Arum, Oscar at peace

Dean Juipe

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

Unfathomable as it seems today with each man coming across as perfectly content with the other, Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum are less than four years removed from a legal skirmish and verbal donnybrook that was edgy and sophomoric, as if it had been scripted for perverse display.

They didn't just have a spat, they were trading punches.

"It was bitter," Arum said this week, referring to an episode that surfaced in the fall of 2000 when De La Hoya filed suit and prevailed in a California district court to have his contract with Top Rank nullified.

At the time De La Hoya had made some $125 million fighting with Arum's Top Rank Inc. as his promoter. The fact that both parties later reconciled and that De La Hoya stands to make approximately $30 million in two fights this year only goes to show that cooler heads likely prevailed.

"The animosity we had at the time for one another was very much real," Arum said. "But I'd always maintained a relationship with his father, and even when Oscar and I weren't on good terms I was hopeful that we could get back together."

Arum said it was Joel De La Hoya who "extended an olive branch" that eventually led his son back to the promoter who had signed him shortly after the 1992 Olympic Games.

The fact that Arum and De La Hoya, in essence, renewed their vows has played a major role in leading De La Hoya to a Saturday fight at the MGM against Felix Sturm and a likely one at the same site in September against Bernard Hopkins.

These are big-money fights that a novice boxing promoter might not be able to broker. And De La Hoya had just such an inexperienced promoter during his interlude away from Arum when he utilized TV executive Jerry Perenchio in that unfamiliar role.

Arum was broiling at the time.

"Good. I know he has deep pockets," Arum said of Perenchio, the CEO of Univision (TV) taking over as De La Hoya's promoter in the midst of the legal battle between Top Rank and the fighter. The inference: Perenchio would be among those who would pay if Top Rank won its federal court appeal of the California district court decision.

De La Hoya had filed the initial suit to free himself from Arum and Top Rank in 2000 because, he said, he felt Arum had fleeced him on a 1999 fight against Felix Trinidad and that Arum was not in compliance with California contractual laws. "This contract is null and void," De La Hoya's attorney, Jeff Spitz, said at the time.

The colorful Arum had plenty to say.

"He's treating me like one of his bimbos," he said, referring to the then-single De La Hoya and his array of female companions. "It's despicable."

What really got Arum's goat was buying a $250,000 Ferrari for De La Hoya following the fighter's June 17, 2000, loss to Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. "How do you think that makes me feel?" Arum said shortly thereafter. "He probably drove that Ferrari to his lawyer's office."

He was promising a drawn-out legal battle and predicting that the appeals court would right the district court's wrong.

"We're going after Oscar and the people responsible for this for millions and millions of dollars in damages," Arum said in 2000. "Oscar may have lost close decisions to Trinidad and Mosley, but we'll knock him out.

"This litigation will be better than any fight. It's a mismatch, you'll see. He just can't walk away from this contract.

"As it stands, this litigation will take months if not years to resolve. I guess in the meantime he can sing his songs."

The latter reference was to De La Hoya compiling a CD of songs (which was released in October, 2000) and appearing as a singer on such outlets as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. De La Hoya tried to stay tactful and replied via a publicist's ghost written response.

"I'm surprised and disappointed at Bob's comments to the press that I should retire from boxing," it read. "I am as committed as I have ever been (to boxing). However, it would be difficult to go forward without the unconditional support of my promoter."

Spitz chimed in, saying "Oscar doesn't want to go forward with Bob."

Arum, a nonpracticing attorney, belittled Spitz in response.

"Oscar's lawyers went over our contracts with a fine-tooth comb," he said. "So that's just more proof that these people don't know what they're doing."

Facetiously, Arum fumed a little more about De La Hoya's written statement.

"You'd think he'd call me a liar or a bastard or something," he said.

It was good theater, if nothing else.

But before the case reached the federal court, Joel De La Hoya interceded on his son's behalf and Oscar and Arum made amends. For at least the fourth time since De La Hoya signed with Top Rank in 1992, his contract was reworked.

"Everything's fine," De La Hoya said as he returned to the fold. "It was just one of those things that happen."