I didn’t think anyone would have the nerve to ask Oscar about the recent picture scandal on a conference call to promote next Saturday’s Marco Antonio Barrera-Manny Pacquiao battle. I was wrong when the second question on the call was directed at Oscar regarding this. The “Golden Boy” quickly deflected the question stating that it is an obvious farce in addition to being advised by his attorney not to discuss the situation any further.
Former foe Bob Arum quickly chimed in, “I don’t wanna hear about anymore of this crap! The focus of this call should be on Manny Pacquiao versus Marco Antonio Barrera. It’s a great fight that’s taking place next weekend and it’s disrespectful to both fighters and how hard they’ve trained to even discuss these non-issues.”
Great move by Bob Arum to quickly take control of the situation as a conference call to promote the October 6 card should be respected as such.
Dan Rafael of ESPN asked both men how the situation has evolved into now working with each other rather than against one another.
Oscar stated, “It’s great and the future looks bright. I deeply regret some of the things I said about Bob and unfortunately it was in the heat of the moment. I look at it similarly to a marriage were we separated but now we’re back together. There are absolutely no hard feelings whatsoever.”
Arum chimed in, “The beneficiaries of this relationship are the fighters, the fans, and the overall sport of boxing. It has created more entertainment and more opportunities for everyone. I have deep regrets about things I said about Oscar and Richard but we chose to move on.”
Eddie Goldman asked both Oscar and Bob about the embracing of the internet by MMA and how boxing has seemed to have lagged in this department.
Arum responded, “I think we’re starting to utilize it more and more. Three and four years from now the television and internet will be combined and I definitely think it’s in the pipeline to embrace the internet and see more fights online.”
Oscar states, “We’re currently working with some very talented web masters to create a state of the art website for boxing fans. With our acquisition of the Ring we’re looking to be at the fore-front of bringing information to the fans.”
A final interesting note by Bob Arum when answering the question regarding so many cancellations and injuries within the sport. The Bobfather stated, “Steroids. It’s terrible on the body and I think the injuries of Vitali Klitschko and Oleg Maskaev are attributed to steroids they possibly took when they were younger. It’s terrible for all fighters, especially young ones to take that stuff.”
