by Rick Reeno
Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya believes his company is dominating the boxing scene in the United States, which is forcing their competition to pursue opportunities in other markets. Golden Boy's main business rival, Top Rank, is starting to get heavily involved in the Asian market. They recently signed up Olympic gold medal winner Zou Shiming from China, and Olympic gold medal winner Ryota Murata of Japan.
Top Rank staged a show in Macau in April and have another card in the city scheduled for July 27th. They are also planning September in Singapore, and Top Rank's biggest star, Manny Pacquiao, will face Brandon Rios in Macau on November 23rd.
De La Hoya does not view their travels as a calculated business move to create revenue opportunities in the Asian market. He feels Golden Boy has forced Top Rank to steer away from the United States.
He points to the upcoming mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, scheduled for September 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, as the crowning jewel of Golden Boy's recent success. Mayweather-Alvarez is arguably the biggest event since De La Hoya faced Mayweather in 2007, which generated a record pay-per-view buyrate figure of nearly 2.5 million purchases.
"Everybody is now saying Mayweather-Canelo. This is the fight. Pacquiao, his promoter has him fighting Asia....I don't know why. It's not that [Top Rank] wants to promote in Asia - it's because they have to....because they have nothing here in the U.S. We are the leading promoter now, no doubt about it. And we are going to continue bringing the fans the biggest fights possible, the biggest events - and everything else is irrelevant," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
