By Rick Reeno
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Top Rank's CEO, Bob Arum, was in rare form during a Thursday press conference to promote the Showtime pay-per-view undercard which accompanies the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley welterweight clash on Saturday night. When Arum spoke at the podium to introduce super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Arum began to discuss how Top Rank "doesn't steal fighters, honors other promoter's contracts and has integrity in the business."
Arum co-promotes Vazuqez Jr. with All Star Boxing, who are currently involved in a lawsuit where the company is claiming to have have an existing multi-year promotional contract with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Early last year, Alvarez signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions. Top Rank and Golden Boy have been involved in a number of promotional tussles during the last few years.
While never naming the company, or the person trained in "banking," the directed targets of Arum's speech were obvious to every member in the press.
"We, at Top Rank, honor contracts. We believe in integrity and we don't steal other people's fighters. That's the way it's been done throughout my career. When someone brings us a fighter, we do a co-promotional deal.....that's what we do. But when you have people who come from the outside, and I don't care how they were trained, whether it was banking or anything else - you don't steal fighters. You make co-promotion deals. Someone has to tell these people from the outside," Arum said.