Oscar De La Hoya wants Matthysse vs Rios, but won't beg Arum to work with Golden Boy

Oscar De La Hoya says that Bob Arum and Top Rank refuse to work with Golden Boy Promotions, and that even though he wants fights between the top fighters in those stables, he won't beg Arum to change his ways and make fights:

"He has his fighters. He does his own thing for his own benefit. That's the way he works and that's the way he is. Golden Boy is willing to work with anyone to make the fights. We're obviously not going to beg [for the fights]. 'Hey Bob please work with us.' The bottom line is, he doesn't want to work with us. What can we do?"

This is nothing new from the Cold War between the two parties, as Top Rank mostly stays quiet about working with Golden Boy, while Oscar and Richard Schaefer shout from the mountain tops about how Top Rank won't work with them. There are two sides to the story, as is the case with most things on earth, but while I sometimes think it's smart of Top Rank to just ignore it -- from a PR perspective, anyway -- Golden Boy has gone at Top Rank so hard, without coming off whiny lately (an improvement), that I think they're probably winning the press battle at the moment.

Basically, what Oscar is saying is, "We'll do it. We're saying we'll do it. We're ready to do it. And he won't. So you can't blame us." Again, nothing new, but the less Arum bothers to say anything about Golden Boy, other than occasionally getting caught in a surlier than normal mood and laying into Schaefer or Oscar, the more he's giving credibility to their claims that this is all about Arum being the "bad guy."

There's really no bad guy or good guy here, but most people need very simple narratives to follow, I think, and when you give them one, they latch onto it. "BOB ARUM KILLING BOXING" is something people can get behind. "GOLDEN BOY SAVING BOXING" is, too. Neither of them has to be true, really. They just have to be said enough. It's like when the news wonders whether or not a politician has convinced the public. Nobody really asks if the truth was being told. Just what the public can be sold on, basically.

So in that respect, I think GBP has done a great job lately. They've put on quality cards, they've got more coming up, and they're focusing more often on what they do well than what Top Rank does poorly, or at least their accusations of what Top Rank does poorly. They're throwing more jabs at Top Rank and less haymakers. That's probably a good thing, and makes it seem like Richard Schaefer might finally, actually not be totally concerned with what Arum & Co. are doing, and more with what he's doing at Golden Boy.

And forget about Mayweather-Pacquiao, because that dream is finally, truly dead, I think. I held out a lot longer than most of you thinking that was still a huge fight, and yes it would be bigger than basically any other fight in boxing could be, but I no longer think it would be so much bigger that anyone needs to break their backs to make it happen. (Of course, the real argument is that it should have just fucking happened, and nobody needed to break any backs at any point, but then that would be a fairy tale world.)

This is more about fights like Nonito Donaire vs Abner Mares, or as Oscar also talked about, Lucas Matthysse of Golden Boy against Top Rank's Brandon Rios:

"Lucas Matthysse is one of the best junior welterweights out there in the world, but me personally I would love to see Brandon Rios against Lucas Matthysse. ... I just read a comment that he doesn't want to work with us. Why? Let's make the fights happen that the public wants to watch."

And once again, he wisely appeals to public senses, and it's a good thing to do with this sort of idea. What fight fan wouldn't want to see Matthysse vs Rios? Oscar's 100% right about that. Donaire-Mares is another one. And there are several other fights. Top Rank would have a much easier time finding an opponent for Timothy Bradley if they were willing to work with Golden Boy, for instance.

It would be great if these two giants could cut the crap and get down to business. The weird thing is, for a sport that is so smugly concerned with the phrase, "This is a business," whenever such shitbrained losers as "boxing fans" dare wonder why some fights can't happen, these guys sure let a lot of good business pass them by in order to maintain stupid beefs and grudges.