Top Rank Promotions, run by the old grinch Bob Arum, has a roster laced with talent and the capability to produce boxing’s most exciting battles. Unfortunately for fans, Arum seems more interested in milking their wallets and delaying meaningful, competitive match-ups.
Last week as much of the world celebrated Christmas, a time for giving, Arum gave his customers a stocking full of coal in the form of three fights for 2011 that few, if any, wanted to see.
It was made official that the sport’s pound for pound best boxer Manny Pacquiao would fight Shane Mosley. While most were willing to give Arum and Pacquiao a pass for an uninteresting 2010 campaign featuring bouts with Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito, the announcement of a clash with Mosley upset fight fans.
At 39 years of age and losing to Floyd Mayweather and drawing with Sergio Mora in recent bouts, most would agree that Mosley should be retiring and not challenging Pacquiao. Fans will have to dish out approximately 50 dollars to view the pay per view broadcast which takes place on May 7.
Next, Arum informed the public that Puerto Rico’s best boxers would be involved in bouts with opponents that leave Shane Mosley looking like a worthy challenger.
Miguel Cotto will return to the ring on March 12 against Ricardo Mayorga. Yes, that Mayorga. The one who smokes, trash talks opponents, and stopped being a world class competitor in the mid-2000s.
And how will fans be rewarded, after being shoveled a boxing retread? If fans want to see the Cotto – Mayorga bout, it will also be broadcast on pay per view.
Atleast Bob Arum kept rising featherweight Juan Manuel Lopez off pay per view and has regelated the Puerto Rican to Showtime and it’s premium cable subscribers. That downside for fans is that Lopez exciting style and rising star will be tested by Teon Kennedy.
Kennedy’s names does not register well with fans, who have been strung along by Bob Arum for over a year with the promise of a bout between Lopez and the flashy Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa. Not to worry fight fans, when Lopez and Gamboa do fight, I’m sure you’ll have the opportunity to pay at least 40 dollars to view it.
Instead of giving back to his industries base and announcing an exciting trio of fights for the first third of 2011, Bob Arum stuck it to them once again.
