By Jon Ramage: As a boxing fan, I regularly find myself pondering over the potential outcomes of many fights past and present that I would have loved to have seen often frustrates me that the sport I love so dearly doesn’t always give back to the fans what they so deserve. One of the most obvious and recent examples of this is the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr ongoing situation.
Now before I start I just want to point out that I promised myself a long time ago after reading vast amounts of articles going over the same old details and arguments, I would never write about this subject so I’m not going to bore you with any more details about this particular match up.
However, on the 12th April in an interview the infamous Bob Arum – (CEO and founder of Top Rank promotion, who represent fighters such as Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, JMM and Timothy Bradley amongst many others) he said something that really struck a chord with me and is certainly something that I feel needs further discussion.
In a post-fight interview after the Bradley Pac fight earlier this month Arum urged boxing fans to boycott Mayweather’s up and coming fight in order to push him into negotiations with Top Rank over a PAC fight. “The only people that can make Floyd Mayweather fight Manny is the public if they boycott the nonsense on May 3rd,” said Arum ”That’s when the fight will happen. Without any pre-conditions on any side. That’s what the public should do. You want that fight? Tell your readers not to buy it on pay per view and not to buy tickets for it.”
This got me thinking. Not only do I think Arum has a point. I think Arum has potentially started a revolution and shot himself square in the foot whist doing it! Imagine this; what if there was some sort of platform were we, the fans could decide who fights who? What if, greedy promoters, fearful fighters and out of date, weak governing boards didn’t decide on behalf of US what match ups are made thus artificially creating the illusion of champions who don’t even prove themselves against other champions?
Well I think that using Bob Arum’s methods and uniting as a whole this can be done. If the boxing public flat refuse not only to stop watching Mayweather, but also stop watching Top Rank my guess is this fight will happen pretty quickly. History will then be made, boxing fans forever more can take control when needed and return the sweet science to its former glory days.
Who’s with me?
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