Boxing press conferences are always a hoot. It's never enough to promote the current fight with a little trash talk between the combatants and maybe even a little pushing. Too often they revert back to previous spats. So it wasn't a shocker when the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey presser at Cowboy Stadium had to include more talk of the failed Pacman-Floyd Mayweather fight and where it would be held.
Top Rank's Bob Arum elaborated on what he said earlier in the week about stadiums now becoming the new venues for boxing.
"If boxing is to be big league — and it's not now — we have to put on these kinds of big events around the world," Arum told the media. "We can't be big league by putting on the same old casino fights."
The L.A. Times Bill Dwyre pointed out that Arum suggested he's moving on from doing business with the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He's had a rocky relationship for years with that casino group while Golden Boy Promotions co-promotes the majority of its big events there.
"Golden Boy is in bed with MGM," said Arum.
Dwyre said the followup was:
Asked if he worried about upsetting Schaefer and Golden Boy with his comments, Arum, surrounded by about 10 writers, said, "… Golden Boy." Fill in your own profanity.
Arum then pointed out that fight fan demographics are an issue with Vegas fights.
"I look at these Vegas fights and I look ringside and all I see is people from Hong Kong. Nothing but guys from China. You aren't going to grow boxing's brand like that. The casinos don't give a damn about anything other than their customers, and it becomes a circus act."
Does that mean Chinese fans aren't welcome at the fights? Wasn't it Arum, who last week was calling Golden Boy racist for an alleged tiff between P.R. and some Filipino media members? So Filipino's yes, Chinese no?
Keep in mind, this champion of racial equality also blasted the audience of mixed martial arts as being "skinhead white guys." Arum has also targeted the "anglo audience" on several occasions as one that he wasn't really interested in marketing his fight to.
All nonsense, right? Of course it is. Arum is putting his foot in his mouth again and we know the bottom line here is that he's tired of having the casinos dictate terms and what he thinks is hold him hostage. Pick a side if you want, Golden Boy or Top Rank. By doing so, all you're doing is choosing the path boxing went down for much of the early 2000s when big fights couldn't be made because millionaires couldn't agree on how to split millions.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
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