Fightnews caught up with Hall of Fame promoter and chief of Top Rank Bob Arum at Hooters in McAllen, Texas. The last stop for Arum, who was doing a grueling two-day Texas promotional tour for the “Real Warriors” fight card that is to be held at the Aladdin Resort Casino in Las Vegas this Saturday February 18th. The main event features Antonio Margarito defending his WBO welterweight title versus the rugged tough Mexican challenger Manuel “Shot Gun” Gomez. Arum visited San Antonio and Laredo Texas on Monday. On Tuesday (Valentines Day), Arum did breakfast in Corpus Christi and lunch in the Rio Grande Valley. Read on to know more on this Saturday night’s fight card plus what Top Rank has in store for the year 2006.
What can we expect out of Margarito and Gomez on Saturday night? I think it’s going to be a candidate for fight of the year. These guys really come to fight, I think it will be tremendously entertaining for the fans and I am really looking forward to it. I’m glad that we at Top Rank are doing it ourselves, which means people won’t be able to see it, delayed or a week later. If they want to see the fight, they have to buy it on Saturday.
Did the postponement of this fight on the undercard of Klitshko versus Rahman heavyweight title fight hinder the promotion or help it? Things happen, you can’t do anything about it! Obviously we would have wished that Klitschko, Rahman took place on time and that Gomez and Margarito would have been on the card. That would have been great! We have no control on that, Klitschko hurt his knee. We had to pull out the fight in which he retired afterward, so we rescheduled this fight as soon as we could.
People in the know, in the boxing business, call this fight a high risk low reward fight for Antonio Margarito. “Shot Gun” Gomez is a dangerous fighter, You are absolutely correct! It is very high risk and it is very low reward, but you got to understand Margarito has got such a reputation, that nobody wants to fight him. You only have a guy with cajones like Gomez who will step in the ring with him.
This is a tough fight for Margarito. A lot of people don’t know much about Gomez, because he has not fought recently in big network television, but the Telefutura boxing viewers know who he is. Yeah, well that’s what we are relying on. We have so many people watch Telefutura. They know Gomez, they know what kind of unbelievable puncher he is. He is the hardest puncher in the welterweight division and they know what kind of great fight this is. The general public, they don’t know Gomez from Gonzalez. They don’t know. [That’s why] I am obviously marketing it to those people.
Is there a rematch clause in this fight? No there isn’t. I don’t believe in rematch clauses. If Gomez wins, he should be able to pursue the best opportunity out there.
What would that be Bob? I think Mayweather, or Judah. The winner of Mayweather versus Judah, that’s my goal. It’s to match the Mayweather-Judah winner with the winner of the Margarito-Gomez fight.
Don King and you (Top Rank) are getting together and co-promoting the fight between Judah and Mayweather. You and Don had not done this since Felix Trinidad (under Don King Promotions) and Oscar De La Hoya (under Top Rank) fought against each other. What about De La Hoya and Top Rank? Are you both going to co-promote fights like you and Don are doing now? No, we don’t have any connection with De La Hoya. He is apparently going to fight again in May. Let’s see if he will, and shows up for that fight. I am dubious.
The reason I am asking this Bob, is that Mayweather wants to fight De La Hoya. Oscar wants to finish his career by fighting and beating the best, which in this case is your fighter Floyd Mayweather. Which is after Oscar fights Mayorga and that is not a gimme fight either. Well, let’s see how things develop. Right now, I don’t look at Oscar as a serious fighter.
Another fighter that you promote and is causing a big stir among the Hispanic boxing fans, Jose Luis Castillo. What are your plans for Castillo? He is talking about fighting sometime in April for a tune up fight before the Corrales fight. Yes, he is going to fight Corrales in June 3rd and then the winner of that fight will be in line to fight Miguel Cotto later on this year. Cause I am all for making the best and biggest possible fights. To piddle around with appearance fights doesn’t make any sense. The public gets bored. The public wants to see competition with top level fighters.
To put Castillo against a fighter like Cotto which you also promote. They are both your fighters and some might say that’s insane. Cotto, is he ready for a fighter like Castillo? He thinks he is. He has a manager, they make their own decisions. You know, the fact that I promote both of them just makes it easier to make the match but I am not the manager of either one of them.
And how is Cotto doing? Last thing we knew about him was that he had a busted eardrum and that’s why in his performances as of late he has not been up to par. Exactly! That’s why we laid him off and he comes back March 4th in Puerto Rico against Gianluca Branco. Hopefully Miguel is fully recovered. The doctor has now said the eardrum is now healed and so we will have to see March 4th.
What can you tell me about the Marquez brothers (Juan Manuel and Rafael)? Are you still handling them? Nothing. It’s been very hard for us to communicate with them through their manager. Which is a great trainer but a lousy manager, Beristain. We would love to promote them again but there is no dialogue going on.
Juan Manuel is fighting in Indonesia but you are not the promoter in that one. No, it went to a purse bid and the Indonesian promoter won the fight. We offered to buy the Indonesian promoter out and bring the fight to the United States and we haven’t heard back from Nacho (Beristain). I don’t know what the hell he is thinking about.
Self destruction? Yeah. I mean, I just.. to me it’s amazing.
They are good fighters… Oh, they are very good fighters and they are nice boys. Nacho is a great trainer, no doubt about it but he is not a manager.
Julio Cesar Chavez, is he retired? No more third fight? Yes, no more third fight. He is finished.
JC Junior? I think Junior is going to be very, very good. He is fighting on Saturday night and the father sent him out to Otomi (high altitude mountains in Mexico) because he wants to knock out this guy.
Jorge “El Travieso” Arce is fighting Rosendo Alvarez on the undercard of Mayweather versus Judah. Arce is a great fighter and I think Alvarez will give him a good fight. I think that one should be a terrific fight. That fight is on the card. Hopefully Julio (Junior) comes through Saturday, he will be on the card and then I think we are going to have Cotto’s brother on the card.
Who is JM Cotto going to fight? We are looking around for a good opponent.
Chop Chop Corley maybe? That’s a possibility.
When is Martin “El Gallito” Castillo going to fight next? Great fighter. We were thinking about putting him in against (Fernando) Montiel in April 8th card but his eye won’t heal by then but, on one of our next cards, you know, the earliest opportunity we are going to put them on.
Third fight between Erik Morales and Pacquiao… Yes, September 16th Las Vegas.
I guess the question I wanted to ask was, at what weight? (Morales seemed to be drained while making 130) We are looking at doing it at 132 pounds.
Is the Pac Man camp alright with that? Yeah! I mean there is a report out of the Philippines today that they are not, but Shelly Finkel assured me that it was ok.
So, how does the rest of 2006 look like for Top Rank? Well, we are doing two big fights a month, in addition to our Telefutura shows. So, I hope that we will have twenty major cards this year. That will be a good year for us.
Any plans for the Rio Grande Valley? Well, yeah I think so. Bruce loves to do fights here and there are a lot of great fight fans here.
