By Ken “The Machine Gun” Dunne: A lot of people criticize promoters today, but the one man doing his part to bring boxing back to the main stream is long term promoter, Bob Arum. I know a lot of people will say, “ What are you talking about” , but this man at the moment is doing a better job than all other promoters combined , in keeping boxing alive..
All you have to do is look at his stable of fighters. Manny Pacquaio , Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, Antonio Margarito , who are on everyones P4P list and also, Juan Manuel Lopez and Jorge Arce, among others. He has promoted some of boxing’s biggest stars, including , Muhammad Ali, Marvin Hagler, Sugar ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Joe Frazier, Thomas Hearns, Larry Holmes, George Foreman, Alexis Arguello and the “GREAT” Carlos Monzon, who are on everyone’s all time great list.
He has also made some of boxing’s biggest stars, such as , Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather , Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquaio, not to mention some of boxing’s, greatest fights ever including, Hagler vs. Hearns, Hagler vs. Leonard, Leonard vs. Hearns, Foreman vs. Moorer as well as Morales vs. Pacquaio trilogy.
Fast forward to today and Bob is doing it again. Only next week we will have the opportunity to see Miguel Cotto face off against Antonio Margarito, which has the potential to be better than all the fights mentioned above, as well as Corrales vs. Castillo. This guarantees to be the best fight of the year, if you can think of a better fight please bring it to attention in the comments.
But since that fight was scheduled we have gotten information on an even more interesting match up (probably will not be a better fight, but still just as interesting) that has still to come to fruition. This fight is Manny Pacquaio vs. Oscar de la hoya. This fight has the potential to be the biggest grossing fight of all time and could easily demolish the records made by De la hoya vs. Mayweather.
Now also just yesterday there is talk of Kelly Pavlik fighting Bernard “the older the berry the sweeter the juice” Hopkins. I do not care what anyone says this is a big risk for “The Ghost”. Hopkins is still very dangerous, and could easily pull out a victory.
I have heard Bob Arum in recent months talking about putting on the best fights for boxing, and by God he is doing what he said, by putting 4 of his best fighters on the chopping block.
Cotto vs. Margarito, Pacquaio vs. De la hoya and Pavlik vs. Hopkins. He is going to loses one guaranteed in Cotto vs. Margarito and who knows what will happen in the other two great match ups, but one thing is for certain, Old Bob is doing his part for boxing, lets hope the rest follow suit.