By Keith Idec

Bob Arum won’t make a nickel off either event, but he can’t understand why anyone would rather pay to watch Mayweather-McGregor over Canelo-Golovkin.

The Hall-of-Fame promoter said during an interview Friday on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that while Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Conor McGregor isn’t a legitimate boxing match, he is very interested in the middleweight championship showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.

“I think, you know, P.T. Barnum said a sucker is born every moment,” said Arum, Mayweather’s former promoter. “And people who pay good money to see Mayweather and McGregor, they’re gonna watch a spectacle and it’s not worthwhile, in my opinion, as a boxing match.

“You wanna spend money on a boxing match, buying a pay-per-view, three weeks later Canelo and Golovkin are fighting each other, and that’s a terrific match. And I’m saying that as an impartial observer because I’m not promoting either of those shows.”

Despite that it is widely viewed as a mismatch, Las Vegas’ Mayweather and Ireland’s McGregor have drawn an enormous amount of mainstream media attention in advance of their 12-round, 154-pound boxing match August 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Showtime Pay-Per-View). Three weeks later, Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) will defend his IBF, IBO and WBA middleweight titles against Mexico’s Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) in a highly anticipated fight September 16 at T-Mobile Arena (HBO Pay-Per-View).

Though Arum doesn’t like the premise of a UFC fighter facing an elite-level boxer, he admitted UFC has done a better job in some respects of promoting mixed martial arts to the broadest possible audience than boxing promoters have done. Arum hopes his company’s new deal with ESPN will help mirror UFC’s reach to a wider audience.  

“They really get it right,” Arum said of UFC. “You cannot quibble about the job that they do promoting an event. And part of it was the alliance that they have with FOX, and they have with FOX, because they’re able, 24-7, to promote their product on FOX and FS1. And they’ve done a marvelous job doing that.

“And also, they’ve inculcated a culture that if a fighter loses a fight, it’s not a death sentence. As long as he performs well, they bring these fighters back. Now, with our alliance with ESPN, we hope to do the same thing with boxing. I think boxing is a much better sport than MMA, but that’s my personal opinion. But I think now with the engine of ESPN behind us, you will see boxing rising to new heights.”

ESPN will showcase one of Arum’s top fighters Saturday night, when Ukraine’s Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) defends his WBO 130-pound title against Colombia’s Miguel Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs) at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). That telecast also will include a 10-round lightweight bout between Phoenix’s Ray Beltran (33-7-1, 21 KOs, 1 NC) and Costa Rica’s Bryan Vasquez (35-2, 19 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.