Has Bob Arum been good for boxing or a negative?

[ironfist05]

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.

eh, they could have been so much more and that would have required Arum's support.

I don't think rigo was ever going to be a star. But Gamboa could have been something big IMO.

Like I said, they both can be blamed for a big part of their career failures. But Arum refused to push Rigo, slammed him, did literally nothing for him. A lot of what happened since leaving Arum can be blamed on Rigo (as well as on some of the guys who refused to fight him), but Arum played a big part in ruining Rigo's marketability.

Arum also never let Gamboa anywhere near JuanMa, never was able to succesfully negotiate fights with the other big names near the division (John, Donaire, Caballero etc...). Some of that can be put on Gamboa, some of that on the others, but a lot of that is on Arum. And now, even though Gamboa is still viable as a potential star, Arum is just driving him into the ground in hopes of churning out a big new name and squeezing every penny he can out of Gamboa. Have you heard the names they wanted Gamboa to face after his fight with Crawford? Miura, Lomachenko, Linares, Walters, Mikey Garcia. Arum wants Gamboa killed in desperate hopes that he'll just be "the guy" to anchor their resumes with.

he wasn't particularly good at working with Mikey Garcia either, though a lot of that is on Garcia.

 

[nac386]

eh, they could have been so much more and that would have required Arum's support.

I don't think rigo was ever going to be a star. But Gamboa could have been something big IMO.

Like I said, they both can be blamed for a big part of their career failures. But Arum refused to push Rigo, slammed him, did literally nothing for him. A lot of what happened since leaving Arum can be blamed on Rigo (as well as on some of the guys who refused to fight him), but Arum played a big part in ruining Rigo's marketability.

Arum also never let Gamboa anywhere near JuanMa, never was able to succesfully negotiate fights with the other big names near the division (John, Donaire, Caballero etc...). Some of that can be put on Gamboa, some of that on the others, but a lot of that is on Arum. And now, even though Gamboa is still viable as a potential star, Arum is just driving him into the ground in hopes of churning out a big new name and squeezing every penny he can out of Gamboa. Have you heard the names they wanted Gamboa to face after his fight with Crawford? Miura, Lomachenko, Linares, Walters, Mikey Garcia. Arum wants Gamboa killed in desperate hopes that he'll just be "the guy" to anchor their resumes with.

he wasn't particularly good at working with Mikey Garcia either, though a lot of that is on Garcia.

I understand what you saying, he is not a perfect promoter and for the most part a liar and conniver.

But, we are talking about the guy who promoted Hagler vs Hearns. In the grand scheme of his career, names like Gamboa and Rigo are fairly insignificant. Especially considering the complete lack of success they have continued to have post-Arum.

 

[ironfist05]

I understand what you saying, he is not a perfect promoter and for the most part a liar and conniver.

But, we are talking about the guy who promoted Hagler vs Hearns. In the grand scheme of his career, names like Gamboa and Rigo are fairly insignificant. Especially considering the complete lack of success they have continued to have post-Arum.

Oh, I agree, that, for all his faults, Arum has by and large put together some of the biggest fights in history: Hagler-Hearns, DLH-Tito, and Pac-floyd among them. That said, I feel that Rigo and Gamboa could have been more with proper guidance and promotion, could have been fighters with tremendous legacies, instead of fighters that will be "the big question mark" in boxing's history. Rigo, in particular. I think we have a fairly good read on what prime Gamboa was as a fighter. With Rigo, I feel like we could be seeing a potential ATG (or at least an ATG SBW), who lost a lot of his prime years because of mismanagement (both as a result of Arum and himself).

 

[Sharkey]

The job Arum did in resurrecting the career of Roberto Duran back in the early 80's when no other promoter would touch him is probably one of the best promotional jobs in the history of boxing.

 

[ironfist05]

actually, that's a good question.

Assuming that Gamboa had cleared out the FW division whilst he was still hot at FW around 2009-2011 (say he had beaten everybody of past, present or future note who fought around this time: Chris John, Orlando Salido, JuanMa Lopez, an up and coming Mikey Garcia, a pre-Mares Gonzalez, and Caballero coming up from SBW, back when he was rated P4P). How would you have rated him AT at FW?

Same for Rigo: say he had beaten everybody of note: Frampton, LSC, Donaire, Nishioka). How would you have rated him as an AT SBW?

this is assuming they stayed in their divisions too, and not jumped about to FW or SFW

hell, I feel like we got shorted of Donanire's prime too. Donaire could have been a legitimate ATG IMO, he had a ton of fights around him that would have boosted his legacy even further.

 

[mozfonky]

The job Arum did in resurrecting the career of Roberto Duran back in the early 80's when no other promoter would touch him is probably one of the best promotional jobs in the history of boxing.

that's right, arum gave full credit to teddy brenner, who he had scout duran and saying that he himself "doesn't know boxing". Brenner saw a disinterested, listless duran who he thought could comeback if he was inspired. everyone had written duran off after no mas, he looked terrible and in the benitez fight, the constant critique was that he blocked punches after they were thrown, proving his reflexes were shot. most of the fans were happy for duran after his resurgence, even ray leonard raised his hand in the ring after moore and duran appeared absolutely joyous, which, correct me if I'm wrong, he never was.

 

[clashnat]

DK threatened guys like Witherspoon and Holmes to break their legs. Wonder why he never rolled up on Tyson.

 

[actjac]

DK threatened guys like Witherspoon and Holmes to break their legs. Wonder why he never rolled up on Tyson.

There was a story that once while together in a limo Tyson went off on King punching and kicking him.....I don't remember a story like that involving Arum and another boxer though.