Larry Brown Sports

Bob Arum is 81 years old and a crusty old man. Dude should be sitting on his millions in Palm Beach, Florida, just playing shuffleboard and beating the crowds to the early-bird special every night. But no, the old man is still grinding it out, raking in dough promoting his fighters while stunting the growth of the sport.

He was even asked by Nestor Gibbs recently about the possibility of having some of his Top Rank guys face Golden Boy Promotions fighters. He was so opposed to the idea, he hilariously dropped some unexpected f-bombs.

The first one comes at the :25 mark, and then another one flies when he talks about Lucas Matthysse a minute later:

So, to recap, Bob Arum is not interested in cross-promoting with Golden Boy even though it would make the sport of boxing better, and he says nobody knows who the f— Lucas Matthysse is. Awesomesauce.

Manny Pacquiao suffered a devastating loss to Juan Manuel Marquez two weekends ago, and Dana White thinks Bob Arum is to blame for making the match.

The UFC president says it was a bad decision by Arum, who promotes Pacquiao’s fights, to set the Filipino up for a fourth bout with Marquez. Pacquiao and Marquez fought to a draw in their first bout, and then Pac-Man won two controversial decisions after that. It was clear after the first 36 rounds they fought that Marquez had Pacquiao’s number.

“I’m the biggest Pacquiao fan ever, and I bet on Marquez,” White told the media on Saturday, via 5th Round. “Dumbest fight in history. Bob Arum’s a moron. You don’t take that fight, you idiot! Why would you do that fight? It’s all about the money, that’s why.

“That was a money fight, that’s what that fight was done for.”

White felt Arum should have set up a Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley rematch instead of a fourth Pacquiao-Marquez battle.

“[Pacquiao] should have fought [Timothy] Bradley. Bradley’s the fight they should have done. He would have knocked Bradley out, he would have got his belt back and now he’s back in the position he should have been in.

“[Pacquiao's] one of the best fighters in the world. He goes out and fights Marquez again? Bob Arum is the dumbest promoter in the history of the world.”

We’ve been ripping Arum for years for impeding a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather superfight. His unwillingness to work with Golden Boy Promotions prevents the best fights from being arranged, which hurts the overall sport. However, there was very little public interest in a second fight against Bradley when almost everyone felt Pacquiao won the first fight. Marquez presented the most difficult matchup for Manny, so we’ll actually give Arum credit for arranging a legitimately dangerous fight.

Below you can see video of White’s comments:

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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. made headlines on Wednesday when it was revealed he tested positive for marijuana after losing his fight with Sergio Martinez, but it’s what his promoter said in response that stole the show.

Chavez Jr. could be facing discipline from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his second positive post-fight test in the state in the past three years. In November 2009, he tested positive for a diuretic used to lose weight before his fight against Troy Rowland. The second positive test could influence the Commission’s punishment, but it shouldn’t, according to Bob Arum.

The promoter took Chavez’s failed test as an opportunity to campaign for the legalization of marijuana. This is something straight out of “The Great White Hype,” no doubt.

“You certainly worry about the repercussions, but we have a great commission in Nevada that understands what the social issues are. As far as I’m concerned, marijuana should be legal and you can quote me on that,” Arum said, according to the LA Times’ Lance Pugmire.

“I’m making a moral judgment,” he said. “It’s legal in California … it has therapeutic effects. I’m not going to step back on this one: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with marijuana, and if I had a vote, I’d vote to legalize it. Let’s not be sanctimonious here.”

Now that sure is one way to spin your client’s misstep. Arum also tried to explain that Chavez Jr. used the weed to help him sleep because of insomnia. Yes, the man does have a legal background.

We’ve gotten on Arum’s case plenty of times in the past for stupid things he’s said and for blocking the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather dream fight, but we have to give it to him on this one. This sure is comedy. And he is right in one sense; I figure smoking weed would only hurt a boxer preparing for a fight, so Chavez Jr. already hurt himself.

Corruption has been a part of boxing as long as the sport has been around. Whether it was the mob telling one fighter to take a dive in the 5th, or a promoter paying off the judges to score the bout in favor of his boxer, the fix has been in for years. Last Saturday in Las Vegas, there is no doubt the fix was in.

