:boxing: Golden Week:: The Gold Standard Magazine and The Golden Girl...

With much talk on the anime side of things concerning the now-dead ADV-Geneon alliance and the effects a consolidation of power would have on the industry, it comes as a bit of irony that on the other side of HardDoor--boxing--there was a surprise acquisition of its own. Sports and Entertainment Publications, a subsidiary of boxer/promoter Oscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy Enterprises (and mostly owned by his promotion section), bought the venerable Ring Magazine, in addition to its other boxing and pro wrestling periodicals. Ring is considered a Holy Grail in the boxing community and its rankings are often taken as seriously as, if not more so than, those of the sanctioning bodies (well, those are disputable anyway, but that's another topic for another time...). De la Hoya has reassured everyone that the long running publication would retain its editorial freedom and that neither he nor his promotion would have any role in it.

A respected company in a specific industry undergoing a major change in ownership or leadership by an unlikely (and sometimes controversial) entity has been a reoccurring theme in 2007. The GB-Ring deal is reminiscent of Rupert Murdoch/News Corps.'s purchase of the Wall Street Journal--only without the political fearmongering and wringing-of-hands. De la Hoya is too honest and smart a businessman to interfere in the Ring's affairs in a sleazy manner (i.e. pro-GBP articles, favorable rankings, coverage of GBP fighters) and not know of the major repercussions such matters would create.

As business-saavy as the Golden Boy has shown to be, his domestic abilities have never been quite as good (e.g. numerous accounts in past relationships of infidelity and disputes). Around a week later, a woman claiming to be a mistress decided to make pictures of him available wearing ladies' garments, in which the Golden Gir...err... De la Hoya, as well as a few others, says are fakes. He did claim that he knew her, but denied any sort of tryst, implying instead that she just wants money from the tabloids.

Personally, the pictures in question [NOTE: Not quite work-safe] could go either way. One looks like it could pass for a Photoshop and another looks far too convincing. The body shown could pass for his own in terms of physique and build, but in some his head looks disproportionate with the rest, the legs don't look quite like his, and his arms look larger and beefier than usual. Judging from them and other reports, it seems that they were taken during one of the "nights out" and De la Hoya appears intoxicated. If it is truly him, a big mess will be made of it briefly, but it will probably shift towards indifference as time goes on (if he announces something about his "preference", then look for an extended period of the former). With so many odd celebrity news lately, nothing really shocks the public anymore. I suppose rumors and gossip comes with the territory no matter where it lies.