GL: Top Rank has several events coming up, starting with the OLN show. Can you give us some updates on your shows? “Yeah, the November 2 event in Youngstown, Ohio is rapidly approaching a sellout. Well over $100,000 at the box office and that’s about three of four times the amount at the box-office than there is for the Tyson exhibition which is just days away. We’re very pleased with that show and we’ve got Bobby Pacquiao on November 16 at the Hard Rock and based on the responses we’ve gotten that’s going to be sold out. Pacquiao-Morales went over the 10,000 tickets sold mark this week. That fight could be sold out a week before the fight the way we’re selling 1,000 tickets per week. I couldn’t be more pleased with that show and then Kenny Condon from Atlantic City has let us know that the Cotto, Margarito card is going through the roof. Without an ad in the paper more than half of the tickets are gone. Things couldn’t be better than that.”
GL: With all of the hoopla going on surrounding Pacquiao’s signing with Golden Boy Promotions did you ever considering pulling the plug on the November 18 event?
Bob Arum: “Are you crazy? Why would I do that?”
GL: Maybe to stick it to Manny after he signed with Golden Boy.
Bob Arum: “Why would I want to stick it to Manny, I love Manny.”
GL: What can you tell us about his signing with Golden Boy?
Bob Arum: “At the end of the day I am convinced that win or lose, Manny Pacquiao’s next fight and fights after that with be under the banner of Top Rank, that’s all I can say. I can’t say how, why, what and so forth, that’s all I can say.”
GL: Erik’s weight…
Bob Arum: (cutting in) “Never listen to the promoter. On Friday, Erik will be holding a major press conference. We are catering and inviting the press, and Erik will step on a calibrated scale and I think that all of the weight issues will disappear as a result of that weigh-in. Again, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, you got to see it. We’re a month out and I believe you’re going to be very pleased with Morales.”
GL: Has Gary Shaw’s lawsuit over Castillo not making weight for the Corrales rubbermatch been dropped yet?
Bob Arum: “Nope. He’s still suing me the moron.”
GL: Hypothetically speaking, if Gary Shaw’s suit is dropped or resolved amicably would boxing fans start getting fights like Darchinyan-Arce?
Bob Arum: “If that lawsuit is dropped as it should be, because everybody knows that a promoter is not responsible if a fighter doesn’t make weight. We’re not nutritionists, we told that to Showtime and Ken Hershman sat Gary down and had a talk with him but Gary is Gary. He already blew a fight for Vivian Harris against Jose Luis Castillo on the undercard of Ricky Hatton. We threw it out there and we would have fought Vivian Harris, but fuck him. If a guy has a contract dispute, a legitimate dispute with me, then I would do business because there’s always a difference of opinion about how you see a certain contract, that’s business. This is just crazy and it’s even crazier now that his fighter was the exact same number overweight.”
GL: What’s next for Hasim Rahman?
BA: “We’re going to be holding our fire until after November 11.”
GL: Does that mean you’re still hoping to sell some of those Klitschko-Rahman hats?
BA: “We hope so, we’re trying to make that fight but we’ll talk about that some more after November 11.”
GL: Have there been any discussions, preliminary or otherwise regarding that fight?
BA: “Yes there have been discussions and they are preliminary.”
