Smoke N Mirrors Starring Bob Arum – Comedy

By Boxing News - 12/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Smoke N Mirrors Starring Bob Arum - ComedyBy Robert Elmore: Bob Arum turns around in his seat while stroking a white cat with his left hand which has a black glove on it. Alex Ariza stands before him while straightening the collar on his red silk shirt. “So what do you want me to do boss”? Ariza asked. Arum grins. Go to Mayweather’s gym and discuss a possible fight with the undefeated fighter.

Arum then hits a button on his phone. Ms. Johnson send those investors in. They walk in with briefcases wearing sun glasses and long black trench coats. I want you to go with Ariza and help smooth things over. I want this fight made at all cost. Understand? Take pictures and make em good.” What about Cotto”? Ariza asked. I’ll take of that myself”, Arum responds. Ariza nods and exits the office.

The latest hot topics coming out of Top Rank is Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. There has been supposedly negotiations going on between Team Mayweather and Team Pac. Mayweather has denied such allegations. This happened last year when so called investors where interested in getting involved in the fight. But thing that threw me a loop was the fact that Arum has said that Manny was not interesting in fighting on May 5th, but rather in June. That’s the same month that a fourth bout with Juan Manuel Marquez is set to take place. Arum also said that he would take these options back to Manny and let him decide, but Manny always says “talk to my promoter”. So this means Arum will have final say. Add this. Alex Ariza has said he won’t talk to Manny until after the holidays. But now all of a sudden negotiations are happening?

Now while I’m not saying that these investors are not real (because names and companies names have been provided), but UNDER THE TERMS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS is what’s fishy to me.

I read on another boxing site (out of respect for this one I won’t say the name) that the investors wanted total control of the revenue. Arums cut would be really low if Top Rank was not handling 50% or 100% of the revenue (promotion etc.). Now even the worse businessman would not agree to this if he knew his cut was going to be less or nothing in a potential 300 billion dollar fight. Arum is not going for that and I’m very sure Floyd wouldn’t either. seeing how Floyd has been knocking back 40 million plus a fight. In a way, Arum would be “lending” Manny to these investors. And then there the recent cut over Pac’s eye that will take six months to heal. That’s plenty of time to work out a deal with Marquez. So don’t be surprised when Marquez is standing across from Pac in June.

And then you have the resurgence of Miguel Cotto with victories over Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga, and his foe Antonio Margarito. Cotto was thrown heavily under the buss after his lost to Margarito back in 2008. Cotto had a chance to leave Top Rank some time to go, but opted to stay. He says Bob is promoter for the rest of his career. For his sake, I hope he was just saying that. Arum has been pulling out all stop as of late. He’s thrown out names like Saul Alvarez, Sergio Martinez, and stable mate Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. But the fight that makes the most sense in Top Ranks eyes is the Chavez fight. Why? I’m glad you asked. Its in house money, Bob has total control over the revenue, no co-promoting going on, and the fight is easy to make. Fighting Alvarez and Martinez means dealing with Golden Boy and Dibella Entertainment.

FT: Don’t be shocked if the mega fight doesn’t go down in May. It might be in November. The set up is to blame Floyd and move forward with the Marquez fight. Marquez doesn’t have any leverage and he could possibly make more money than he did in the third fight. He said he wanted 25 million and wanted the fight in Mexico. HA!! I say. He could never get that kind of money from Top Rank. As for Cotto, If he goes solo, he can use his own promotional company, cut out the middleman, and bring in tons of cash.



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