After forty-plus years in the game there seems to be very little that would throw off Top Rank CEO Bob Arum. This past weekend the veteran promoter could be seen making the rounds in Las Vegas for the Fernando Montiel-Nonito Donaire event at the Mandalay Bay and it was business as usual for Arum.
While at Saturday’s press luncheon inside of Lupos, an Italian restaurant, I was able to catch up with Arum for a telling five minutes. Then just mere hours away from the Donaire-Montiel scrap, I asked Arum whether his emotions were ever torn from seeing two fighters tied to his promotional stable face off with one another.
“No, really I love it,” Arum revealed. “I’ve given both guys a big platform. That’s my job as a promoter. And whoever wins, wins. For me it’s like a sporting contest. Afterwards,when the fight is over, you feel happy for the winner and sad for the loser.”
Donaire of course would end up delivering one of the more resounding knockouts in recent years as he dropped Montiel with a beautiful counter left hook and finished off along the ropes moments later. The fight was significant because of the brilliance of Donaire’s performance but what is also notable is that the bout marks the first in a line of Top Rank shows that will be taking place in the city of Las Vegas.
Last year Nevada suffered from a down year as they were void of consistent, meaningful matches for the first ten months but Arum notes that he hasn’t given up on brining boxing back to the fight capital of the world.
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“The people from Vegas told us how much it deprived Vegas of revenue and for us to give it another try,” Arum says of returning to Vegas. “The big kahoona is Pacquiao. And last year MGM wouldn’t accept Pacquiao-Clottey because they were playing footsies with Golden Boy and Floyd. So we made the deal with Jerry Jones. And then Las Vegas couldn’t be considered for the Margarito fight because the geniuses for the commission, except for the chair lady, wouldn’t give him a license. There was nothing we could do.”
Arum pointed the financial rewards from staging fights in the city, as even though the MGM Grand, where Pacquiao will face off with Mosley on May 7th, only has 17,000 seats that the revenue is greater than 40,000 partisans attending an event at Cowboys Stadium.
With Pacquiao’s name coming up, I couldn’t help but to ask Arum if he ever imagined this kind of success from the Filipino icon.
“No,” Arum conceded. “We had a game plan. And you never expect your game plan to work the way you laid it out. Our goal was to make Pacquiao a world figure. And a cross over star in the United States. And that’s what we did from the time we got involved with him. But for him to have reached this level now, where he’s meeting the President of the United States and being honored with the meeting with Harry Reid, that’s something that in my wildest dreams I hadn’t counted on. My idea was to make him a big crossover star but I never expected it to reach this level.”
Pacquiao had great success between 122 and 130 pounds, defeating the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez in memorable fights, but it was only when he moved up and defeated Oscar De La Hoya in December of 2008 that his star really skyrocketed as he began a streak of tearing through formidable, bigger foes. Pacquiao has obviously endeared himself to Arum but he insists it won’t be hard when his star fighter walks away from the sport.
“No it will be great,” Arum continued. “Because then I am going to help him as much as I can. Because the real goal isn’t to keep on fighting and win more titles. The real goal is to see him as President of the Philippines.”
It’s definitely been quite the ride for Bob Arum but he shows little signs of slowing down. Top Rank is as strong as ever, with a great blend of talent in the form of present day champions, contenders, and rising stars, and they are regarded as the best entity in the business by nearly all insiders.
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what keeps Arum passionate and motivated after all these years in a sport often as cruel as boxing?
“The thing I enjoy most is associating with these young men whose hopes and aspirations are tied into boxing and to help them realize those hopes and aspirations. That’s why I am outspoken as I am, because I don’t care who I piss off in the networks or the press. My loyalty is to the fighters.”
