Canelo vs Ortiz and Chavez vs Martinez: Arum, Schaefer Weigh In On Dueling PPV Dilemma

I cannot make clear enough that these two shows will absolutely not both be happening on September 15 on pay-per-view, but here's Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer with a couple thoughts on the September 15 saga. Golden Boy has announced that they will stage a Canelo Alvarez vs Victor Ortiz fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that night, while Top Rank announced a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Sergio Martinez fight for the same date, at the Thomas & Mack Center, also in Vegas.

Showtime PPV would carry Canelo-Ortiz, while HBO PPV is said to be in for Chavez-Martinez.

Arum:

"Obviously everybody would like the universe to themselves, but we are going to be on the first channel and many cable systems can only take one fight - which means that they will take our fight. So they will lose coverage because we reserved it back in February. Obviously nobody wants two in the same night, that's stupid, but it is what it is. It seems to me that there is no reason why they can't change it to October. The pay-per-view people are delighted because ours is the stronger fight."

Schaefer:

"Arum has been able to get away with bullying everybody, but he knows that he can't bully me. He was never able to and he never will. And he knows that. It is what it is. He goes and announces that he has an HBO pay-per-view and he doesn't even have HBO on board. He is trying to drag HBO into the middle of this, but I believe that HBO is smarter than that."

Now, while I am 100000% confident that we will not see two PPVs on September 15, I am enjoying the pissing match for now. Schaefer says he won't be backed down, and says that HBO isn't even on board yet. But let's say that HBO is -- if they are, they have the muscle with the PPV carriers. That's just reality. They've got a track record that Showtime does not have.

These are both fights I want to see badly. I am confident we will all be paying $120 to see them over the course of a few weeks.

But we ain't gonna have to choose on September 15. Someone's going to have to change. There are convenient excuses everywhere that could pop up. You all know how boxing is. Someone's gonna budge, but they won't admit they budged.

Maybe Vicious Victor could suffer a mild injury this Saturday against Josesito Lopez. That'd help. Maybe Chavez could be unable to make the weight anymore. Maybe Canelo can get a hangnail. I don't care. But let's just get to the excuse and get this over with so we can all set aside our two Saturdays.