Boxing: Boxing: De La Hoya, Mosley Bout Set for 9/13

Associated Press - April 4, 2003


LOS ANGELES - The long-awaited Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley rematch is back on, assuming De La Hoya doesn't stumble in a tuneup bout next month.

Promoter Bob Arum said a signed contract was delivered to the New York hotel where he's staying late Thursday by Mosley attorney Judd Burstein.

Arum, president of Top Rank, Inc., said a decision will be announced next week regarding the site of the Sept. 13 super welterweight championship bout. It will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles or the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

"I lost patience during the process and was ready to go on to another opponent," Arum said Friday from New York. "Oscar kept insisting that I be patient because he wanted to fight Mosley for the revenge. He's doing the fighting, I did what he asked me to do."

Mosley handed De La Hoya one of his two losses in June 2000, winning a 12-round split decision in a welterweight title bout at Staples Center. De La Hoya's other loss was by majority decision to Felix Trinidad in September 1999.

The 30-year-old De La Hoya (35-2, 28 knockouts) defends his super welterweight championship May 3 against Yory Boy Campas (80-5, 68 knockouts) at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

"Oscar has to do his job, beat Campas and get ready for Mosley," Arum said. "This has been a crazy year, there's been one upset after another. You can't count your chickens in this business.

"I do the negotiating, I do the promoting, I don't do the training or the fighting. That's Oscar's job."

Arum said De La Hoya is guaranteed $12 million and Mosley $4.5 million, with both receiving various percentages of the pay-per-view proceeds after they reaches a certain level. If Mosley wins, De La Hoya will give him $500,000 from his guaranteed purse, Arum added.

Negotiations between the parties broke off Feb. 17, but resumed shortly thereafter.

Im a HUGE boxing fan and Im really looking forward to this one. How about you guys?

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The rematch between world super-welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley will be in Las Vegas on Sept. 13.

The fight will be at the MGM Grand Garden, Top Rank president Bob Arum said Thursday.

Mosley won the first bout in 2000 in Los Angeles.

Casinos covet De La Hoya fights because he draws customers. When De La Hoya stopped Fernando Vargas on Sept. 14, 2002, at Mandalay Bay, the casino had the best take in its four-year history.

``There are only two fighters out there who really can draw people and they're Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya,'' said Richard Sturm, the president of MGM Mirage Entertainment and Sports.

``People always want to see Oscar, and when you couple it with the fact that he's fighting a guy like Shane Mosley, who had beaten him before, we have a great story to tell.''

Tickets, which will cost from $100 to $1,200, won't go on sale until after De La Hoya's May 3 title defense against Mexico's Yory Boy Campas, Arum said.