I recently sat down with Top Rank head Bob Arum. The legendary boxing promoter shared his thoughts on the big upcoming Manny Pacquiao Vs. Timothy Bradley fight which is scheduled for June 9th, 2012.
Arum is extremely happy with ticket sales thus far and is equally happy with the promotion efforts put forth by Tim Bradley, “This fight is buzzing right now. You can see yourself that the publicity is really kicking in.” Arum went on to say, “Tim Bradley has really stepped up and done a great job promoting this fight. He’s a promoters dream!” The fight is just one day away, and by all accounts this will be a big seller and perhaps an equally explosive fight. Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao have both had excellent training camps, and Arum predicts a tough battle is on the horizon, ” This will be the toughest fight for Pacquiao since I have been working with him.” Arum has been in the game a long time, and he meant what he said. Arum responds to Ariza’s accusations:
Recently Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning coach for Manny Pacquiao made some comments on his Twitter account accusing Arum of banning him from the gated community where Chavez Jr lives, and banning him from the gym. When I asked Arum to respond to these allegations he scoffed, “How am I supposed to ban anyone from a gated community? I don’t own a house there. I don’t own property there. I don’t rent a house there. If I were to try and ban someone from that community, they would laugh at me.”
Chavez Jr update:
Arum also is happy with the progress that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has made as a professional fighter. Chavez Jr took some heat as he climbed the rankings from people claiming that he was riding his fathers name. Truth be told, this kid does in fact get better with each fight, and at this point most in the sport respect him. This wasn’t the case in the beginning though. Arum spoke about this yesterday, ” This kid had no amateur background. We had to take him to school as a professional. He knew nothing about fighting except for watching his father in the ring and in a gym.” Arum went on to say, ” Chavez Jr is an exciting fighter to watch. He gets better in each fight and he fights like he’s a small guy like his father. I saw him in the gym yesterday, and he looks really, really good.”
Tomorrow is the big scrap between 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao, and the young lion, the young champ Timothy Bradley. Time will tell if the Pacman will still rule the top of the mountain, or if the older lion gets knocked off and a new king of the mountain arrives.
