GL: Welcome home Bobfather, can you tell us why Antonio Margarito is going to get his hand raised tomorrow night? “Well, we always have felt that Margarito is a superb fighter. He’s a great body puncher and he has the experience over Williams so I’m looking for a stoppage around the seventh or eighth round.”
GL: Should your prediction come to fruition, is the plan to match him against Miguel Cotto based on the previous paperwork?
Bob Arum: “That is correct. It’s a done deal if Antonio wins.”
GL: Is there a date for Cotto’s next fight yet?
BA: “We are working with HBO to get a date for PPV. It would depend on arena availability, ecetera because that fight figures more in Los Angeles at Staples than it would in New York and I think the date that Staples is working on is December 1 or December 8.”
GL: I know you don’t deal with negativity, but should Margarito lose to Williams, what are the chances that Cotto would fight Mosley next?
BA: “It’s very funny that you ask because if Antonio did lose, I’m meeting Richard Schaeffer for lunch in Las Vegas on Monday to go over the Pacquiao-Barrera and one of the subjects we’re going to be talking about will be a Cotto-Mosley fight.”
GL: How is the Morales-Diaz promotion going?
BA: “Yeah, I think that’s going to go very strong. Tickets are going real well, Morales is training exceptionally well and everything is in place. I’m very optimistic that it will be a terrific fight and a profitable promotion.”
GL: It’s clear to everyone who saw the fight that Jose Luis Castillo was a shell of himself against Ricky Hatton. With that being said, where do you go with Castillo from here and should he hang them up?
BA: “It’s not for me to say if he should hang them up, but I really question his viability as a top fighter anymore. We all saw what we saw, so there’s no use kidding ourselves. I don’t want to take anything away from Hatton, but ten seconds in you saw that Castillo had no legs.”
GL: You and I have yet to speak on your settlement with Golden Boy.
BA: “Everything is patched up and we’re going to be working together in the future on a lot of ventures. The mediator did a tremendous job and it’s funny, everyone is happy now that the thing is resolved. Getting it resolved, not everybody is happy with everything, but now that it’s resolved everybody is happy. I’m looking to the future, the past is forgotten and I think we can do a lot of great things together.”
GL: What are the chances of Pacquiao-Marquez II if they both win their upcoming fights?
BA: “The chances are very good. Now that we’re talking and we’re both really good business people, Schaeffer and myself, there’s no reason not to make these fights that we were fussing around about.”
GL: Hasim Rahman had a less than stellar showing against Taurus Sykes, is there any update on his future plans?
BA: “He’s got to get himself into shape. At his age, the only thing that is going to motivate him to get into shape is a big fight and that’s what he’s working on for sometime this fall.”
