De La Hoya Plays Rupert Murdoch, Buys The Ring

Shocker! Everyone seems happy that The Ring has a new chance to thrive -- and scared about what new owner Oscar De La Hoya will do with it. A promoter owning The Bible of Boxing? Still, despite concerns, no one doubts that editors Nigel Collins and Joe Santoliquito and publisher Stu Saks are stand-up guys who will print whatever makes sense to print in the magazine.

"The Ring, led by Collins, has worked feverishly to gain acceptance of its rankings and championship belts. If even a hint of impropriety was suspected, the entire program would go out the window," points out Michael Swann at 15rounds.com.

In my story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which ran in the business section today (it was a busy Philly sports night in which the Phillies scored 13 times and the sad Eagles scored just 12), the strongest statement of the problem came from rival promoter Lou DiBella, who seemed to sum up the unspoken feelings of the other promoters:

"There's conflict of interest all over the place. It takes what's been called 'The Bible of Boxing' and puts it under the ownership of a player who's trying to dominate the business. If you're a rival company to Golden Boy, would you want [Ring's] ratings being used by television networks to determine what they buy? There's too much inherent conflict. And if I owned Ring magazine, and I'm a promoter, I certainly would go to a fighter and say, 'Look, I own Ring magazine.' "

Oscar told me, as he has said to everyone, that Golden Boy won't exert any kind of influence over the editorial choices in the magazine. He said he just wants the magazine to be more mainstream, more like Golf Digest. I warned him just don't make it like Oprah and put himself on the cover every week. The O is taken already anyway.

Here's the press release from Golden Boy.