Luis Álvarez Renta appointment as part of his retirement, in order to effect positive change for the country by helping it negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. However, after Governor José Lois Malkún of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic’s announcement that Álvarez Renta was involved in the Baninter debacle, Álvarez Renta resigned the post in order to avoid a dispute between President Mejia and his advisors. In response to the announcement, Álvarez Renta took out full-page advertisements in the press, in which he declared he was innocent of all the charges made by the Central Bank. He also
Felix Sturm vs. Oscar De La Hoya Felix Sturm vs. Oscar De La Hoya Felix Sturm vs. Oscar De La Hoya, billed as "Collision Course", was a professional boxing match contested on June 5, 2004 for the WBO middleweight championship. Following a controversial loss to Shane Mosley that cost him the WBA and WBC light-middleweight titles in September 2003, Oscar De La Hoya announced his intentions to move up to the middleweight division to challenge undefeated WBO champion Felix Sturm, followed by a unification bout with Undisputed Middleweight Champion Bernard Hopkins should he defeat Sturm. As a precursor to their planned fight, Hopkins and De La Hoya