Bob Arum vs Oscar de la hoya

Boxing promoters can make or break a career. They are the ones who schedule fights, handle negotiations and decide which fighters deserve a shot at the next level and those who don't.   If you're in, it can be a tremendously lucrative relationship, if you're out, it can go sour really, really fast.  Just as promoters can make fights happen, they can also prevent them from happening. Cross-promotional fights have always been something of a tricky business in the sport.   Each company looks to protect their big moneymakers and would rather see them lose to someone in their stable, who can then be marketed, than to a rival fighter.  The two biggest dogs in the yard of boxing promotion these days are Bob Arum's Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.

Between these companies are the biggest stars in the sport including Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez and Nonito Donaire.   But unfortunately for boxing fans, the two companies simply do not, and will not, get along.   Fights between fighters on opposite sides of the promotional war have become a virtual impossibility. The bad blood that runs here is deeper than traditional rivalry and has already contributed to the derailing of several high-profile fights.  None, of course, have been bigger than the long talked about, but to this date never fulfilled, dream match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.  While the promotional rivalry is not the only cause, though it's a large one, the lack of this fight being made in the past four years is a stain for the sport.The money and hype for boxing it would've generated would've likely surpassed record numbers and provided the sport with the type of huge, transcending event it's lacked in recent years.  But short of this superfight, it seems that the effect on the sport of the rivalry has been a bit overblown.  The main source of acrimony between the companies stems from the personal relationship between the two main men behind each company. Simply put, Arum and De La Hoya don't like one another, and that is not likely to change any time soon.  The rivalry stems from when De La Hoya was a fighter, and promoted for much of his early career by Arum, and the two had a highly publicized and ugly split.

Both sides leveled accusations against the other, including charges of racism and throwing fights, that have remained a toxic impediment to this day.