by David P. Greisman

It was a groundbreaking settlement, one that ended legal wrangling between two of the most significant entities in boxing and opened up the possibility of them working together for the first time in years.

It was 2007. The entities were Top Rank Inc. and Golden Boy Promotions. The legal wrangling was over Manny Pacquiao, whom both companies claimed to have under contract. Their settlement helped pave the way for a rematch between Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera. The hope was that it would lead to many other fights between the many other fighters under the respective promotional banners.

For about two years it did. And then the bad blood between the companies resurfaced, then heated up, and then boiled over. For what seemed an eternity, boxing fans and observers had to abandon the possibility of a number of big bouts happening and an even greater amount of interesting smaller ones being made, all because Top Rank and Golden Boy didn’t want to work together, nor did they need to. It happened just a few times, so rare an occasion that each occasion was newsworthy.

Now it is 2016. Golden Boy and Top Rank are now doing business with each other again, thank to a change in Golden Boy’s executive structure and a change in its philosophy. That’s an accurate but vague way of putting things, and it still doesn’t portray the entire picture. Oscar De La Hoya reasserted control of his company. Richard Schaefer, the longtime chief executive who ran the business while De La Hoya was described as essentially an absentee owner, left. So did a huge number of fighters who were with adviser Al Haymon, and whom Schaefer had no longer kept under contract while working alongside him.

Now Golden Boy and Top Rank work together because they want to, but also because there are times it helps each of them out. There are more opponents available when there are two stables involved.

There aren’t as many opponents available as there would’ve been eyars ago because of the number of major names aligned with Haymon, with whom there’s been a mutual lack of a working relationship. Top Rank has barely worked with him, and he with them, for close to a decade. Golden Boy and Haymon officially split with a settlement announced in early 2015.

There’ve been exceptions — most notably when Floyd Mayweather (Haymon) and Pacquiao (Top Rank) fought last year and when Canelo Alvarez (Golden Boy) and Amir Khan (Haymon) fought this year. Otherwise, Haymon’s worked in-house and with other promoters as he’s focused on his “Premier Boxing Champions” cards on a number of networks, as well as his relationship with Showtime.

And then there was the matter of the separate lawsuits Golden Boy and Top Rank had filed against Haymon’s companies, all the more reason for Haymon not to warm to the idea of working regularly with the two promoters.

All of this is a way of leading to last week’s news that Top Rank’s lawsuit against Haymon has ended with a confidential settlement — one that ended legal wrangling between two of the most significant entities in boxing and opened up the possibility of them working together for the first time in years.

“As a legal basis, there is no impediment,” Bob Arum of Top Rank told ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael last week. “As a practical basis, it’s certainly a big possibility. But then again, it will depend on the ability of the two of us to work together to bring that about. It would make sense for both us. I'm optimistic that everybody is going to work together and make big fights. I think there's a realization on everybody's part that in order to get big fights, you're gonna have to work together.”

And so suddenly fights that had seemed like fantasy become fantastic once again, as we envision bouts between Haymon’s and Top Rank’s fighters in divisions such as featherweight, junior lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and super middleweight.

At 126, Top Rank has titleholder Vasyl Lomachenko and contender Oscar Valdez and might be able to persuade former featherweight titleholder Nonito Donaire, who’s since returned to 122 and picked up a belt there, to move back up once again for the right fight. Haymon has the other three major titleholders — Gary Russell Jr., Leo Santa Cruz and Lee Selby — as well as contenders Jesus Cuellar, Carl Frampton and Abner Mares.

At 130, Top Rank has Nicholas Walters and, should Lomachenko beat Roman Martinez in June, there’s a possibility he will remain there. Felix Verdejo, a lightweight contender, says he may drop down to junior lightweight. Haymon has titleholder Jose Pedraza and contender Javier Fortuna.

At 140, Top Rank has titleholders Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol, who are soon to face each other. As for Haymon’s guys, Adrien Broner says he can’t make the weight anymore while Omar Figueroa missed the weight by a significant amount last year. We’ll see.

At 147, Top Rank’s top two talents in the division are Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas. It also has prospect Konstantin Ponomarev. Haymon’s stable is very deep here and includes Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Amir Khan, Lamont Peterson, Errol Spence, Robert Guerrero and Andre Berto.

And at 168, Top Rank’s stable includes newly crowned titleholder Gilberto Ramirez and prospect Jesse Hart, while Haymon has titleholder James DeGale (who is expected to have a unification bout with Mayweather Promotions fighter Badou Jack this fall), plus Andre and Anthony Dirrell, Lucian Bute and a former Top Rank fighter, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

It would benefit Top Rank for its fighters to face Haymon’s guys. The main network it works with, HBO, has fewer dates and less money available, which is why Crawford vs. Postol is ending up on pay-per-view. Haymon’s deep pool of talent helps allow for more significant fights than could otherwise be made for Top Rank’s fighters. Meanwhile, if Haymon can get his fighters on shows financed by Top Rank, that’s money his fighters can get paid without coming out of his venture’s bank account. The opposite also applies.

But making peace doesn’t guarantee making fights. Haymon’s deep pool means his guys at featherweight, welterweight and super middleweight already have plenty of opponents within their divisions, plus more available when including fighters whose promoters already have a working relationship with Haymon.

That’s not to say it won’t happen. Years ago, we got Lomachenko vs. Russell on a card in which Golden Boy Promotions, then working with Haymon, won a purse bid. We nearly got Mickey Bey (Haymon) vs. Denis Shafikov (Top Rank) last year. We may yet get Spence vs. Ponomarev in an elimination bout soon.

Boxing isn’t just a sport, but a business, and business is a matter of relationships, convenience, and relationships of convenience. Money rules all, and matters of money both make and break relationships.

Those of us who follow boxing must also follow the business, but in the grand scheme boxing fans are primarily here to root for fighters, not for their promoters or managers or advisers.

We want good fights to be made. And while good fights have been made and can continue to be made in spite of the various cold wars and lawsuits, there’s more that’s possible when battles are limited to the ring instead of the courtroom.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com