By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum still hasn’t given up hope on putting together a fight between his stable fighter Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) and WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (44-3, 27 KOs) for May 12 on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Arum says they’re still working on trying to put the fight together for the 12th of May even though Linares’ co-promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are NOT interested in making the Linares vs. Lomachenko fight for that date. HBO is televising the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin 2 replay on May 12th of their fight that will be taking place on May 5th on HBO PPV.
If Golden Boy allows Linares to fight Lomachenko on May 12th, they would be competing with themselves and hurting the interest in the Canelo-GGG 2 rematch. Both cards would be hurt. Fewer boxing fans would bother watching the Linares-Lomachenko fight, because those are a couple of lightweights and neither of them is as popular as Canelo and Golovkin. Arum would be hurting Lomachenko and Linares if he chose to stage their fight on May 12th. There are fights you don’t want to compete with, and the replay of the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 is one of them.
“People are working behind the scenes to make it happen, and it’s a win-win for everybody,” Arum said to Lance Pugmire of the latimes.com. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. When sensible people try to find a solution, they’ll find a solution.”
There is 1 way that Linares and Lomachenko can fight on May 12th without it hurting their numbers and the numbers for the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 replay, and that would be for Arum to tweak the start time for the Linares-Lomachenko by having it take place before the start time for the Canelo-GGG 2 replay. If the Linares vs. Lomachenko fight starts and ends before the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 card begins, then it shouldn’t be a problem. It might result in a lot fewer boxing fans will tune in to see the Lomachenko and Linares fight due to it needing to start by 4 or 5 p.m., but at least Arum would get his way of having the contest take place on May 12th. Arum REALLY wants Lomachenko to fight Linares on that date. I don’t know why that date is so important to Arum, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea for him to stubbornly stick with staging the fight on that date unless he’s willing to have the fight take place before the Canelo vs. GGG 2 replay.
If Arum is trying to put the Linares vs. Lomachenko fight on at the same time as the Canelo vs. GGG 2 replay on HBO on May 12th, I don’t see that working at all. Golden Boy won’t agree to cripple the Canelo-GGG replay by letting their own fighter Linares hurt the numbers for that fight by giving him the green light to face Lomachenko.