By Bashar Khaddage: If there is one figure that I absolutely despise in the sport of boxing, its gotta be promoter Bob Arum. Top Rank, being one of the largest promotional boxing companies and with arguably the largest stable of relevant fighters headed by Bob Arum, has allowed him to have an iron grip on the sport. While the Harvard educated business man is definitely making tons of money (net worth valued at 200 million dollars), he’s the man that I blame for making the talent stacked light welterweight (140) & welterweight (147) divisions shy from what they can potentially be. Imagine all the possible fights that could be made with the endless amounts of talented hungry fighters! I might even dare say, that there has never been so many potentially elite contenders at those weight divisions as there is currently.
While his rivaling company, Golden Boy Promotions, headed by Oscar De La Hoya isn’t much better either by creating in house fights as well, at least he’s smart enough to work with the current pound for pound king of the ring, Money Mayweather Jr. I cannot help myself but to blame Bob Arum when what arguably could have been the ‘greatest fight of all time’ in 2009/2010 should have been made between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. Yes, I am aware that people blame Floyd, others blame Arum and the argument goes on and on – but at the end of the day Pacquaio did want to fight Mayweather and the man who I feel made it difficult was Bob Arum.
Mayweather has crossed out Pacman from his remaining 5 fights, and the reason why hasn’t changed – Bob Arum. Though the fight does not hold the same weight as what it could have in breaking all PPV records and having a media buzz like no other, it still would be a good fight to make although Pacman is definitely not the fighter he once was a few years ago. Pacman is on a steady decline and his contract with Top Rank doesn’t end till December 2014. By that time, even if he does wanna fight Mayweather in 2015, he’ll be a 36 year old fighter merely a shadow of what he once was.
Bob Arum is 82 years old and has made tons of money that people can only dream of making. He won’t be around forever and hopefully whoever heads Top Rank in the future will resolve the rivalry between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank and will restore the sheer excitement that boxing once had.
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