Pacquiao, Cotto, Arum giving WBO axe in favor of WBC

The WBO and its president, Paco Valcarcel, may be getting left at the altar by Bob Arum.

In a very shrewd back door play with his so called “Diamond Belt,” Don Jose Sulaiman has undercut the sanctioning fee price ($150,000 for Miguel Cotto, same for Manny Pacquiao).

I don’t know the exact amount Sulaiman is shopping his new belt to Arum for but it is a mere pittance compared to the $300,000 Arum would have to shell out to Valcarcel’s organization.

Arum could care less about either Alphabet Soup organization and this is why Top Rank’s press release announcing the Pacquiao-Cotto bout for Nov. 14 in Las Vegas and giving ticket prices and sale information as to the ducats left out any mention of a world title being on the line.

Valcarcel covets Pacman as a WBO and Sulaiman wants to have Manny again wearing his green and gold belt.

Attention Kmart fighters, we have a Blue Light Special on a 145 pound “title belt” on Aisle 14.

Insiders say Arum is still angry at Valcarcel for how the WBO leader’s constant Puerto Rican golf course buddy, Oscar de la Hoya, wound up playing with Cotto recently.

Sulaiman also has a strong ally in Cotto lawyer Gabriel Penagaricano Jr., who is an official of the WBC and whose father has a long history of being affiliated with the WBC.

The bottom line is that Cotto may yet hand in his WBO crown or have it stripped and the WBO will get bupkes (Yiddish for nothing) as Pacquiao-Cotto turns into a WBC Catch Weight title bout.

I wonder how WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto feels about that or if he even cares.

But the signs are there as to Valcarcel and the WBO getting dumped unceremoniously by Uncle Bob.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m8d11-Pacquiao-Cotto-Arum-giving-WBO-axe-in-favor-of-WBC