Top Rank boss Bob Arum could be forgiven for being bitter about the recent loss of emergent bantamweight star Nonito Donaire to hated rivals Golden Boy.
But Arum’s recent comments about Rachel Donaire in a recent interview with MPBoxing seem a little unusual even for the volatile 78 year old veteran promoter.
Obviously Arum’s words either had an agenda or were out of frustration over losing Donaire to his biggest rivals.
Given Arum’s track record and the fact that he remains perfectly calm during the interview in question, initially the former seems a lot more likely than the latter.
Mentioning Jinkee Pacquiao while slating Rachel Donaire, claiming that Nonito hasn’t connected with Filipino fans and that they don’t like him, and even claiming that the pair are jealous of Manny Pacquiao, and Arum’s agenda becomes clear.
Clearly Arum is resigned to the fact that Donaire won’t be fighting for Top Rank ever again, and that regardless of his claims to have a valid contract which he expects Donaire to fulfill, he knows he has promoted the soaring Bantamweight for the last time.
As such then these insults appear to be Arum’s parting shots at the Donaires, and at the same time a subtle attempt to pit Nonito against Manny Pacquiao in the minds of the fans and to reduce his popularity in the Philippines.
The fact that many Filipino fans aren’t keen on Golden Boy both for their continued support of Floyd Mayweather and some of the remarks that Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer have made towards Manny Pacquiao make this a much easier sell.
