There might not be a bigger proponent of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium than boxing promoter Bob Arum, even if he is a New York Giants fan.
If Arum’s Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions can come to an agreement for a November Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout, then Cowboys Stadium holds a 50 percent chance, along with the MGM in Las Vegas, of hosting the biggest fight of the past 25 years.
“If the fight happens and I hope it will, in mid-November in one of those two places,” Arum said.
Arum traveled with Pacquiao to the world champion welterweight’s homeland of the Philippines, where “Pacman” added congressman to his r?sum?.
Upon his return, Arum offered up several thoughts during a recent conference call on Pacquiao, Mayweather and the future of the world’s most ferocious politician.
Is your marriage with Dallas something that you are willing to let go? First of all, I’m not married to Dallas. I’m a Giants fan, not even a Cowboys fan. I love Jerry Jones, but I am not going to advocate putting any fight of Manny’s [at a site] unless it makes the most sense, that’s not necessarily Dallas.
If you can’t make this fight, is the backup plan to fight in Dallas? I can’t say that now but why not? I can’t look at that now. I thought you were going to ask whom he would fight, but the number one guy would be [Antonio] Margarito.
Why is a stadium important? Stadiums are important to boxing because it enables the most possible people to watch the event and that helps deal with the popularity of the sport. It’s not unique to boxing. Look at the Final Four, all now take place in massive venues and the reason is they can accommodate more people at a better price for the fans. I’m not the genius that figured this out. I’m just going along with what seems to be common sense. If you want your product seen by the most people you have to put it in the biggest venue.
What would this fight mean to you? It would be great, but there are other things other than fights. My great dream is to still be around to be at the inauguration of Manny Pacquiao [as] president of the Philippines. That would be the greatest achievement in my career. But that fight would be one of the greatest experiences in my career.
Do you think media reports affected negotiations in a bad way? Absolutely, once you start negotiating through the media, it becomes ego driven. People can’t wait to give a statement to the press. The flames just shoot up and there is no real opportunity for rational behavior to take over. Everyone is so interested is setting forth his position to the media that it becomes the contest. That involves me as well as everybody else.
Would this be the biggest fight ever? Ever is a hard word. You are comparing different eras. There is no fight in my time that is equally anticipated as the first Ali-Frazer fight. But electronically, it was like the dark ages when we look back on it. There was no pay-per-view, no satellite and so forth. Moving on, when Leonard and Duran fought, that was a huge fight. Leonard was on the cover of Newsweek, which was a very big thing then, and that was anticipated and Leonard-Hearns.
This fight in this era is probably the most anticipated fight and probably, if it happens, will do the most dollar business. It is a different dollar now than it was then, and, secondly, it is not a fair comparison, because electronically we can do so much more, not only in the U.S. but also around the world.
Tobias Xavier Lopez 817-390-7760
