Has Bob Arum been good for boxing or a negative?

[actjac]

He has been a promoter for 50 years and has staged more events than anyone in history including some of the sport's biggest events during those years but has also been a lightning rod for negativity. . . How will he be viewed in the history of boxing?

 

[tehmvp]

As a boxing promoter. No more or less.

 

[Seano]

You can't deny that the man has been involved with some of the best fights in history.

 

[Mikedh]

I think we will see with the dusts settles that any promoter in this combat sports industry has some problematic aspect about them.

Arum at the end of the day wasn't perfect and there's a ton of bullshit I am sure we could go through but he was around forever and promoted some of the biggest fights ever. As Bill Murray said of Harold Ramis "he earned his place on this planet".

 

[actjac]

As a boxing promoter. No more or less.

That is dismissive.....Arum along with Don King and Muhammad Ali are the most important figures in the past fifty years....I would rank them higher than Mayweather, Pacquiao, De La Hoya, Leonard on the scale of importance.

 

[Akimbo Slice]

You cannot doubt his contributions just like you can't doubt his thwarting of bouts...part and parcel of a promoter, he is doing this to make MONEY remember...he's had a hand in almost every significant event in the sport in the last 50 years, I can't hate.

 

[ironfist05]

he's done a pretty poor job with rigo's career, granted, rigo isn't exactly easy to work with and should share some of the blame, but he definitely could have done more with him. He's fucked up Gamboa's career as well, albeit to a lesser extent.

 

[mozfonky]

I've heard it said that he's always been just as bad as king but I've never quite seen/heard evidence of that. I've never heard of him ripping ali off (as Don King has done) I've never even really heard of him treating fighters like cattle as have just about everyone in the fight business who doesn't fight does. I always wonder, just how much do fighters really even need these guys, contrasted with how much they think they need these guys. Bob was the opposite of king in many ways but I guess they were both pretty shrewd, manipulative and conniving. Arum was more honest though, he once answered a question "yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth." fuck, evil people sure live long though don't they, both of those guys must be well into their eighties.

 

[Seano]

I've heard it said that he's always been just as bad as king but I've never quite seen/heard evidence of that. I've never heard of him ripping ali off (as Don King has done) I've never even really heard of him treating fighters like cattle as have just about everyone in the fight business who doesn't fight does. I always wonder, just how much do fighters really even need these guys, contrasted with how much they think they need these guys. Bob was the opposite of king in many ways but I guess they were both pretty shrewd, manipulative and conniving. Arum was more honest though, he once answered a question "yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth." fuck, evil people sure live long though don't they, both of those guys must be well into their eighties.

There have been stories that he takes a massive amount of what Pac makes for each fight. Hard to say how much truth there is to that.

 

[nac386]

he's done a pretty poor job with rigo's career, granted, rigo isn't exactly easy to work with and should share some of the blame, but he definitely could have done more with him. He's fucked up Gamboa's career as well, albeit to a lesser extent.

Rigo and Gamboa are insignificant blips on the massive scale of Arum's career.

Two entitled Cubans who shot themselves in the foot every chance they got

How are they doing now? Household names raking in huge money I'm sure, now that Arum is out of the way.

 

[Kimbo Thrice]

He'll be remembered for making Mannys last fight bomb in terms of revenue.

 

[mozfonky]

i also guess it's interesting that it looks like he was able to outlast and be more relevant than King. King was definitely smarter, and in my opinion, much more corrupt. I've never heard of arum threatening guys with broken legs and plying fighters with cocaine to keep them dependent.

 

[nac386]

He'll be remembered for making Mannys last fight bomb in terms of revenue.

I blame the gays.

 

[Kimbo Thrice]

I blame the gays.

So does Manny.

 

[nac386]

i also guess it's interesting that it looks like he was able to outlast and be more relevant than King. King was definitely smarter, and in my opinion, much more corrupt. I've never heard of arum threatening guys with broken legs and plying fighters with cocaine to keep them dependent.

That does not make King smarter, it makes him sociopathic.

 

[Sharkey]

i also guess it's interesting that it looks like he was able to outlast and be more relevant than King. King was definitely smarter, and in my opinion, much more corrupt. I've never heard of arum threatening guys with broken legs and plying fighters with cocaine to keep them dependent.

That's not really a surprise at all, though, since Arum was not only able to adapt to putting on smaller shows, but he was able to embrace them by putting on his weekly ESPN show back in the early/mid 80's. King and his ego would/could never do that. Everything had to be on the biggest stage possible with him and when he didn't have the fighters anymore he became irrelevant.

 

[mozfonky]

That does not make King smarter, it makes him sociopathic.

you're misinterpreting me, of course he's more criminal, if not sociopathic, but, to come from where he came from, he'd have to be smarter and work harder too.

 

[mozfonky]

That's not really a surprise at all, though, since Arum was not only able to adapt to putting on smaller shows, but he was able to embrace them by putting on his weekly ESPN show back in the early/mid 80's. King and his ego would/could never do that. Everything had to be on the biggest stage possible with him and when he didn't have the fighters anymore he became irrelevant.

that could be, i think it has a lot to do with the loss of black american fighters who he could manipulate. He's obviously out of his depth with the euros and I don't think they'd even know what to make of any of his bully tactics, they probably wouldn't even understand any of the street shit, and/or, russia may have people who could up him on the violence.

 

[Seano]

He'll be remembered for making Mannys last fight bomb in terms of revenue.

I would blame that on stupid fans who are going to miss a great fight because they thought someone less proven should have fought Pac.

 

[mozfonky]

i wonder if it was even his fault the fight bombed, it seems to me that manny knew he couldn't win and he fought that way. I'm not saying this is absolutely the case, only that it could be. Neither guy seemed too eager to fight and lose what they had, that'll count against both of them in the future. I still believe the version of manny who fought dlh would have been even money with mayweather. I was also one of the people who saw an anticlimatic fight ahead of when they did square off.