ARUM DOESN'T STAY ANGRY FOR LONG.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES BOXING

Bob Arum's passion as a promoter has never been in question. It was no surprise, then, that a couple of events have angered and pleased him.

He's mad that the World Boxing Council, in its infinite wisdom, wants to call next Saturday's third super featherweight fight between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao a title elimination fight.

The WBC decided this week at its annual convention in Croatia that the winner would be the No. 1 challenger to Marco Antonio Barrera's belt. The problem is, Humberto Soto, as well as Arum, already paid a total of $180,000 in sanctioning fees for what was a WBC super featherweight title elimination fight between Soto and Ivan Valle in August. < Arum's anger has been tempered some because his chief rival, Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, has run into trouble with some of its recent signings.

When Soto stopped Valle in the fourth round Aug. 12, he had earned the right to fight Barrera. Paid for it, too. But Tuesday, Arum was informed via telephone that the WBC was making Morales-Pacquiao a title elimination fight, with the winner earning a shot at Barrera.

Either Morales or Pacquiao against Barrera would be more exciting than Soto-Barrera. But that's not the point. Arum said if the WBC wants to say Morales-Pacquiao III is a title elimination fight, that's fine, but there will be no sanctioning fees paid.

``They can call it whatever they want,'' Arum said, ``but I'm not going to let these hard-working kids, who come with everything they've got, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in sanctioning fees. ... Humberto Soto fought. He paid sanctioning fees because that was an elimination fight at the same weight. So, how can there be another elimination fight?''

Of course, the WBC could be intending to give Arum and Soto their money back. Yeah, sure. Shelly Finkel, Pacquiao's manager, said Friday that as far as he and Arum are concerned, this will not be an elimination fight.

Now, for Arum's good news. Over the past few months, Golden Boy Promotions has announced the signing of three current star fighters: Juan Diaz, Pacquiao and Diego Corrales. Alas, Golden Boy might not end up with any of them. Diaz apparently never signed with Golden Boy and ended up signing with Don King. Pacquiao had a clause in the contract he signed with Arum that said he could not sign with any other promoter until after the Morales fight. And Gary Shaw, Corrales' most recent promoter, is challenging the contract Corrales recently signed with Golden Boy.

``... It exposes the fact that they have no ability to develop their own fighters,'' Arum said of Golden Boy. ``They don't know how to do it, they can't do it, they don't have the patience to do it.''

Arum said he put the aforementioned clause in Pacquiao's contract so as to be afforded the opportunity to sign Pacquiao to a long-term contract. Arum said Pacquiao and Golden Boy violated that contract when they signed their contract in late September.

Golden Boy has denied any wrongdoing. But Arum suggested Thursday, during a Pacquiao workout at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, that Pacquiao would remain with Top Rank after next Saturday's fight.

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, said that it was Diaz's manager, Willie Savannah, who prematurely told the media about Diaz signing with Golden Boy before he went with King.

Schaefer also said that his contract with Pacquiao is valid and that Arum has been warned by Golden Boy's attorneys that if he doesn't back off, he will be sued for interfering with Pacquiao's contract.

Schaefer said that before he signed Corrales, he told Shaw that although he didn't want to go after one of his fighters, that Golden Boy was one of many promotional companies that had interest in Corrales, thought to be a free agent. He said that at no time during their conversation did Shaw tell him Corrales was still under contract to Gary Shaw Productions.

``We have done nothing wrong,'' Schaefer said. ``And I'm sick and tired of these bunch of promoters trying to make us out like we are poaching fighters. This is a bunch of jealous guys who are suddenly seeing their kingdom threatened and they don't like it.''

Another American champ? Not likely

There we were on press row last Saturday at the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Carlos Baldomir welterweight title fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Word comes from the Internet that Shannon Briggs has just knocked out Sergei Liakhovich in the last seconds of their heavyweight championship fight in Phoenix.

There is no cheering on press row, even for a fight somewhere else. But suddenly there were a couple of whispers from reporters, ``USA, USA.''

Yes, it was quite embarrassing that before Briggs shocked the world by winning the World Boxing Organization belt in dramatic fashion -- sending Liakhovich out of the ring -- all four of the recognized champions were from the Soviet bloc. Silently, for the most part, among us American reporters was a certain joy when Briggs brought one of the belts back home. After all, they have spent most of their lives here.

It probably won't be the same scenario tonight when Wladimir Klitschko of the Ukraine defends his International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship against Calvin Brock of Charlotte, N.C. at Madison Square Garden in New York City. HBO will televise it, and the replay of Mayweather- Baldomir, won easily by Mayweather.

Brock is 29-0 with 22 knockouts, and he does hit hard enough to hurt Klitschko. But Brock has always been inconsistent with his offense. And since Klitschko seems to be hitting as hard as ever, seems to be as confident as ever and is the more talented fighter, something tells us he is going to be more than up to defending his title. According to Emanuel Steward, who trains Klitschko, their camp in the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania has really been something.

``Wladimir is training very hard, harder than any boxer I have ever been involved with,'' Steward said during a recent conference call.

Klitschko (46-3, 41 KOs) has trained for a few years in Los Angeles, but he's training in the Poconos for the second time in his career. He knows Brock is no slouch. Thus, he knows that being tucked away in more desolate surroundings will help him concentrate well enough to meet head on what could be a stiff challenge.

``That's exactly the point, there is nothing else to do here but train,'' Klitschko said last week. ``I have been here the last five weeks and it's the sort of place to get focused on the fight. ... He wants to be a champion of the world, so this is the chance of his entire sport's life to become this.''

Brock, 31, is still trying to convince those experts who believe he is closer to being a pretender than he is to being the real thing.

``Unfortunately, boxing people, a lot of the time, believe what they hear rather than what they see,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Manny Pacquiao, right, and Erik Morales fight next weekend, and the WBC said the winner would be the No. 1 challenger to Marco Antonio Barrera.

Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press

(2) Shannon Briggs celebrates after winning the WBO's heavyweight championship.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Box:

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