Columnist Dean Juipe: Fighters: Honor your contracts

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000 | 10:08 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's the man in the ring who takes the abuse, of course.

He's in there getting hit, hit and hit again.

In exchange he's paid according to his market value and has his ego massaged appropriately. He's also having brain cells irretrievably scattered and can look at example after example of colleagues who no longer function at full speed or have both oars in the water.

Boxing is a tough way to make a living. The evidence is all around: It leaves many a fighter a mere shell of his former self. As such, the athlete deserves everything he can make and he's certainly entitled to fair and just representation.

But there's a two-way street here. While many fighters seem to be surrounded by nothing but leeches, many others have the good luck or fortune to be associated with disciplined businessmen and/or benefactors.

Even the best of fighters don't become overnight sensations overnight. They need someone to pay their expenses during a learning process that inevitably takes years, and they need support and guidance when their fistic talents begin to pay dividends.

As such, role players like managers and promoters are unavoidable necessities. Most, at least from my personal experience, work earnestly on their fighter's behalf. On the whole, they're well-meaning and resourceful.

They're tied in with their fighters by contractual agreement and each side knows right where it stands. Periodically those contracts may be mutually updated or altered to reflect a changing landscape.

Oscar De La Hoya, who initially signed with promoter Bob Arum when he turned pro in 1992, asked for and had his contract revised in 1997. As part of the deal, it was extended to 2004.

Now De La Hoya wants out and he's taking matters to court, where a U.S. District judge in Los Angeles will hear a motion Wednesday for a summary judgment in De La Hoya's favor. What was once a cozy, beneficial relationship with Arum was soured when the fighter was told he could get a larger share of the pie elsewhere.

Similarly, another fighter with local ties, Diego Corrales, filed this week with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to extract himself from a contract with his managers, Cameron Duncan and Barrett Silver.

Having seen Corrales when he didn't seem to have more than the money Duncan and Silver may have advanced him, it's difficult to sympathize with his complaint. Duncan and Silver were with him when he needed it the most, and now that he's starting to make a few bucks they're entitled to their fair share. Barring some malfeasance that has yet to surface, Corrales would seem to have little ground to terminate a valid contract with two men who have done their best to make his life easier. "This is going to be time consuming and complicated," NSAC executive director Marc Ratner said Monday after commissioners Amy Ayoub and Flip Homansky volunteered to arbitrate the dispute.

Corrales, 33-0, is just coming into his prime and De La Hoya, 32-2, may be slightly past it, yet each is assured of a steady income from the sport they allegedly love. This is old school, but they're indebted to whatever contracts they may have signed. They owe these men who stood behind them when nothing was guaranteed.