Promoter Bob Arum considers last Saturday night's Latin Fury 15 pay per view event at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Tex., a success partly because of the comeback of Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera.
The 36-year-old, five-time former world champion rose to 66-7, with 43 knockouts when he ended a 15-month ring absence by vanquishing lightweight (135 pounds) rival Adailton De Jesus (26-5, 21 KOs) of Brazil by unanimous decision.
In this, the second of a two-part Q&A series, the 78-year-old Arum discusses the future of Barrera and his effort to guide the future Hall of Famer to a fourth crown in as many different weight classes. If successful, Barrera would be the first Mexican to do so.Also in this Q&A, Arum will discuss his relationship with three-time Trainer of the Year, Freddie Roach and will address the potential for a bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao coming to fruition.
FanHouse: Can you discuss briefly the performance of Marco Antonio Barrera?
Bob Arum: It was a great performance. It was a mixture of everything. It shows that he's back on track.
For a guy who is accustomed to being cut in his past two fights, didn't he escape with no marks on his face and relatively unscathed?
No marks on his face, right. One of the reasons I attribute that to is that he didn't come rushing back from the Amir Khan fight. He took off some time and allowed the cuts to heal.
What's next for Marco Antonio Barrera?
We'll be putting our heads together and seeing if his next fight will be against WBC champion Humberto Soto for the Lightweight championship of the world. Or whether he needs yet one more 135-pound fight.
We'll have to see. But my inclination is that he'll probably move into a fight with Humberto Soto. For the Mexicans, that would be a huge, huge fight to say the least.
As opposed to a fight with WBA champion Miguel Acosta?
Yes, the Humberto Soto fight would be as opposed to Acosta. Acosta's a possibility, but Soto is a bigger fight for the Mexican fans.
Can you talk about how the union between you and Marco Antonio Barrera came to fruition considering his past with rival promotional company, Gold Boy Promotions?
Well, yeah. Juan Carlos, a guy who works with and is the cousin of Fernando Beltran, he's a bright, young guy. And he is friendly with all of the fighters.
Marco Antonio was apparently in conversation with Juan Carlos hinting that he would like to have Top Rank and Fernando's company promote his remaining fights. The fact that we had been on the other side for so many years was sort of irrelevant.
How so?
Well, it's a business. And there was never anything personal. He was fighting fighters that I was promoting is all. What's wrong with that? Everybody made money. He was with Golden Boy. And Golden Boy is not very imaginative.
Their idea of promoting is to take money from HBO and to put on a fight. HBO had no need for or any use for Barrera. So, Barrera was somebody who was expendable for Golden Boy.
Don King was with him for a while, but Don King had no use for him. Don King tried to bilk him for one fight against Amir Khan. So we were the obvious choice for him.
Because, we'll find a way doing our own thing to get him some big fights. And the fight between Barrera and Soto in Mexico City will do 30-to-40,000 people.
What is it that makes you and Freddie Roach go so successfully, with his Parkinson's syndrome and your ageless passion?
It's the fact that we love all that we do. We both want to create the best that we can do and to do the best that we can and to get the best out of life. I try to be creative in my own field, and Freddie is creative as a trainer, training all of these guys into super stars.
What can you say about the negotiations between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao?
I think that one way or another, we're approaching the time of resolution. One way or another. I'm still very optimistic, and, you know, Manny and I want this fight to happen.
But as I've said before, it takes two to tango. And, though this is not going to go out to much longer, this is going to be resolved in the near term. Whether it's a week or two weeks, but it will be resolved one way or the other.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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