The world must be coming to an end. The perpetually tardy Fernando Beltran didn’t just make it to a press conference on time – he actually arrived early. Meanwhile, Bob Arum, who has gotten out of burning jets that have crashed to make media days, couldn’t make it to Wednesday’s media gathering at the El Paseo Inn at Olvera St. in Los Angeles.
Arum’s flight, which was halted due to mechanical difficulty and thus delayed, caused the promoter to de-plane for fear of missing his afternoon conference call with Miguel Cotto with reporters.
But while he couldn’t take off, his June 9th promotion featuring Cotto’s outing against Zab Judah has ascended to the rafters as Madison Square Garden announced that for the first time since 2001 they have opened up their upper mezzanine section, freeing up another 3,000 seats in addition to the 16,000 that were already configured for this promotion.
Even Arum is surprised by the brisk sales.
“Absolutely, because from the first year that Cotto was there to the second year, we saw an increase, “said Arum on Wednesday afternoon from his offices in Las Vegas. “But we attributed it to various factors – we brought in Tom Zbikowski, the Notre Dame kid, John Duddy. And here, while we have a very good undercard, it’s really the main event that’s selling the tickets. And Pat Rizzo (Arum’s executive assistant, who’s also in charge of Top Rank’s tickets for their big events) is going crazy with all the brokers.
“The response has been absolutely tremendous. We haven’t discounted one ticket. The comps are the usual comps, nothing special. And they’re all sales. We have over $2 million in sales. So I am really blown away by this. I’m not surprised now that we’re opening the balcony because I saw this happening for the last few weeks, with this pace.
“But going in, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible.”
Originally, WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito was to have faced Cotto in this slot, but Top Rank seems to have caught a bit of a break as Zab Judah, a well-known native of Brooklyn, was tabbed for the assignment and seems to have brought more of a local interest in the promotion.
Arum’s last pay-per-view show on April 14th was on his own dime so Top Rank got to run their own production. Here, they are promoting an event in association with HBO Pay-Per-View. So will we get a show with all the bells-and-whistles we saw in San Antonio?
“According to Todd (duBoef, Top Rank’s president), who’s been talking to Rick Bernstein (HBO producer), they’re going to do it to a great extent our way – not completely the same. But I was on with Ross Greenburg (president of HBO Sports) the other day and he was talking to me about, ‘How can you do four fights? Because the people in the east might be up after midnight.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but a lot of our audience is west coast and it’s nine o’clock. And besides, who cares if they’re up past midnight? It’s a Saturday.’
“So anyway, he was not happy but he bought into the four-fight deal. I think everybody is listening to some extent to what I’ve been preaching. Particularly because of the recent success of the UFC. Because remember, when I was out hustling April 14th and saying what I was going to do, it was a direct response to UFC, which hadn’t gotten the enormous publicity that they are just coming off.”
Humberto Soto and Bobby Pacquiao (who will face each other in the night’s semi-main) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who will try and avenge his father’s loss against Grover Wiley, were assembled in front of the Southern California media, with veteran publicist Bill Caplan running the show in Arum’s absence.
Soto, considered the 130-pound darkhorse, with a win over this Pacquiao, could earn a crack at the more famous sibling.
“I’m focusing in on this fight,” he would tell Maxboxing at the cramped press conference, taking a one Pacquiao-at-a-time approach. “After this fight, of course, I want to face Manny, but even Juan Manuel Marquez.”
When Arum was asked if a win over Bobby would earn Soto the distinction as the lead contender for a shot at ‘the Pac Man’, he would state: “That is a lead contender. Joan Guzman’s a lead contender. The Guzman people have been talking to me. And a guy that we’d have to consider is Barrera. I would love to do a Pacquiao-Barrera fight because people have been talking about that. But I’m not going to do fights with Barrera if he’s Golden Boy’s fighter, unless Golden Boy agrees.”
Soto said he would gladly accept an assignment against the still-avoided Juan Manuel Marquez.
“The one who gives me the most money. But whoever, both.”
As for a Pacquiao-Marquez bout, it’s not something that seems to be a possibility for October, when Pacquiao is slated to return.
“I think right now after this election campaign, that Freddie’s gotta get Pacquiao back to concentrating on boxing and Marquez is a very, very good boxer,” said Arum. “I think that Freddie would want a fight under his belt with Pacquiao before he fought Marquez.”
‘Freddie’ would be Freddie Roach, who also trains the lesser known Pacquiao, who could throw a monkey wrench into a lot of plans on June 9th.
“I know we’re the underdog going into the fight, people don’t expect us to win,” said Roach, who has been able to devote his full attention to Bobby since returning from Puerto Rico. “But Bobby’s very focused for this fight. He’s doing well in the gym and we got some good sparring partners for him and we’re coming to win. And hopefully Bobby will be the number one contender to fight his brother.”
