By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Bob Arum’s love-hate relationship with HBO took another tumultuous turn Saturday night.

The outspoken promoter promised a group of reporters during a ringside rant at Madison Square Garden that he won’t wait around for HBO to offer dates to his company, Top Rank Inc. Arum wants gifted fighters like Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko to fight on a more regular basis and has grown tired of frustrating battles with the premium cable channel’s hierarchy over broadcasting his company’s fights.

When a reporter asked Arum if that meant “the days of HBO are coming to an end,” particularly as it pertains to Top Rank, an aggravated Arum launched into a tirade regarding the influence HBO and rival Showtime have within his industry.

“That’s none of your f***ing business,” Arum said. “What the f*** are you talking about? HBO has done great for boxing. They’ve been very good to boxing. I have nothing bad to say about HBO, but they’re just a f***in’ network. That’s all they are. They don’t own the business of boxing.

“And you may also wanna call up the guy over at Showtime and tell him the same thing. He don’t own boxing. He’s just a f***ing network that puts on stuff for their subscribers.”

Arum referred to Stephen Espinoza, Showtime Sports’ executive vice president and general manager. Showtime’s boxing brand has made significant strides during Espinoza’s five-plus years at the network, but Showtime and HBO have long been the primary providers of the large license fees that pay purses for most top-level boxers.

Arum is exploring alternatives to airing fights featuring his company’s talent because Top Rank rarely has its fighters appear on Showtime and HBO has offered fewer dates overall for boxing programming this year.

Crawford’s technical knockout win against Felix Diaz (19-2, 9 KOs) on Saturday night headlined just the fourth live boxing event HBO has televised in 2017. There is just one such show on HBO’s current calendar – a tripleheader July 15 in Inglewood, California that’ll feature WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt against Takashi Miura in the main event.

More than any promoter, Arum has shown a willingness to risk his company’s money when HBO hasn’t shown interest in televising Top Rank’s events live on the network.

Crawford’s 140-pound title unification fight against Ukraine’s Viktor Postol last July 23 was packaged as a pay-per-view event because Arum and HBO couldn’t come to an agreement to broadcast it live on HBO.

Arum also independently produced Manny Pacquiao’s last pay-per-view fight, an easy victory over Jessie Vargas on November 5 in Las Vegas, and an April 22 show from Carson, California. That four-fight offering featured WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez’s successful defense against Miguel Marriaga in the main event.

Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) has had each of his last nine fights broadcast by HBO or HBO Pay-Per-View and 11 overall. If HBO Sports executive vice president Peter Nelson isn’t interested in broadcasting Crawford’s next fight, probably against fellow super lightweight champion Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs), within the time frame Arum seeks, the promoter plans to move forward without the network’s assistance.

“Crawford’s gonna fight this summer,” Arum said. “If we can get the fight for the unification [against Indongo], that’s fine. But he’s gonna fight this summer. Now don’t ask me, ‘Did they give you a date?’ That’s yesterday’s news. I’m a f***in’ promoter and I’m gonna get a fight that people wanna see. I’m gonna put it on, on a date that I wanna put it on, and just wait.”

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