The press conference really left me thinking. When Arum said that he is not going to carry a Williams or a Bradley because they're promoters have not made the public aware of them like he has with his promotions it makes sense. Dan Goosen has a private airplane and his fighters are not even marketed. If anything he is right and if Williams and Bradley were with Top Rank it would be better for their careers and for boxing. Arum does a good job. Spent his life in boxing and his fighters always get the most out of their careers.
Arum's fighters owe their popularity and status to HBO. He's a ****ing ******. HBO controls boxing... not arum. He just wishes he did.
Arum stated that it's up to MP who he chooses to fight but he only mentions 2 options outside of FMJ, Margarito and Cotto. Gee, I wonder why.
Why do you say that? It seemed like he gets that. He did not deny the fact that Ross Greenberg was in control. Paul Williams has been on HBO how many times? and who knows him except die hard boxing fans? Nobody. Arum is right his promoter takes the $ and does not do anything outside to let the public know he exists.
Not necessarily true, LukeO. A lot of Arum's fighters sell tickets. He developed Cotto in New York, and Margarito (pre-plastergate) had turned into a massive draw in the southwest. You can say that's because of their demographics, but look at other guys like Kelly Pavlik and Yuri Foreman that he has developed. JuanMa Lopez and Gamboa are well on their way to being big draws as well. Most of the other stables are full of guys who make a living off of TV money, but can't sell-out a ball-room in their home towns. Bradley's "home ring" is a desert casino which was maybe 1/3 full to see him fight Lamont Peterson. Paul Williams fights in ball-rooms in Atlantic City, and Haitian-American Andre Berto sold under 500 tickets in Miami - the home of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Haitian-Americans.
Plenty of times??? Vs cintron Martinez Quintana twice margarito Wright The dude is a staple of HBO by now.... casual fans know paul williams. If pac and may are the A level of popularity Mosley would be b and guys like williams are definitely C+ almost B
Arum kisses HBO's ass on a regular basis. Watch him after some pac fights "I just wanna say HBO is the best boxing network!"
He does have something of a point. Goosen has a tendency to stick to the West Coast with his guys. While Bradley is from California, so it makes some sense, Williams should be fighting in D.C. There's a huge black community there that would rally around an adopted hometown fighter. Arum goes everywhere and plays every angle for his diverse array of fighters.
Bradley and Williams are better known than Joshua Clottey, and he had no problem making that fight. NOBODY knew Jorge Solis, and he had no problem making that fight. Fact of the matter is that he just hates making fights that aren't against his own guys. NFW will I buy a Pacquaio-Cotto rematch. I already saw that fight, and it wasn't close. NFW will I buy Pacquiao-Margarito either - I'm never buying a Margarito PPV card again until he owns up to what he did. No way I'll support that cheating lying *******. There are a lot of good fights out there for Pacquiao where there could be legitimate interest, but Arum just refuses to see them because they're not Top Rank fighters. Martinez, Williams, Bradley, Alexander are all better fights than anything he's proposing, and all of them would make big money if he markets it correctly. Hell, even Pacquiao-Alvarez would be HUGE if they made that one. Alvarez just sold 22,000 tickets in Guadalajara for people to watch him fight a scrub. Pacquiao-Alvarez could sell 110,000 tickets in Estadio Azteca.
While there may be some self serving purpose to what he said, that doesn't mean that what he said does not have any merit. I asked the other day why Paul Williams does such a poor gate. You would think that his fan friendly style would pack the house. Yet he doesn't sell tickets, something Goosen completely seems to forget when it comes times to split proceeds. I think Arum might be right about promoters getting used to the TV money and getting lazy in the other aspects of promotion. Now that HBO is getting stingier with the fights they will buy maybe they will realize that they can't just ride the TV money?
Williams doesn't need to worry about HBO being stingy. He may not pack the house but he brings solid ratings. 1.5 million for the Wright fight, 1.16 for Cintron, albeit that was aided by the Money-Mosley replay. Still impressive nonetheless. Pavlik-Martinez did 1.2 million and I'd venture Williams-Martinez 2 would beat that with ease.
No Pac dosnt get to choose who he fights, he gets to choose between Marg or Cotto. wow big competition:nut
provided that pac just fought a guy who is not a very big star/draw, you cant possibly say that bradley, williams, alexander wouldnt be good choices since they arent much of a draw. More people know who PW is than clottey...come the **** on, this is not legit excuse considering his last opponent.
Arum is smart about his business. He is making a case that if fighters want to get big money fights against guys like Pac, Cotto, Margarito, JuanMa, etc... they should sign with Top Rank. btw i missed the conference call yesterday. anyone got a link to a transcript?