Here’s a little Bob Arum context.
When the Top Rank founder/CEO promoted his first fight with Muhammad Ali, not only had neither Floyd Mayweather Jr. nor Manny Pacquiao been born, their arrivals were still more than a decade away.
In fact, even the sport’s grand old man of 2015 — Bernard Hopkins ? was then just a feisty 1-year-old.
Now 83, Arum is still working away at his Las Vegas headquarters as co-promoter of what he and nearly everyone else expects will be the most lucrative fight in boxing history by the time the money is counted. He took some time to chat with CBSSports.com about the event, the hurdles that were cleared to get it finalized and how he thinks it’ll go when the opening bell finally rings at the MGM Grand.
Lyle Fitzsimmons, CBSSports.com: As a person with a track record in the game and who’s done huge fights that people still talk about 30-40 years later, how is this one different in terms of the workload involved? Is it harder, easier?
Bob Arum: It’s a little bit more difficult because there are two promoters working the fight, Mayweather Promotions and ourselves, so we have to get consent with everything that we do and that takes a little extra time. But we’re getting through it and this is fast becoming, by far, the biggest financial event in the history of boxing. So we’ll all be happy once it’s over.
CBSSports.com: Are you not going to be able to sit down and rest until they’re actually in a ring together?
Arum: That’s correct. Until the bell rings, you’re on edge. And then when the fight is going on, you’re cheering for your guy and that’s nerve-wracking until either there’s a knockout or a decision.
CBSSports.com: When May 3 finally arrives, what’s the first thing you’ll do to detox?
Arum: Plan my trip to the Philippines to celebrate in the victory parade. That’s going to be one of the greatest things that the country of the Philippines has ever seen.
CBSSports.com: A lot has been made of Floyd and Manny needing this fight for legacy purposes. Is it similar at all for you? Would you have retired saying ?damn, I wish I would have gotten that one done??
Arum: I think it would have been a bad mark on whatever legacy I will leave. Having been in this business for so many years, now approaching 50 years, if I had left without having made this fight, it would always be mentioned in every story about my accomplishments.
CBSSports.com: How much would that have bothered you?
Arum: Since it would probably be in the obituary I probably wouldn’t have known about it, but it might have bothered people close to me.
CBSSports.com: You’ve worked on so many fights ? Hagler-Hearns, Hagler-Leonard, etc. ? where all you need to do is throw the two names out and everybody remembers where they were and what happened. Thirty years from now, is this one going to be that way?
Arum: Absolutely. I think this one will even resonate more than those great events because in those great events, whether it was Ali-Frazier or Hagler-Hearns or Leonard-Hearns, those all involved American fighters. Now we have, for the first time in a huge, huge mega-event, a fighter from a country as exotic as the Philippines. I think that is part of what makes this such a huge event.
CBSSports.com: At what point did it go from ?not a chance? to ?maybe?? What was the tipping moment?
Arum: When I got a call from the chairman of CBS, Leslie Moonves, who has been a very good social friend of mine. We’ve known each other for a number of years. He called and asked if he could come over to visit me at my house in Beverly Hills. After we had that first meeting, I figured not only was there a chance the fight would happen, but that if I was laying a bet, I would that the fight was going to happen.
CBSSports.com: What did he bring at that point that tipped the scales?
Arum: He believed that he could deliver Mayweather. He said that he had a conversation with Floyd and that he believed that we could work through a deal and get the fight made. And I think he stuck with it. He’s a great dealmaker. And most of my negotiations with the other side were through him.
CBSSports.com: Is the relationship between you and Floyd what people perceive it to be?
Arum: It’s extraordinarily cordial. Understand that Mayweather came out of the amateurs and went with us. He was a young kid, didn’t know how to pay bills or anything. He came over to our home. We spent over 10 years together. Whenever we meet, he greets me cordially. We come from different worlds and different generations, but we still are very, very cordial to each other. He’s a very good friend of my stepson, Todd DuBoef, who’s the president of Top Rank, and he’s always maintained that friendship with Todd.
