By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Brett Yormark would’ve loved to have had Barclays Center host the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight.

Their August 26 spectacle instead is headed to a Las Vegas venue – MGM Grand Garden Arena or T-Mobile Arena. That still doesn’t change the Barclays Center executive’s mind about the positive impact Mayweather-McGregor can have on the sport of boxing.

Oscar De La Hoya is among those immersed in boxing who’ve lambasted Mayweather-McGregor as a complete mismatch that amounts to little more than exploitative money grab. Yormark, chief executive officer for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, admonished De La Hoya during an Adrien Broner-Mikey Garcia press conference Monday in Manhattan for serving his own agenda by criticizing Mayweather-McGregor.

De La Hoya will come to Manhattan on Tuesday as part of a three-city press tour to promote the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight championship showdown set for September 16 at T-Mobile Arena.

Yormark contends that De La Hoya has been critical of Mayweather-McGregor only because it’ll take place three weeks before the Alvarez-Golovkin fight his company is promoting and could cut into its pay-per-view revenue. De La Hoya, a retired superstar who won world titles in six weight classes, went as far as to write an open letter to fans on Facebook last month, in which he urged them to boycott Mayweather-McGregor if it got made.

“I would be remiss if I did not offer my quick opinion on August 26,” Yormark said. “Tomorrow you will hear from an unhappy promoter, not unlike what you heard from [promoter] Kathy Duva over the weekend, when he arrives in town to create hype for his September fight. Do not be fooled or manipulated by what he has to say. He is a hypocrite who is only concerned about his own financial well-being. Boxing has had a great year to date, 50-50 fights that have highlighted established fighters and future stars of the sport. I am a firm believer that press for the sport is good for all of us. It creates awareness, talk value and takes us from the back pages to the front.

“When can you remember the amount of promotional value we have received as a sport on multiple general-market platforms, reaching casual fans, like we have received over the past week? The question is: what do we do to take advantage of this enormous narrative for boxing that has been created by the Mayweather-McGregor fight? What we do is continue to do what we have done this year, and put on the best fights for the fans and keep the momentum going. Boxing will be in the headlines all summer long. Let’s all embrace the moment and put boxing back in its rightful place as one of the premier sports in America.”

Showtime will air the Garcia-Broner bout July 29 from Barclays Center. Showtime also will broadcast Mayweather-McGregor as a pay-per-view event. HBO, Showtime’s primary competitor, will televise Alvarez-Golovkin on pay-per-view.

Lou DiBella, the official promoter of the Broner-Garcia fight, seconded Yormark’s remarks.

“It’s funny that one night [De La Hoya] walked out of a night club or bar, that that promoter was trying to pump Canelo Alvarez and Conor McGregor,” DiBella said. “And now, all of a sudden, man, he’s got a lot of hate in him. But look, Mayweather-Conor McGregor is happening because the people want it, because there’s incredible demand for it. It’s a spectacle, you know? It’s a spectacle. It’s an event.

“And it’s gonna be on Showtime Pay-Per-View. And Showtime, yeah, they’re doing that spectacle and they’re also doing this [Broner-Garcia], which is just pure boxing and the best you can make. And frankly, Showtime right now is spanking the competition’s rear ends all over the street.”

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