By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he doesn’t believe that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has any intentions of matching his “cash cow” Saul “Canelo” Alvarez against unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in September. Arum says that De La Hoya won’t make that fight because he doesn’t want his “cash cow” Canelo to get beaten by Golovkin.
Arum seems to believe that Golovkin will beat Canelo without a doubt. Arum wants to match his fighter WBO World super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) up with Golovkin in the fall. Arum appears confident that he’ll be able to make the Ramirez-Golovkin fight if Ramirez wins his April 22 fight against Max Bursak, and then a fight in July against an opponent still to be determined. Arum says he’s spoken to Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler about it.
“He’s going to fight again in July, and if things go right, we’ll put him in with Golovkin in the fall,” said Arum to Villianfy about his fighter Gilberto Ramirez. “I’ve talked to Tom Loeffler. Tom called me. Obviously, their first preference is to fight Golovkin. I don’t know if that happens. If Canelo wins [against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.], Oscar isn’t going to risk his cash cow against Golovkin. Why do you think that is? It’s his cash cow. He’s not going to get his cash cow beat,” said Arum.
When one of the boxing media members told Arum that Canelo would become more popular if he fought Golovkin, Arum said, “I agree with you, but that’s not how boxing promoters think. Canelo is well established and a big attraction.”
Arum knows De La Hoya pretty well after promoting him during his boxing career. Arum thinks that De La Hoya won’t let his “cash cow” Canelo fight Golovkin, then he’s probably right. But that’s pretty sad though for the fans because De La Hoya has been talking about wanting to match Canelo with Golovkin in September. The boxing world is pretty hyped up about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. If it turns out that De La Hoya wasn’t serious about wanting to match Canelo with Golovkin in 2017, then the logical question would be why have De La Hoya been talking about making the fight.
Is De La Hoya just name dropping Golovkin’s name so that the fans and media get excited about the fight in order to pump up Canelo’s PPV numbers? That would be pretty sneaky if that’s what De La Hoya is doing by giving the fans the media the impression that he’s going to match Canelo against Golovkin in September.
We saw how Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao were able to raise their own PPV numbers for 7 years before they finally faced each other in 2015. Immediately after they faced each other in a boring 12 round fight, both of their PPV numbers dropped off in a huge manner. It’s as if the fans were no longer interested in seeing them once they finally fought each other.
Canelo probably would lose a lot of his boxing fans if he gets beaten really bad by Golovkin. the fans might not see any point in paying to see Canelo’s fights in the future once Golovkin knocks him out. It’s no secret that De La Hoya hasn’t matched Canelo against a dangerous opponent since his controversial win over Erislandy Lara in 2014. De La Hoya has been matching Canelo in fights where he’s had little chance of losing.