Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum has expressed his displeasure with the recent business move by WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, who recently signed a multi-fight promotional agreement with Roc Nation Sports.
Cotto and Top Rank President Todd DuBoef traded words over the move in recent days . Cotto started his career with Top Rank and stayed by their side until December 2011, when his contract expired. He then had two fights with Golden Boy as co-promoter - against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout. But then returned to work with Top Rank on a fight by fight basis in 2013.
Arum says his company took Cotto to the middleweight title, against Sergio Martinez in June 2014, and then attempted to make a fight with him and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for May, which fell apart.
"Miguel Cotto is not a man. Miguel Cotto has no word. What we just did there is no name for it. I'm really disappointed with him and his representative Gaby Peñagarícano, who was the one who orchestrated this whole scheme of lies and broken promises. When Miguel returned to me in 2013, he swore on his father that he would be with us forever. And when you make a promise that serious, one [has to live up to it]. Peñagarícano did his thing, Cotto got carried away and now both of them have to live with the consequences of this decision. For me, neither [kept their] word. It's a shame. I'm sure Felix 'Tito' Trinidad would had never did anything like this," Arum told Primera Hora.
Promoter Peter Rivera of Puerto Rico Best Boxing, backed Arum's opinion. Arum had actually done business with Rivera for years, but then stopped in favor of working side by side with Cotto's promotional company. Rivera then started working with Golden Boy.
"In my opinion, I think it's a poor business decision on their part. But only [Cotto] knows the business [specifics] that he has with [Roc Nation owner] Jay-Z. What concerns me is that this endangers his appearances on HBO and Showtime, and then there is Al Haymon who is a personal enemy of Jay Z," Rivera said.
"Apart from this, they cut off a company that made him a champion in the beginning and then, when they wanted to go at it alone and lost two times in a row - they took him back, revived his career vs. Delvin Rodriguez and got him a championship fight with Sergio Martinez, and they were helping him get the fight with Alvarez. Top Rank has an assembled structure and knows everything about this business. Jay-Z has money but he is a rookie in this, and it seems that he wants to buy champions instead of developing them. But again, he did a card in New York that had nothing but losses because it did not sell anything."
http://www.boxingscene.com/arum-cotto-not-man-he-swore-on-his-father--88190
Cotto and Top Rank President Todd DuBoef traded words over the move in recent days . Cotto started his career with Top Rank and stayed by their side until December 2011, when his contract expired. He then had two fights with Golden Boy as co-promoter - against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout. But then returned to work with Top Rank on a fight by fight basis in 2013.
Arum says his company took Cotto to the middleweight title, against Sergio Martinez in June 2014, and then attempted to make a fight with him and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for May, which fell apart.
"Miguel Cotto is not a man. Miguel Cotto has no word. What we just did there is no name for it. I'm really disappointed with him and his representative Gaby Peñagarícano, who was the one who orchestrated this whole scheme of lies and broken promises. When Miguel returned to me in 2013, he swore on his father that he would be with us forever. And when you make a promise that serious, one [has to live up to it]. Peñagarícano did his thing, Cotto got carried away and now both of them have to live with the consequences of this decision. For me, neither [kept their] word. It's a shame. I'm sure Felix 'Tito' Trinidad would had never did anything like this," Arum told Primera Hora.
Promoter Peter Rivera of Puerto Rico Best Boxing, backed Arum's opinion. Arum had actually done business with Rivera for years, but then stopped in favor of working side by side with Cotto's promotional company. Rivera then started working with Golden Boy.
"In my opinion, I think it's a poor business decision on their part. But only [Cotto] knows the business [specifics] that he has with [Roc Nation owner] Jay-Z. What concerns me is that this endangers his appearances on HBO and Showtime, and then there is Al Haymon who is a personal enemy of Jay Z," Rivera said.
"Apart from this, they cut off a company that made him a champion in the beginning and then, when they wanted to go at it alone and lost two times in a row - they took him back, revived his career vs. Delvin Rodriguez and got him a championship fight with Sergio Martinez, and they were helping him get the fight with Alvarez. Top Rank has an assembled structure and knows everything about this business. Jay-Z has money but he is a rookie in this, and it seems that he wants to buy champions instead of developing them. But again, he did a card in New York that had nothing but losses because it did not sell anything."
http://www.boxingscene.com/arum-cotto-not-man-he-swore-on-his-father--88190
