Golden Boy in rare form, speaks on Corrales, Pacquiao, says he's never working with Arum again!

While working on our coverage of the final Mayweather-Baldomir presser in Las Vegas, Nevada, Boxingtalk received a call from none other the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, promoter extraordinaire and by far the most influential fighter on the planet. In this must read interview that can only be found on BoxingTalk De La Hoya states that, if Mayweather is victorious this weekend, and really wants to make the biggest fight in boxing, there is no way he should risk that by fighting at the end of February. De La Hoya also comments on a potential Mayweather-Mosley fight, says that Mayweather is crazy if he thinks he'd make $10M for the bout. Oscar also confirms that as far as he's concerned, Diego Corrales and Manny Pacquiao will be promoted by GBP, not Gary Shaw and Bob Arum. Will we ever see Golden Boy and Top Rank work together on a Mosley-Margarito fight, or any other co-promotion for that matter? "No, never," snapped De La Hoya. Read on for the full interview to see what the Golden Boy had to say as Boxingtalk "brought the East LA out of him."

GL: What's the latest and greatest Oscar?

ODLH: "I'm in Boston and we just signed a big deal with Tecate Beer, who is now going to be sponsoring Golden Boy Promotions. The great thing about it is we didn't sign the deal with me personally,it's for company so they will be representing all Golden Boy athletes.


GL: Mayweather-Baldomir, who do you like and why?

ODLH: "That fight is this weekend? I'm working on my home in PR and I"ve been pushing these guys to make sure they have it ready by Satuday because if they don't somebody's going to have to answer to me. This is a fight that I will not miss; obviously  I'm expecting Mayweather to win.

GL: Will you still be watching this fight's PPV numbers closely to determine Floyd's market value should you ever enter into serious negotiations?


ODLH: "Absolutely, that's the way we work and it's only fair. The way I work with my opponents, they make more with me than anyone else and it's not going to be any different with Floyd. He's going to get what he's worth as my opponent, and it's going to be a lot more than he's ever made before.

GL: What's the deal with Diego Corrales and Manny Pacquiao?

ODLH: "Everybody is claiming that they have Diego Corrales and Manny Pacquiao signed. All they have to do is show us the contract. Show us the contract, that's all we want. Show us the contract, if it shows that we jumped the gun so be it, we deserve to be sued. IF we jumped the gun, but we didn't. We're doing good for the fighters and what's going to happen around boxing is everyone else is going to try and take us down becauase they see the direction we're going in. It's our personal goal to whoever wants to take us on, let's do it. We at Golden Boy promotions do everything by the book, we do our research and we do everything to protect the fighter and that will never change."

GL: So as far as you're concerned both Corrales and Pacquiao will be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions?

OLDH: "Absolutely. We signed contracts with both of them. Bob Arum and Gary Shaw are claiming they have signed contracts, with these guys, show us the contracts. What's so difficult about that? Show us where it states what you're telling us.


GL: Mosley mentioned to BoxingTalk that February 24 is his HBO PPV date. What can you tell us about that?

OLDH: I can speak about my partner Mosley, he's going to fight in Feb. We don't know with who yet, we'd like to see him fight on HBO World Championship Boxing. He's had some great events on PPV this year which have done very well, but I think it's time for the fans to watch him live on HBO. We'll sit down with the Mosley's and work something out but we have to talk with him to see what he thinks. I will say this if a fight with Mayweather and myself ever happens, But if a PBF-ODLH fight is going to happen, I'm not going to risk the fight that Mayweather if is going to fight in Febraury. What if he gets cut? It's too big an event and it's too risky for him to fight at the end of Febraury if he really wants to make the fight for May."

GL: So if Floyd fights on February 24 as he plans to, there will not be De la Hoya-Mayweather due to the risk?

ODLH: "Too many risks, we want to build this up to be a big event. And with the time and effort we're going to put into it, we're not going to risk him fighting at the end of February on an event like this. If Mayweather wants to keep making the kind of money he's making, which is great, he could do whatever he wants, but if he wants to take his career to another level he has to fight me, I don't need to fight him."

GL: If Floyd defeats Baldomir on Saturday and scraps his bout in Febraury to fight you in May, would you be willing to enter negotiations first thing Monday morning?

ODLH: "I would love to, it would make me very happy to start negotiating as soon as we can. If he claims that he's the best and he wants to fight the best and he wants to take his career to another level he has to go through me. If he wants to continue on making the money he's making, which is great, super money he can continue to try and find opponents, but if he wants to make the biggest payday he's ever made he knows what he has to do. The East LA comes out of me when I get on the phone with you, and you know what? Mayweather's crazy if he thinks he could make $10M for fighting Mosley, he's out of his mind. Shane Mosley is a superstar and he must be paid too, so I don't think there's enough money in the fight to make both guys happy. And for the record I want to make this clear, some people have been spreading rumors about Mosley-Margarito and that fight will never happen."


GL: Will we ever see another Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank Inc co-promotion?


ODLH: NO, NEVER! I am giving Richard Schaefer the greenlight to take our company to the top, and whoever is going to get in the way of our plans and sabotage them we're going to fight them to the very end. I can now feel the tension in the boxing world against Golden Boy Promotions, but that doesn't worry me one bit. Why? Because we're doing right by the fighter and we will keep doing the right thing by the fighters so evenbtually we will prevail.

M

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