Arum and De La Hoya on the Cold War: “It’s Going to Take Time but the Doors Are Wide Open

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In one of the more interesting episodes of The Fight Game, Jim Lampley brought to the set via satellite, boxing’s 2 biggest promoters’, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions and Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions.

Bob Arum, Oscar De La HoyaNot only are these 2 the head of the Cold War that have not given us the best fights in the sport, but once good friends as promoter and fighter, they became bitter enemies. Now through the years as the dust has settled, as Oscar De La Hoya has stated, “There is dialogue and the doors are wide open.”

Wide open for quite possibly the biggest makeable fight in the sport right now,  as Arum stated,” The fight we want to make is the fight every fan wants to see, the middleweight champion of the world Miguel Cotto against Canelo Alvarez.”

But what came of this and why are these two are playing nice all of a sudden? Could it be that they have a common foe now? A foe by the name of Al Haymon?

Lampley brought the question to the forefront as to where Al Haymon lies in these talks and Oscar would say, “I’ve spoken to Al Haymon and he told me that he is interested in a lot of these matchups brought up.”

But with rumors of Haymon doing his own takeover and blocking fights, one must really wonder how open he is about ending the cold war. A cold war that Arum says,” Has really been a travesty for boxing because the best can’t fight the best.”

While the optimism is there, both sides have yet to co-promote since Yuriorkis Gamboa and Daniel Ponce De Leon in 2011. The only other time a Top Rank fighter would fight a Golden Boy fighter if there was a purse bid involved as Lampley explained.

Since the dialogue from both sides have been open, the only bout that seems to surface as a co-promotion is a Cotto-Canelo fight where there is money to be made.

As De La Hoya would state that thawing the cold war would, “take time.” So as we wait and be patient, at the end of the segment Arum would tell Oscar, “We’ll talk later this week.” As a fan that has lived in the times of the boxing cold war, those words leave me refreshed and optimistic. Let’s hope they act on it for the fans.