By Steve Kim
In a recent article on BoxingScene.com, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum had some interesting things to say regarding how Golden Boy Promotions and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez - who recently vacated the WBC middleweight title - handled the situation with Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin.
Arum felt Canelo made a misstep, in the aftermath of last month's knockout of Amir Khan, by inviting Golovkin to the ring and accepting GGG's challenge for a showdown at 160-pounds.
Arum detailed his strategy to handle the situation with Golovkin - if Top Rank was promoting Canelo.
"First of all, I would have never let Canelo do what he did. And what he did was for no reason after his fight, maybe he got carried away, was to have Triple G come in the ring and to make all of these statements that he would do it at 160," Arum told BoxingScene.com.
"It would have been better if he had said, for example, if I was handling it - 'look Triple G is a great fighter, I'm not used to fighting at 160 because even with Cotto he's not a 160-pound fighter. So I want to try out one or two fights in the 160 pound division. Let me fight [David] Lemieux, let me fight somebody else in the middleweight division. And if I feel like I can handle the added weight, then why not fight Triple G next.'
"That puts it off, it's a reasonable excuse. Everyone would say 'hey the guy is making sense.' Instead of what he did, which was accept the challenge. It's almost like [Donald] Trump - 'hey I want to debate Bernie Sanders' but then when it becomes possible, he pulls back and he becomes 'Donald Ducks.' You leave yourself open for that criticism [by doing what Canelo did]."
Oscar De La Hoya, the head of Golden Boy, responded to Arum's comments.
"Well look, I understand that Bob is obviously looking to stay relevant. His last marquee fighter is retired, that's Manny Pacquiao, and frankly it's none of his business," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
"His comments are particularly ridiculous considering that he was one-half of the equation that turned millions of fans off to our sport by taking six years - six years - to make the biggest fight to be made [Mayweather-Pacquiao] and then gave us a total dud."
De La Hoya, who is currently in Miami, Florida, dealing with the ongoing trial with All-Star Boxing that involves the promotional rights to Alvarez, promised that 'Canelo-GGG' wont take nearly that long to come to fruition.
"Be assured that 'Canelo' will be fighting Triple G, well, well before that absurd time frame [for Mayweather-Pacquiao] and this fight will hopefully - and it will - bring back the fans that Bob played an out-sized role in losing. Look, I'm here and I can't discuss what's going on in court, but I'm dealing with some business. (Tom) Loeffler (the managing director of K2 Promotions) is somewhere in Europe dealing with his business and negotiations are going to start again once we finish our business," De La Hoya said.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
