Promotional/Network competition

Well, per Lou DiBella, Golovkin fighting Jacobs or Lara is a no go. DiBella would like to see @GGGBoxing fight a true welterweight or a heavier opponent. When I asked about Jacobs or Lara, told "TV problems."— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) July 8, 2016 I'm sorry I meant to say a true middleweight or someone heavier for @GGGBoxing— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) July 8, 2016

I've seen posts suggesting that the "cold war" is over (or doesn't exist) because some of Haymon's fighters have recently shown up on HBO, thus marking a change from Ken Hershman's time with HBO. I've heard many questioning why GGG isn't fighting the likes of Lara/DeGale, and implying that those fights don't happen because K2 isn't seeking them out. I myself question why we've yet to get match-ups between PBC/TR fighters seeing as Arum/Haymon settled their lawsuit months ago. These match-ups wouldn't necessarily need to be on HBO, but TR/PBC working together would be a display of unity rather than political/business division that we've grown accustomed to. There are probably a dozen match-ups that can be made with TR vs. PBC, but we haven't gotten any yet. Are fans fooling themselves in thinking that PBC and HBO are not islands that have forced promoters to choose sides? Are the PBC fighters we've seen on HBO just the exception? For people with greater understanding on this, set this **** straight please. Top Rank and Al Haymon didn't "settle their lawsuit"; no different than Top Rank's situation with Mikey Garcia, they saw that the case wasn't likely in their favor, and chose to walk away while making sure that no one could talk about how they walked away. Beyond that, the line is pretty clear; you have Haymon/Showtime/PBC on one side of the fence representing a "new guard", so to speak, and you have HBO/Top Rank/Golden Boy/Main Events/K2 standing on the other side representing the "old guard". In "putting the fighter first", Haymon is ready and willing to do everything in his power to get his fighters, and the guys that he does business with, the best opportunities possible, wherever that opportunity comes about (Dominic Wade getting 4 times the money he's ever made on a fight, Khan getting $6m to fight Alvarez, Martin and Breazeale getting massive money to head to the UK, etc). HBO is in the business of putting HBO first; showcasing the fighters they want to feature, not paying up for anything, refusing to be in a situation where they have to openly bid on anything, etc. Top Rank/Main Events came up under this type of regime, and Oscar is reverting back to what he picked up from Arum, so that type of system works for them. Eventually, one of the systems is going to win out.

Since they settled their lawsuits what fights would've been realistic to make? Arum's top fighters Pacquiao-Retired maybe Lomachenko-Had scheduled a fight with Martinez Crawford-Had scheduled a fight with Postol Vargas- Had scheduled a fight with Brook Bradley-Said he was taking some time off Ramirez- Had a fight scheduled with Britisch A couple of TR fighters have been on PBC cards including Postol. Now that Vargas gotten stood up I'd love to see him fight Broner. You're right about Postol, but it was a minor stay-busy. I wonder how that particular match-up materialized. Well, we can't currently make match-ups featuring TR's "names", but there's some other interesting guys on the roster: Donaire, Jose Felix Jr, Jesse Hart, Korobov, Magdaleno bros, Murata, Mekhonstev, Monaghan, Ponomarev, Rios, Saul Rodriguez, Oscar Valdez, etc. TR and PBC have prospects that could be matched up in the future. Maybe we just have to wait a little longer for the match-ups that I think make sense. I'm really interested in Valdez vs. Russell or Santa Cruz.