Is Bob Arum ruining boxing?

[Beanz]

So it's no big surprise that Pacquiao and Floyd will not be fighting on May 5th, but exactly how much of this not happening is down to Bob Arum ? If anyone would like to defend him I would be interested to know what, exactly, he has done recently to help boxing. Is he really helping to broaden the appeal of the sport and getting the best deals for his fighters, or is he due to his truculent self absorbed nature ruining Boxing ?

[Gandalf]

He is a promoter which makes him an automatic target. It is a position of power and influence and the ultimate goal is to make money regardless of what purist fans might think. One example of this is how he keeps fights in house. In terms of recent Manny/Mayweather dealings I am more inclined to blame Arum. Floyd openly says he wants the fight, meanwhile Manny seems to hide behind the cloak of the puppet controller Arum.

I really don't like Arum. He is a snake, but we can say the same for others like King and Warren too. There are different types of snake, but they all look similar beyond their various postures.

[Ant Live]

Yes, Bob is ruining boxing. But at the same time, we will e getting some good fights. Maybe not what we all wanted but some good nonetheless. I just wish fighters, have more balls and say, "go get me this or that fight". And stop saying my promoter picks my fights. That's BS!!!

[SweetPea]

No one person can ruin or save boxing, be it a promoter, fighter, network exec, etc.

Arum has his strengths and his flaws. I will say this.... he does a much better job of generating fan interest and selling tickets than a lot of other promoters. You rarely see an Arum show in a near-empty arena, unlike a Gary Shaw, who couldn't sell a ticket to save his life.

[Mattyhitman]

He is a promoter which makes him an automatic target. It is a position of power and influence and the ultimate goal is to make money regardless of what purist fans might think. One example of this is how he keeps fights in house. In terms of recent Manny/Mayweather dealings I am more inclined to blame Arum. Floyd openly says he wants the fight, meanwhile Manny seems to hide behind the cloak of the puppet controller Arum.

I really don't like Arum. He is a snake, but we can say the same for others like King and Warren too. There are different types of snake, but they all look similar beyond their various postures.

It's all well and good giving credit to Floyd for saying he wants the fight, but if the stipulations he puts in place and the demands regarding purses etc are beyond what Manny deems as acceptable, then what Floyd comes out and say's means shit really.

In answer to the question, Arum for me has always been abit of a shit when it comes to negotiations so it's nothing new really, just a shame the two biggest names in the sport today are so close yet so far from fighting each other. This wouldnt of happended in the 70's or 80's for sure !!

[AdamGB]

'manny deems acceptable'. Don't make me laugh... Manny does what Arum says.

I notice talk of rematching marquez has died right down.

[Manos de Piedra]

I don't know about the whole of boxing but he is ruining Mayweather v Pacquiao.

[Rantcatrat]

He's also talking of having Marquez against Peterson in the Dallas Cowboys stadium, which would be huge for the careers of Marquez and Peterson.

And as I've mentioned before, fighters continue to sign with him. Over and over. There are other options so they wouldn't be doing that if he wasn't doing a good job for them.

Promoters are snakes in general, of course, and I have a problem with keeping fights in house to the detriment of good match-ups.

However, as far as doing his job as a promoter, what's he hired to do, he's probably the best in the game right now.

As far as Floyd v. Manny, if you can't see both parties are to blame, you're going blind.

[JazzWolf]

Arum wants Mayweather vs Pacquiao to happen. Any highly influential boxing promoter would. But, like Don King, he likes money more. He realizes that they are the biggest cash cows in the sport and he wants to drain as much $$$ from them as possible before their years catch up to them. Arum and the Boxing industry will make more revenue from multiple monumental fights including Pac or Mayweather than just one mega monumental fight between them. We won't see a May vs Paq until every possible lucrative challenger is wiped out or until they lose.

[MMASUX]

All boxing promoters are a little crooked, Bob just seems to be more than the others. I do think he is ruining boxing, and not just with Pac-Mayweather. All these in house fights are bad for boxing. Yea we may get a good fight, but it denies all the other possibilities. He's going to milk Manny dry, then move along to the next one. Pac-Mayweather will never happen because of one reason.....Bob Arum.

[jon09]

He is defiantly not helping it right now. He is the main reason why the mega fight is not happening.