There was not one person who saw the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight and thought Bradley won. Nobody is debating who won it. There isn’t some magical judging system in boxing that the common man doesn’t understand that resulted in two judges scoring the fight in favor of Bradley while nobody else even thought he was close. Pacquiao won the fight decisively, and even Bradley wasn’t convinced he’d won.

It seems clear the fight was fixed so that a decision would favor Bradley. Let’s go over how and why that happened by examining each character involved and their motivations.

Bob Arum, Top Rank: Arum has been involved with boxing since the ’60s and is one of the two biggest promoters in the sport (Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy is the other). He represents many of the top fighters, but his prized fighter is Manny Pacquiao.

Since Pacquiao became a megastar after beating Oscar De La Hoya in 2008 and Ricky Hatton in 2009, Bob Arum has handled the Filipino’s fight schedule carefully. And by carefully, we mean he arranged it so that it benefited him the most.

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The Heat beat the Celtics on Thursday night to force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals, and that has created a packed sports schedule for Saturday.

The Celtics-Heat game is scheduled to start at 8:30pm ET, and it will be competing for viewers with Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Kings and Devils which starts at 8pm ET. There is also the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight scheduled for later in the evening, but it reportedly won’t start until after the NBA game ends.

According to George Willis of the New York Post, promoter Bob Arum says the fight won’t start until after Game 7 ends.

Big time boxing fights usually start somewhere between 11:00 and 11:30pm ET on Saturdays, but that can fluctuate depending on how quickly or slowly the undercard moves.

Bob Arum didn’t get to where he is by being stupid. Deceitful, yes. But stupid? No. He knows a good percentage of his audience will also be watching the Heat-Celtics game, so why infuriate them by making them choose, especially when his start time is flexible?

He’s wisely accommodating sports fans. Hey, it’s the least he can do considering he’s keeping us from seeing Pacquiao-Mayweather.

H/T Jose3030

Once again, we are not going to get into detail about which side is holding up the fight the entire world has been begging to see. It could be Floyd Mayweather Jr. and it could be Manny Pacquiao. At the end of the day, we simply have to take a look at all the crap we’ve seen flying out of both corners and make an educated assessment. After Mayweather defeated Miguel Cotto on Saturday night, he said that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is the one holding the fight up. During a recent interview with ESPN 110 in Las Vegas, Arum said that is completely bogus and compared Floyd to one of Adolph Hitler’s associates.

“For two years Pacquiao has said that he will take any drug test, whoever administers it, so why is that still being talked about by Mayweather?” Arum said according to Sports Radio Interviews. “You see Mayweather is from the school of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels, who was (Adolf) Hitler’s publicist, adopted. The more you say things over and over again the more people believe them.”

Arum also said that Pacquiao’s side has proposed a number of scenarios in which the fighters would split the money evenly and Mayweather continues to turn them down. As for why, Arum had some similar thoughts to the ones we shared with you earlier from Pacquiao’s trainer.

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As soon as Manny Pacquiao won his decision against Juan Manuel Marquez earlier this month, promoter Bob Arum began talking about a fourth fight between the men. One could call it a leverage play by Arum, who may have been upset that Floyd Mayweather Jr. was trying to control negotiations by booking the MGM on May 5th. Floyd called out Manny Pacquiao, making it seem like the perfect lead-in to the megafight. The only problem is Arum seemed to be reluctant to negotiate it.

That’s a serious problem because both Manny Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach, want Floyd Mayweather. The only person who seemed to not want the fight was Bob Arum. Even one of Manny’s coaches, Alex Ariza, said that. But does Arum not want Manny to fight Floyd, or is he just trying to control the promotion of the fight? Either case could be possible.

The New York Daily News reported Sunday that Pacquiao’s agent, Michael Koncz, stopped by Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas. Arum confirmed the meeting. Arum also says he’s been negotiating with investors regarding the potential mega-fight.

So what is Arum’s motivation — assuming that he genuinely is trying to arrange this fight? He probably wants to promote the bout solo to keep Golden Boy Promotions, which has been contracted to promote Floyd’s last few fights, out of the picture.

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