Pluperfect Robert Arum is not now nor has he ever been.
Uncle Bob has human failings and his famed “yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth” quote hangs around his neck like a millstone.
They say WC Fields had “on the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia” etched on to his gravestone.
The Top Rank chieftain’s memorial marker could have his self explanatory quote on his.
But Arum is wrong in criticizing himself for bungling the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight negotiations.
Maybe, approaching age 80, Arum was just in a transitory, reflective mood when we spoke on the phone Thursday.
But I have to disagree with him. Arum did his job and so did the opposing team meaning Brothers Haymon, Schaefer and Ellerbe.
Remember, the only “neutral” in their mediation room was retired judge Daniel Weinstein.
Arum is Pacman’s advocate and the Haymon, Schaefer and Ellerbe are advocates. At the end of the day, they’re all bound to dance to their client’s tune. They can’t substitute their own music.
Frankly, I don’t think Manny or Floyd want their megabout in March. That doesn’t mean they won’t fight around September or so because they will.
Getting back to Bombastic Bob, he did outpoint the guys from Mayweatherville in the blame game which continues unabated after their talks crashed over the random drug testing date issues.
But he’s been battling the likes of former uber power Don King for four decades and he came into boxing as a crafty lawyer from Harvard in the first place. In his early years, Arum was a principal in Main Bout, Inc., a promotional outfit which revolved around Muhammad Ali and an unlikely alliance between a Jewish guy from Brooklyn (Arum), football superstar Jim Brown and Ali’s Black Muslim handlers, in particular Herbert (later Jabir) Muhammad.
Arum knows how to bounce from temple to the mosque and vice versa. Arum knows how to play angles better than pool hall wizard Willie Mosconi ever did.
The drug testing flap was just another five ball, side pocket, for Arum.
There are two ways to analyze whether Arum did what he was supposed to. One, presupposes that Megamanny is or has been cheating with drugs, that he is a serial juicer.
If that is true and Arum knew it, then his Pacquiao protection was to find not a weigh in for Mayweather but a way out.
The 14 days prefight blood test demand by L’il Floyd’s pugilistic posse was the line in the sand that Arum then could not cross.
Exit Mayweather, enter Ghana’s best welterweight Johsua Clottey.
Two, if Manny is drug free and clean in competition, then Arum has either on purpose or inadvertently stirred the promotional pot for an even bigger bout against undefeated Floyd later this year.
Despite all the handwringing, Manny and Floyd won’t retire before they fight each other. Manny may retire from boxing having never won an election but he will fight Mayweather and maybe now the Sugar Shane Mosley-Andre Berto winner (I lean toward Mosley) of Jan. 30 turns into a triple play.
Could that possibly be bad? Mayweather, Mosley, Pacquiao could be a current era triangle like Hagler, Hearns and Leonard.
I’d love to see Mosley get a crack at both Manny and Floyd, I think any legitimate fight fan would. Mosley deserves no less.
And maybe Antonio Margarito can crash their party. That’s not a bad thing either as long as his handwraps are unloaded.
Arum is wrong to say that he was wrong.
He did his job even when his personal and corporate best interest was to cash in his Mayweeather-Pacquiao Lottery Ticket on March 13.
I mean, Manny could get run over by a jeepney and Mayweather could get flattened by a taxi.
Nothing is promised.
In this instance, Arum is wrong about being wrong.