Roach was kidding about the last part (we think), but this card, which also features a jr. middleweight bout between Anthony Thompson and Yuri Foreman, features fights, with – get this – fighters who will get in there and fight.
“You’re preaching to the choir. That’s what I’ve been saying. Look at the kids that we have, that we’re able to develop, that we’re able to push. You have Kelly Pavlik, Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito – they’re all fighters, God damn it!!! They’re not businessmen,” Arum would vehemently state.
It could be an X-plosive night at the Garden.
GROUNDED
So why was Arum left in Las Vegas?
“We took a Southwest flight, leaving at 8:45 am. We wanted to take an early flight because we had the Cotto conference call at 12 pacific and the undercard press conference at one. So it was Bob, Chris Farina and myself,” said Lee Samuels, Top Rank’s publicist. “We were on the plane, we loaded up on time, the plane departed on time, it inched off the gate and then stopped. Everything appeared to be fine.”
But the passengers were soon notified that a warning light had gone off in the cockpit. They were informed that a part would need to be replaced as they were taken back to their loading gate. However, all the power – which meant no air conditioning – would have to be shut down for this repair to take place. Not exactly the most ideal circumstance given that the flight was packed and they were in Vegas.
They were told that they would be in the air ‘very soon’, which are very ominous words nowadays to travelers. Then 10 minutes became 15, 15 became 30 and then a full hour and beyond.
“It got like an oven,” said Samuels, “and I turned around and see Bob and he’s like beet red and we’re all just sweltering. And they kept saying, ‘Just a few more minutes,’ but it was never ending. And Bob goes, ‘We have to get off the plane,’ which means he didn’t feel well.
Arum, now in his mid-70’s, simply couldn’t take it anymore. Also, no other representative of Top Rank would be available for Cotto’s conference call on this day.
But as Samuels went with Arum, he would tell Farina, Top Rank’s photographer, “You gotta stay.”
It takes a lot for Arum to miss a chance to get up on his soapbox and promote one of his shows. Back in 2002, a private jet he leased to fly himself and members of the media to go up to Big Bear to promote Oscar De La Hoya’s bout against Fernando Vargas would come down in a fiery blaze.
“The amazing story about that is that I took the bus up with the media from Las Vegas and when we got to Big Bear to Oscar’s compound, the doors open and the team comes up to me and they were crying and they say to me, ‘The plane crashed.’ I said, ‘What plane crashed?’ ‘ Bob’s plane crashed.’ I was speechless. I go, ‘Where’s Bob?’
“‘Oh, he’s over there with Oscar.’ He was there telling him how the plane went down.”
According to Samuels, De La Hoya would say of his then-promoter: “That’s a real promoter. His plane goes down and he still comes to the press conference.”
For the trip back, the Mandalay Bay would send their own private jet. And Arum insisted that everyone on board going up to Big Bear get on the plane.
“He said, ‘I don’t want no one ever to be frightened of planes,'” recalled Samuels.
Arum seems to have more trepidation of flights that never get off the ground than ones that come crashing down to it.
Will that be the last time Arum takes a flight with a noted Golden Boy sponsor?
“Ohhhh, now I know the conspiracy theory!!! It was (Richard) Schaefer, he screwed up the plane,” Arum would jokingly say, laughing at the thought.
PAVLIK-TAYLOR?
So what’s the latest on this potential middleweight duel?
“Apparently, they had a meeting at HBO,” said Arum. “And they’re talking with Lou DiBella (Taylor’s promoter) right now. Hopefully they’re going to put enough money on the table so that we can make the deal. I have to recognize that DiBella, having the champion, is the lead promoter and therefore, I told him, ‘You don’t have to go into it with me, now, talk to Lou.’ And they’re talking, right now, as we speak.”
As for Taylor perhaps vacating his titles, thus avoiding Pavlik, his mandatory challenger in the WBC, Arum would say, “I have no idea. But the only thing I know is Lou wants to do the fight. And whether anybody else in his camp wants to do it or not, I don’t know. But he wants it.”
MID-WEEK FLURRIES
Beltran, who represents Chavez Jr., made it clear that after the Wiley bout, they will target Arturo Gatti (should he beat Alfonso Gomez on July 14th) and then be willing to face Oscar De La Hoya at jr. middleweight….OK, lets start walking before we run, Junior…..The extra 3,000 seats at MSG will be priced at $50…..Is there a radio show that Kobe Bryant hasn’t been on to discuss his displeasure with the Lakers? He’s like a promoter pushing his show the week of the fight….I don’t think Arum’s gonna take any chances, don’t expect him to drink any ‘RockStar’ when he needs a pick-me-up or down some ‘Cazadores’ when he needs a buzz. And no, don’t expect him to ever stay at the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay. After all, he’s a Wynn guy, all the way…..
