of your money.
By the way, how high would you be willing to go on pay-per-view for this fight? If this fight had been made two years ago, I honestly expected them to go up to about $80 for the show. But now?