By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reportedly wasn’t pleased with learning the news that the rematch between Joseph Agbeko vs. Abner Mares II fight on Showtime will run opposite of Arum’s pay per view card featuring World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito on December 3rd on HBO.

The one hand the Mares-Agbeko fight will be shown on regular Showtime cable, while the Cotto-Margarito fight will go for a cool $54.95 on PPV on HBO. Do the math and you can guess which fight a lot of boxing fans will prefer watching on that night.

Given the choice of seeing two aging fighters in Cotto and Margarito who probably have seen their best days several years ago for $55 or a free fight between two energetic fighters Agbeko and Mares, my guess is a lot of boxing fans will opt to take the free Mares vs. Agebko fight.

Arum reportedly isn’t happy with Golden Boy Promotions for scheduling the Mares-Agbeko fight opposite his PPV card, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Arum said “There will be retaliation.”

In other words, Arum will likely put on one of his fights on the same night as one of Golden Boy’s PPV cards. It won’t work unless Arum’s fight is on regular cable and not PPV. Unfortunately, a lot of Top Rank’s fights are on PPV nowadays, so it’s going to be interesting to see what Arum can put on the same night as a Golden Boy card that won’t end up hurting him as well with viewers having to decide upon his fight card or the Golden Boy card.

Personally, I don’t see the Cotto-Margarito fight as being PPV worthy, and that’s problem number 1. You got Margarito who is coming off of a loss and who has only won one fight in the past two years fighting Cotto, who’s recent wins have come against a 38-year-old Ricardo Mayorga and another Top Rank fighter Yuri Foreman, a fighter with a bad leg and no power.

Cotto hasn’t beaten what I consider a good opponent since he squeaked by Joshua Clottey two years ago in a controversial 12 round split decision. So you got Cotto and Margarito coming into a fight with less than impressive statistics in the past two years, and you’re going to make it a PPV bout. That’s just asking for trouble.

I think Margarito needs at least two or three good tune-ups to see where his recently operated eye is at. He just had two surgeries on his right eye after taking a beating against Manny Pacquiao in his last fight last year in December, and now he’s going from that fight and the surgery that followed it into a PPV bout against Cotto.

Does this feel a little rushed to you? Usually, Arum is real good at letting things marinate to build them up properly but this feels like a rush job, as if he wants to peddle this fight before either of these guys fade anymore than they already have. I think it’s a mistake to make this a PPV card, and the undercard fights between Pawel Wolak vs. TBA, Mike vs. TBA, and Rico Ramos vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux aren’t enough for me to want to pay $55 to see this. I don’t see those guys as PPV fighers.