Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum Sr. wants no part of Floyd Mayweather?s Aug. 26 showdown against UFC champion Conor McGregor.
Zero.
While causal fans will weigh whether to spend $99.95 to cover the pay-per-view cost for the fight, real boxing enthusiasts are much more excited about the Sept. 16 middleweight clash between Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez and Gennady ?Triple G? Golovkin. To their credit, though, Mayweather and McGregor have done a great job of promoting this mismatch, even if I found 95 percent of their comments to be extremely distasteful.
Last month, they visited Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, and London as part of a hype circus that included everything from racial to homophobic insults to Mayweather bringing a bag of cash to New York ? despite reports that he owes the government more than $20 million in back taxes dating to his 2015 win over Manny Pacquiao in Vegas.
Arum, whose Top Rank Boxing company promoted Mayweather from when he made his professional debut in 1996 to his victory over Zab Judah a decade later, told me in a Thursday phone call that he won?t be among the thousands who will pluck down big bucks to watch the 49-0 Mayweather face an overmatched opponent who has no business being in the same boxing ring with him.
Some time ago, Mayweather and McGregor, arguably the biggest names in their respective sports, got together and came up with a brilliant scheme to break the bank with an event that never would have caused this much of a stir in the years before social media became a smart marketing tool.
The 85-year-old Arum, a Harvard-educated lawyer who has promoted more than 2,000 fights over the past 50 years ? including many involving legends Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard ? pulled no punches when asked about the possibility of McGregor giving Mayweather any kind of a competitive fight.
?There?s a sucker born every minute, but I?m no sucker,? he said. ?He has no chance to beat Mayweather. Take LeBron James. He?s a great athlete, but if you put him in there with (heavyweight champions) Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua, he would have no chance.?
I?m with Arum. McGregor will finish on his back with the T-Mobile Arena lights shining down on him while most of America will wonder why in the heck they spent the cable money on a four-round exhibition. If the roles were reversed and Floyd was stepping into the Octagon against McGregor, the odds would be reversed in McGregor?s favor.
?It?s not a boxing event, it?s a spectacle,? longtime boxing promoter Kathy Duva told the Los Angeles Times. ?On the other hand, when this is over and this fight ends up the way I expect it will, the next time somebody asks me, ?MMA or boxing, what?s the better sport?? I?ll say, ?We know who the bad asses are because Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor just got their asses kicked by two boxers.??
While Mayweather-McGregor has the makings of a terrific disappointment ? especially for the UFC fans who truly believe their guy will hand Mayweather his first professional loss ? the Alvarez-Golovkin fight should be the one garnering the most interest. It is in boxing circles because the combatants are both recognized as being among the best pound-for-pound in the sport, and the outcome of their bout is anything but settled.
Thanks to the promotional genius of Mayweather and McGregor, the sucker money is arriving by the truckload at the sports books. McGregor is a 4-1 underdog, which presents some irresistible odds to UFC fans who believe he can topple boxing?s most dominant fighter of this generation.
With that said, the 37-0 Golovkin and 49-1-1 Alvarez present a better matchup and a much better option for your pay-per-view dollar.
?If anybody buys the Canelo-Triple G fight, they?re getting a quality fight where the fighters are evenly matched,? Arum said. ?Some people will buy McGregor and Mayweather, but how many will pay $100 to see what will be a farce? I can?t judge which fight will do more business. I don?t have a dog in either fight, but I?m going to buy the Canelo-Triple G fight. I won?t buy the other.?
Boxing is no longer mainstream, but the pay-per-view numbers generated by Mayweather in his megafights against Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya ? along with the 90,000 fans who packed London?s Wembley Stadium for Joshua?s title win over Wladimir Klitschko ? show that boxing can still draw if the matchup is right. Don?t be surprised if more casual fans spend their money on Mayweather-McGregor than Canelo-Triple G, which is sure to produce fireworks.
They?re the ones who will lose out in the end.
