Bob Arum, in denigrating Golden Boy/Mayweather adversary Richie Rich Schaefer, keeps mentioning to me and other boss scribes (if not their bosses) that Mayweather needs “a professional boxing promoter” in his corner.
Arum then cites as his one and only example, his career long nemesis, Donald King.
“Al Haymon can’t be in the forefront so he needs someone else,” Arum said to me Wednesday. “Richard just doesn’t have the background to deal a fighter, he can’t deal properly with Mayweather.
“Can you imagine what King would say to Floyd with all that blood testing nonsense and $40 million on the table?” Arum said. “King would hit Mayweather upside his head and tell him forget all that, go get the money and beat Manny Pacquiao if you can.”
I relayed Arum’s comments, since he’s repeated them four to five times, to DK. I reached King at his Deerfield Beach, Fl., office and, while he had no illuminating reaction, I did hear the famous King cackle over the phone wires.
“Lonesome Bob, he said that? Lonesome Bob said that about me? Well, we can talk about it later, Mike.”
Cackle, cackle, cackle.
“Lonesome Bob” is a pet name King uses when he is not calling his longtime adversary “The Snake.”
Maybe all Schaefer needs is a more colorful nickname.
