Bob Arum And His Ultimate Plan

By Antonia Bufalino - 12/11/2014 - Comments

arum45By Antonia Bufalino: A few days ago a press statement was released of how Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has agreed to Miguel Cotto’s terms for their fight. It seems it is only a matter of time before everything else is set and done.

Now, Floyd Mayweather Jr has made it his tradition to fight on May 2 every year, Cinco De Mayo weekend. However, Canelo and Cotto are planning to fight on the same exact day. Mayweather is famous for doing things how he likes and how he wants. In his eyes, he is the king of boxing, and the possibility of someone stealing Cinco De Mayo would not sit well with him- at all. However, the only fight that would outsell Canelo/Cotto would be Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. With Mayweather being a smart business man, he knows this.

Canelo has openly declared how he will not move the fight date for any reason. He wants to take back Cinco De Mayo, since it is a Mexican holiday. Floyd Mayweather won’t change his date though. So, with this known, I will now speak from the presumption that he finally signs the contract with Pacquiao because of Canelo/Cotto (among many others reasons that I won’t dwell into).

There’s a problem. Some suggests Canelo/Cotto fighting on May 2 was Arum’s attempt to hurt Mayweather. He steals Cinco De Mayo away causing Mayweather to surrender the “PPV King” title, become the lesser draw, and overall hurt his pride deeply. Mayweather won’t sit quiet, and I expect he will come back by signing the fight with Pacquiao. Here we are now with two Top Rank fighters with their bout on the same day. Arum will not allow his fighters to compete with one another, especially two big fights like this. I guess he never wanted the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight to happen.

Or maybe, just maybe, he’s smarter than we think he is.

Canelo will not move from the May 2 date, and Mayweather will not move either. However, Canelo/Cotto will not be blind to the fact that they’ll be competing with the biggest fight in boxing history. It wouldn’t be surprising if they could lose 35-40% of the revenue they would have made as the only fight. Canelo will be too stubborn to move from the date, but he won’t want to compete with Mayweather either. Bob Arum could have something up his sleeve. He moves Canelo/Cotto to the undercard as a co-main event for the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. Canelo/Cotto are now a part of the largest fight in history, won’t have to compete, and won’t lose money. By creating a mega-mega-fight, the rewards financially are a win-win situation for everyone on every side. It sounds too good to be true, but theoretically, it is sound.

So the suggestion that Bob Arum never wanted the fight by doing Canelo/Cotto on May 2 may be wrong. Perhaps, he is pulling the biggest “checkmate” that no one saw coming. Not only twisting Mayweather’s arm to get him to finally sign Pacquiao, but by also creating a more monumental fight than the one we already imagined. Is it all to get more money? No doubt, but do any one of us really care at this point? Get excited, because a mega-mega fight will make 2015 the most exciting boxing year in the history of the sport.



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