Oscar De La Hoya meets again with Bob Arum, ‘Canelo’-Cotto on table

The end of boxing’s cold war is at hand.

The healing between promoters Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum continued this week with a personal meeting in Las Vegas and momentum toward a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Miguel Cotto bout on Cinco de Mayo in 2015.

The promoters haven’t worked together on a major card since the 2009 bout between Arum fighter Manny Pacquiao and De La Hoya’s Ricky Hatton, depriving fans of several attractive matchups, most obviously Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao. De La Hoya first reached out to Arum in the spring.

“I’m looking forward to sitting down … and seeing if we can make it happen,” De La Hoya said Friday of Alvarez-Cotto. “Behind Floyd and Manny, that’s the fight people want to see.”

De La Hoya will meet next week in Los Angeles with 24-year-old former super-welterweight champion Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 knockouts), who also is expected to finalize a bout in December and select whether his next fight will be on Showtime or HBO.

A boxing official close to the situation but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said Alvarez is being aimed toward a Dec. 6 fight against James Kirkland in San Antonio.

De La Hoya has several items on his agenda, but the most significant is bridging the bitterness that has stopped bouts between Arum’s Top Rank fighters and De La Hoya’s group from Golden Boy Promotions.

“The perception is we meet and there’ll be great fights,” De La Hoya said. “It’s not that easy. To be able to open the dialogue and meet and try to make these fights is a great thing, because before that, there was nothing. We just have to figure out all the details, because it’s a web and we want to make sure we don’t ruin any relationship or cross any lines with sponsors, TV. … It’s complicated -- we have to unravel a pretzel -- but not impossible.”

Another obstacle has been the friction between manager Al Haymon, who has a large group of fighters tied to Golden Boy, and Arum.

“Let me give you a perfect example of what we’ve talked about with Al. I love the Danny Garcia-Pacquiao fight,” De La Hoya said. “We’ve talked to Al about it. He likes it, he’s open to it. Before, there was nobody talking, at least we’re heading to deliver the fights that the fans want to see.

“The public is crying out loud, the media is putting on pressure. We can’t take it any more, we have to do it, we must do it. It’s not necessarily Al and Bob, it’s Golden Boy and Bob. There’s a manager I’m not too fond of that works closely with Top Rank. I’m not going to work with him. I’m going to work with Bob. We’re making some waves here.”

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