Arum disses Oscar De La Hoya and says Pacquiao never graduated Grade School

Arum disses Oscar De La Hoya and says Pacquiao never graduated Grade School

By DHB (Nov 20, 2006) Photo © German Villasenor

A legal fight for the right to promote boxing's hottest rising star, Manny Pacquiao is certainly heating up. This past Saturday night after Pacquiao's destruction of Erik Morales, Top Rank's Bob Arum announced he had signed a four-year contract to promote Pacquiao.

The deal may come with some problems however, as two months ago on September 18, De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions announced they had signed Pacquiao to a seven-fight deal.

In Kevin Iole's recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Arum blasts De La Hoya and his CEO, Richard Schaefer for what describes as being high-pressure tactics in coercing Pacquiao into signing. Arum even cited Pacquiao's lack of education.

Iole quotes Arum as saying: "He (Pacquiao) flew 15 hours to get to the United States and (Schaefer and De La Hoya) grabbed him, took him to a restaurant and throw a contract in front of him," Arum then added: "He said, 'I want to discuss it with my lawyer.' They knew he had a meeting the next day with Top Rank, the kid kept saying he wanted to talk to his lawyer and Oscar kept throwing it in front of him, throwing it in front of him, throwing it in front of him.

Arum spoke on Pacquiao's lack of education, citing it's not right what they did, and then called them creeps for doing so. "The kid never even graduated from grade school, damn it. He signed the contract and took the money. That's not right. It's not right. They can be all high and mighty and say they do everything for the benefit of boxing, but they are creeps. Trust me, they are creeps." said Arum.

Source of Quotes: Kevin Iole, Las Vegas Review-Journal