CBSSports.com: So the idea that’s been out there that the fight wasn’t going to get done because Floyd and Bob don’t get along was never accurate?
Arum: The quality of journalism today is not what it used to be. There’s a lot of gotcha journalism. It depends on how a question is asked, how the answer will be. I think that with a lot of this, the press prodded Floyd into castigating me personally when I don’t think he really believed it, or that he would have said it if the question had been asked differently.
CBSSports.com: If that wasn’t the reason, do you just think he simply didn’t want any part of Manny, or was it more of a business thing?
Arum: Yes. Even after I met with Les and we continued talking, I was skeptical. I believed that we could get things done, but the one caveat I had, and that Manny had when we talked about it, was that we didn’t believe that Floyd really wanted the fight.
That perception did not change until that chance meeting at the Miami Heat game, when Floyd asked Manny if he could visit Manny in Manny’s hotel suite. That was a completely accidental meeting. Manny was in Miami to judge the Miss Universe pageant and he couldn’t fly out because of the freeze in the Northeast. They couldn’t get planes down to Florida. So, being a basketball fan and being friendly with the coach of the Miami Heat, who’s a fellow Filipino, he arranged to go to the game. And who should show up also at the game is Floyd, who’s a big basketball fan and spends a lot of time in Miami. They were able to meet.
Manny called me afterwards to say, ?You know something, Bob, I really think he wants to do the fight.?
CBSSports.com: Because you hadn’t thought he’d wanted it, is that one of the reasons you’ll still be on pins and needles until May 2?
Arum: Yes. Otherwise, after the meeting with Les, I would have said there’s a 95 percent chance that the fight would happen. After the meeting with Les, I said 55 percent that the fight would happen, because Les is a very persuasive guy but always in the back of my mind was ?Hey, are we going through this exercise for nothing, at the last minute would Floyd be a no-show and not want it?? We were very skeptical until the two fighters met in Miami.
CBSSports.com: Had it gotten done in 2009 or 2010, would it have been dramatically different, or is this going to be the same fight that it would have been?
Arum: It’ll be a similar fight. It won’t be exactly the same. The fighters have aged. They’ve each aged five years. But they’ve also gained more experience, so they’re much more savvy than they were then. It’ll be a tremendous, tremendous fight, and, because it took so long to make, the value of the fight has gone up tremendously.
CBSSports.com: So from a promoter’s perspective, waiting five years might have been a pain in the neck, but when May 2 comes along it’s going to OK?
Arum: It wouldn’t have been anywhere near the level that it is now. That’s my opinion. The interest and so forth. Remember, some people don’t follow sports at all. And of people who follow sports, some people don’t follow boxing. But they’re all following this. Mayweather and Pacquiao were known names five years ago, but not the way they are today.
CBSSports.com: And just like Freddie, you believe that Manny’s going to look pretty spectacular come fight night?
Arum: I think Manny has been playing this fight over in his mind for five years. I think he’s in great, great shape, I think his game plan is terrific. I think he wins the fight and he wins it decisively.
CBSSports.com: Would that have been the case in 2010, too?
Arum: I think it would have been more competitive in 2010. Now, I don’t care what the books say, I make my guy a big, big favorite, which I wouldn’t have done in 2010. I would have made him a favorite, but slight.
CBSSports.com: Why the dramatic change?
Arum: People who don’t follow boxing too much don’t understand how important legs are. There’s no question that Floyd’s legs have slowed up. That happens, generally, with fighters. It’s very significant with Floyd, because his leg movement was part of his great defensive arsenal. And he doesn’t particularly have that anymore. He’s still smart as hell. He still defends well. He understands boxing. But the legs are five years older than they were then.
CBSSports.com: And Manny’s tools are closer to what they were in 2010?
Arum: Yes, because Manny is an offensive fighter. So whatever type of speed he’s lost is not as relevant as a guy who’s a defensive fighter, who needs his legs more.
