De La Hoya Says No Friction With Showtime, Espinoza

By Bill "Two Scoops" Emes

Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya informed BoxingScene.com that his company still maintains a very strong relationship with Showtime. Prior to becoming the head of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza was a lawyer who worked very closely with Golden Boy. 

Things appeared to be a little rocky as of late. After HBO dropped Golden Boy from their network early last year, Showtime became the exclusive outlet for the bigger events being staged by De La Hoya's company.

But now De La Hoya and HBO are starting to rebuild their relationship. On November 8th, Golden Boy will return to HBO when Bernard Hopkins faces Sergey Kovalev as part of a card being co-promoted with Main Events. And there is even talk of Golden Boy's biggest name, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, returning to HBO in December after having his last five fights take place with Showtime. 

De La Hoya says his company is focused on making the best fights possible, regardless of the network.

"We have a great relationship [with Showtime]. I go way back with Stephen [Espinoza]. We get along great. We talked about this fight [with Hopkins and Kovalev]. You know...there were miscommunications, misunderstandings. Call it what you want to call it, but the bottom line is that we're going to deliver the best fights. We're going to continue what we do best," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.

"Watch, you're not going to have a Hopkins-Kovalev fight all the time. You can't see the Dodgers play the Yankees every single day. These type of fights don't happen too often, so we have to appreciate these types of fights. But these types of fights are what Golden Boy is all about, making these types of fights. When you talk about future fights, these are the types of efforts that I will be making in order to make the best fights possible."