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Saturday, January 10
 
Report: FBI probe does not include Mosley fight

ESPN.com news services

The FBI and New York City police are not targeting the disputed second Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley fight, according to sources of the Los Angeles Times.

However, in raiding promoter Bob Arum's office in Las Vegas Tuesday, FBI agents were looking for evidence of improprieties in other fights promoted by Arum's Top Rank organization, the Times reports Saturday.

On Friday, the New York Daily News cited law enforcement sources as saying there was evidence that September's De La Hoya-Mosley fight, awarded to Mosley in a controversial decision, was rigged.

The New York Times also published an article Saturday tossing water on the Daily News report.

According to the L.A. Times, all of the major figures connected with De La Hoya-Mosley, including the fighters, say they have not been questioned by investigators. That includes Gary Shaw, Mosley's promoter; Richard Schaefer, De La Hoya's business manager; John Bailey, chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission; Marc Ratner, executive director of the commission, and Keith Kizer, chief deputy attorney general in Nevada.

Rather, according to a source of the L.A. newspaper in boxing, the investigation centers on the possible tampering with scales at weigh-ins, forging of medical documents and fixing of other fights, allegedly by people with or associated with Top Rank.

According to the paper's sources, fights that have come under suspicion include those involving Joey Torres, Jorge Paez and Eric "Butterbean" Esch.

According to the Times of New York, two boxing executives speaking on condition of anonymity suggested that the FBI might be looking at fights that Top Rank promoted for Telefutura, a network run by the Spanish-language Univision. Arum promotes many Hispanic boxers.

Don King told the New York paper by telephone that he knew nothing of the investigation, but said, "I always feel sorry for people who are raided by the FBI, even if there's always a cheering section when I am."




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