By John F. McKenna (McJack): Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is furious with Golden Boy Promotions and its CEO Richard Schaefer. The reason for Arum’s ire is that Golden Boy has decided to go ahead with the International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight championship rematch between current title holder Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko on December 3.

That just happens to be the same date as the PPV rematch between World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight title holder Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

Arum is also reserving his wrath for Showtime who will air the Mares – Agbeko fight.

The Cotto – Margarito fight had long been in the works for December 3, while the Mares – Agbeko fight was just announced on Wednesday.

Staging a fight on the same date as another match which is a PPV fight is not something you would expect from Golden Boy.

Arum was quoted in “The Ring” saying the following:

“Richard Schaefer and Showtime ought to be ashamed of themselves. Nobody has done this in boxing in years. To put up a fight against another promoter’s Pay Per View (PPV) with these two guys that nobody has ever heard of. I don’t think that is going to hurt us, but its still really bad form.

“They ought to be ashamed, particularly Schaefer, because Schaefer who does PPV shows, should know better. So there’s one word I want to leave them with and that’s retaliation. I’m not going to get angry, I’m not going to get bitter at what they did, but man am I going to get even in spades. I’m going to retaliate when he’s the most vulnerable, when he has the most on the line and he is not going to get away with this.”

In response Schaefer said:

“That’s the date we got, and I have the responsibility to our fighters to offer them the dates we get. Bob knows that. So if Bob has a beef with Showtime, then we at Golden Boy don’t really need to be put in the middle of this battle, because it has nothing to do with us.”

It is unlikely that “Uncle” Bob is going to buy the lame excuse that it was Showtime and Golden Boy had nothing to do with it. It is also understandable why Arum would be irate that his chief competitor would put on a fight to be aired on Showtime while he was attempting to promote a PPV fight on the same night.

Over the past few months Top Rank and Golden Boy have been working together for the 1st time in years after Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya apologized to Manny Pacquiao related to the defamation lawsuit that Pacquiao had brought against Golden Boy Promotions. The lawsuit was brought about by Manny related to insinuations that he had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) in his climb up the fistic ladder. The lawsuit against De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions execs was dropped in exchange for the apology. It was hoped at that point that Golden Boy and Top Rank would be able to work together in harmony. Unfortunately the new era of cooperation may now be threatened.

It is clear that Bob Arum has gotten the attention of Golden Boy Promotions.

The defamation lawsuit against Floyd Mayweather Jr. is ongoing.