By Ryan Burton

The boxing world has been buzzing since the recent announcement by HBO that they will no longer broadcast fights promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.

Bob Arum, CEO of Golden Boy's chief rival Top Rank, told BoxingScene's Keith Idec that Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, and influential manager Al Haymon, had "played" HBO and said that Andre Berto and Keith Thurman were paid for "appearances" on the network against subpar competition. He also said that IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander had been "recycled" by the network and would be killed if he faced Ruslan Provodnikov, who gave WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley all that he could handle in a close decision loss this past Saturday in an early Fight of the Year candidate. The story can be read here: https://www.boxingscene.com/arum-hbo-being-played-by-schaefer-haymon--63493

Alexander's manager and trainer Kevin Cunningham naturally took exception to Arum's statements. He feels that his fighter not only would have beaten Provodnikov, but would have severely outclassed him as well.

"Bob's wrong.  If Devon would have fought Provodnikov, Devon would have made him look like the ESPN fighter that he is. Bob's saying a lot of stupid sh*t nowadays. But I guess that's what happens when you get old and senile," Cunningham told BoxingScene.com.

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