The cable industry will have to wait until at least early
fall for an Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad rematch.
De La Hoya will first fight former super-lightweight
champion Shane Mosley in a June 17 pay-per-view event, according to TVKO, the PPV arm of
Home Box Office.
A press conference is scheduled for today (March 20) in Los
Angeles to announce the De La Hoya-Mosley bout, which will most likely retail at $49.95,
TVKO senior vice president of programming Mark Taffet said.
The fight will be the first PPV appearance for De La Hoya
since losing his welterweight title to Trinidad in September. That lackluster fight, which
ended in a controversial decision, drew 1.2 million buys and more than $63 million in PPV
revenue.
Several industry executives believed a rematch was close to
being finalized, especially after both fighters won their most recent bouts. De La Hoya
knocked out Derrell Coley in a Feb. 26 fight televised by HBO, while Trinidad won the
junior middleweight title, defeating David Reid in a Showtime Event Television-distributed
March 3 PPV event.
In fact, De La Hoya promoter Bob Arum said two weeks ago
that he had reached an agreement in principle with Trinidad promoter Don King.
But several points of the deal were still being discussed,
including the weight at which the two fighters would meet. Trinidad, who moved up in
weight to fight Reid, said he would not move back to the 147-pound welterweight division,
while De La Hoya is reluctant to move up to 154.
Nevertheless, it seems that a rematch will be pushed back
until at least September or October after De La Hoya-Mosley.
The decision leaves Trinidad without a major fight,
although his marquee value was raised considerably by his March 3 bout with Reid. The rare
Friday-night PPV event generated about 225,000 to 250,000 PPV buys, according to
executives from SET, which distributed the bout.
Meanwhile, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson's
proposed spring return to PPV will also be delayed until at least midsummer.
Tyson will fight veteran Lou Savarese May 20 in Milan,
Italy, according to sources close to the situation. The fight was initially proposed as a
March PPV event, but SET and In Demand could not reach a distribution agreement.
Sources said that if Tyson wins, he could fight on PPV
sometime in late June or early July at the earliest.
