By Matt Wood: In the Marquez-Alvarado conference call Tuesday, Bob Arum gave boxing fans a sliver of hope that the Cold War might be undergoing a thaw, saying that he’s open to working with Oscar de la Hoya. Responding to a question by Boxing Insider’s Sean Crost regarding the possibility of Top Rank and Golden Boy fighters at 140 and 147 mixing it up, Arum replied:
“As I’ve said to everybody who will listen – I have absolutely no problems whatsoever dealing with Oscar de la Hoya. I was his promoter for many many years, we’ve renewed our friendship, and we hope to work very closely with them in the future.”
Arum sounded sincere, but will this lead to anything substantial? Note that Arum didn’t mention Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy. There’s been some contention between de la Hoya and Schaefer lately, mainly over working with Top Rank. Schaefer is starkly opposed to the idea, while de la Hoya on the other hand had a 2 and a half hour meeting with Arum and his son, Todd DuBoef, who is President of Top Rank. All involved said the meeting was positive and pleasant, but the fact is that Richard Schaefer can nix any interaction with Top Rank if he wants to.
But there are factors beyond the personalities at the two big promotional companies that must be overcome if any meaningful break in the Cold War is to occur. HBO must rekindle its relationship with Golden Boy, with whom it severed ties altogether last year. The duopoly of HBO and Showtime and their promotional alliances has settled in so deeply, it’s hard to see where the solution lies.
The only way to solve this issue is by dangling the most basic of incentives in front of everybody: money. Beyond a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, which I don’t think we’ll ever see, there’s a lot of revenue being lost at the moment because a lot of the most demanded, common sense fights are not getting made. Something inspiring and creative need to be proposed to get the network heads to wake up.
What if two PPV cards were put together a month apart, one on HBO and one on Showtime, which featured fighters from both Top Rank and Golden Boy? The undercards could easily be stacked, the promotional opportunities would be endless, and fans would applaud and open up their wallets. Obviously this would be complex, perhaps involving some kind of revenue sharing, but a rising tide would lift all boats.
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