By Lenny Sandoval (@TheFightSmith) – Since Manny Pacquiao’s dismantling of Brandon Rios in Macau, China, the chatter surrounding a possible fight between Pacquiao and pound-for-pound champ Floyd Mayweather has been back in full force. Clamoring aside, this fight is not happening anytime soon and while Mayweather has his own reasons for not fighting Pacquiao, boxing’s cold war likely bears some of the blame.
There are number of other elite fights that will not be made given boxing’s current climate, including Mayweather-Timothy Bradley, Danny Garcia-Bradley, Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin, Leo Santa Cruz-Guillermo Rigondeaux, Bernard Hopkins-Adonis Stevenson… the list goes on.
Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank Promotions simply do not work together. Nevertheless, the cold war goes beyond these two promoters. Earlier this year, HBO announced it would no longer do business with Golden Boy, sending all Golden Boy fights to Showtime. Additionally, Mayweather, who owns his own promotion company, but has worked exclusively with Golden Boy for years, has four fights remaining in his unprecedented six-fight exclusive deal with Showtime. Top Rank fighters and other elite fighters like Ward, Golovkin and Stevenson who aren’t promoted by Golden Boy or Top Rank, have been fighting exclusively on HBO, taking them off limits to any Golden Boy fighters. The battle lines between Showtime, with Golden Boy and HBO with Top Rank and a number of other more independent fighters are drawn.
Although recent statements by Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza seem to indicate that the HBO/Showtime hurdle may not be directly standing in the way of a Mayweather/Pacquiao super fight, the effects of the cold war are ever present. Understandably, boxing fans have come to rue the cold war for the impedance it has placed on a number of dream fights. With that said, because of the cold war, 2013 has arguably been one of the best years for boxing fans in decades.
Writer Scott Christ correctly predicted it back in March. Boxing is a ruthlessly competitive business filled with ruthless competitors, whether it is the fighters themselves, the promoters or the network executives. While the cold war might not be directly responsible for the great year in boxing, the role it has played in Showtime’s resurgence definitely is. Since Mike Tyson’s championship run, Showtime was mostly an afterthought when it came to elite boxing events. Mayweather’s exclusive deal and Showtime’s relationship with Golden Boy changed all that and put HBO on the offensive, creating real competition between the premium networks. The networks cannot continue to put forward sub-par cards and expect no repercussions, so they have been pushing the promoters for more fan-friendly fights. Not to be outdone by the other side, the promoters have responded by making some of the best fights possible among the fighters within their respective camps.
All year long, boxing fans were knee-deep in great fights. Epic battles like Bradley-Provodnikov, Alvarado-Rios II, Provodnikov-Alvarado, Maidana-Lopez, Marquez-Bradley, Berto-Guerrero, Garcia-Judah, Figueroa-Arakawa, and Broner-Maidana, gave fans a new fight of the year candidate every few weeks. Boxing fans were also treated to some cards that may have looked better on paper, but still paired top-of-the-division talent against one another, with bouts like Mayweather-Alvarez, Pacquiao-Rios, Mares-Gonzalez, Ward-Rodriguez, Donaire-Rigondeaux and Garcia-Matthysse. HBO and Showtime also did a great job of showcasing their active rising stars like Leo Santa Cruz (three fights, one on CBS, two on Showtime), Keith Thurman (three fights on Showtime), Gennady Golovkin (four fights on HBO), Adonis Stevenson (four fights on HBO), Sergey Kovalev (four fights, two on HBO) and Mikey Garcia (three fights on HBO).
There is no reason for the competition between the two camps to cool down anytime soon and both sides have enough quality fighters to keep up with demand. So, while a number of dream fights will still go unmade because of the cold war, 2013’s feverish pace of fan-friendly fights, big name matchups and active superstars should continue into next year with potential fights like Cotto-Martinez, Mikey Garcia-Donaire, Mayweather-Danny Garcia, Alvarez-Lara, Stevenson-Kovalev and more.
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