Arum's sniping at Ortiz, HBO, Golden Boy may help Robert Guerrero

July 1, 3:30 PMSF Boxing ExaminerColin Seymour

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Victor Ortiz’s upset loss to Marcos Maidana last Saturday wasn’t as important a fight or well-executed a fight as Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey. Or so it seemed at the time.

After all, Cotto remained in prime position to be Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent by defeating Clottey on June 13 and continuing to overcome the stigma of his loss to Antonio Margarito last summer. But Bob Arum already controls both ends of that promotion, whereas his recent lack of control of HBO has caused him to aggressively assail Ortiz’s defeat and anything else that’s negative about HBO’s supposed deference to Ortiz’s promoter, Golden Boy.

With that, we hereby proclaim Arum’s battle this week with Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer our worst fight of June and a threat to earn the same dishonor for July. The crux of the issue is six time slots HBO gave to Golden Boy this year with an emphasis on grooming stars of tomorrow. I highly commend NY Boxing Examiner Michael Marley’s take on the dispute.

Ortiz’s loss is important to Bay Area fighter Robert Guerrero, whose foot slipped out of HBO’s door in March when he was wounded by a head-butt that ended the first bout of HBO’s and Golden Boy’s tripleheader at the Shark Tank in San Jose before Ortiz dazzled everyone with his Hollywood smile and his second-round stoppage of Mike Arnoutis..

But with Ortiz having exited less excusably Saturday than did Guerrero in March, and having accomplished less in his career than the former IBF featherweight champion – and with the star of that tripleheader, junior middleweight James Kirkland, in jail these days – Guerrero still might claim the slot Ortiz presumably is vacating in the house of HBO, and may have become more important to Golden Boy, too.

BEST AND WORST: If Ortiz, leading by five points after four rounds, could have jabbed and controlled the wild Argentine Maidana, the bout would have been more aesthetically pleasing to true boxing fans.

But Cotto-Clottey retains the honor. I thought each fighter won six rounds, with the first-round knockdown Cotto scored giving him the edge. One official gave the decision to Clottey, who showed less heart down the stretch than the profusely bleeding Cotto, while the other two had Cotto winning more decisively than he deserved.

Wouldn’t want to spoil that Pacquiao package.

July lost a lot of luster when Floyd Mayweather’s injury forced a postponement of his comeback match with Juan Manuel Marquez until Sept. 19. (It also forced a postponement of HBO’s “24/7” buildup to that match.). Vic Darchinyan’s IBF bantamweight title challenge to Joseph Agbeko on Showtime on July 11 may not be the best but is not to be missed. The worst might be featherweight up-and-comer’s Yuriorkis Gamboa’s July 25 bout with Whyber Garcia, who is 22-6 and probably isn’t as worthy a barometer of Gamboa’s progress as the originally scheduled Guty Espadas Jr. (45-7).

But keep an eye on that Top Rank-Golden Boy scuffle. There’s always hope that Arum will go after Oscar De La Hoya – figuratively, anyway.