Arum Talks Showtime, HBO's Issues, Shaw, More

By Lem Satterfield

Top Rank Promotions CEO, Bob Arum, had some interesting things to say about the industry during a recent interview with BoxingScene.com in New York.

The 79-year-old Arum's comments and assertions were taken during the second stop of a three-city tour promoting the Showtime pay per view televised, May 7, WBO welterweight title defense of eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 knockouts) against Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) that will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Arum expressed, among other things, his opinions concerning the logic behind January's unanimous decision by WBO junior welterweight king Tim Bradley (27-0, 11 KOs) that dethroned WBC counter part Devon Alexander (21-1, 13 KOs) being contested near Detroit rather than Alexander's hometown of St. Louis, Mo., where the 24-year-old is a huge draw.

Alexander will next face hard-hitting Lucas Matthysse (28-1, 26 KOs) of Argentina in June on HBO.

Arum took shots at Bradley's promoter, Gary Shaw, the HBO network, and, adviser Al Haymon, who has handled the careers of fighters such as Floyd Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs), WBC welterweight titlist Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KOs) and former three-time champion, Paul Williams (39-2, 27 KOs).

Arum also addressed the fact that he has taken Pacquiao-Mosley to CBS-Showtime, marking the first time that either fighter will make an appearance on HBO's rival network, and the potential affect of the move on the future of his fighters and his company.

BoxingScene.com: Can you discuss any possible affects of moving Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley to Showtime pay per view, not only on the cable network, but also, featuring a Fight Camp 360 series that will partially air on the CBS network television station?

Bob Arum: With Showtime, we've doing business with them for about a year. It's been a good experience. Showtime has aggressive plans in doing these pay per views. This latest deal with Showtime brings with it the participation of CBS.

So, we're getting boxing really taken up and publicized by a big, terrestrial network, which will reach every home in the United States.

BoxingScene.com: What long term effects do you hope to see as the potential result of scenarios like the one with CBS-Showtime?

BA: We want to bring boxing back to where it once was. To where it was when promoters promoted and you could reach the biggest possible audience. That will make boxing a major sport again.

Boxing is not a major sport. Manny Pacquiao may sell for everybody's interest, including the Senate majority leader and the president of the United States, but there is only one Manny Pacquiao.

For boxing to survive, we have to popularize it. Why do you think that newspapers don't really cover boxing the way that they should? I think that the reason is that the matches are on small platforms.

Showtime for 21 million. HBO for 28 million. Once the matches get played out on network television, and they're seen.

Or, in this case, Pacquiao-Mosley, as a first step, they're publicized on network television and terrestrial television.

Then, we can say, 'Hey, everybody is going to see the promotion for Pacquiao and Mosley, we had better damned well cover it.' That's why all of the papers are here in New York.

That's why all of the papers were in Los Angeles, and all of the papers were in Las Vegas, because it's now mainstream. Because it's terrestrial. That's not saying anything bad about premium cable.

But premium cable is a small audience. Don't you think that HBO or Showtime would pay more money for the NFL than a network? Of course they would.

But where in the hell would the NFL be if they games were being played only on HBO and Showtime?

BoxingScene.com: Have you heard any feedback from fighters regarding the move?

BA: I've heard the same thing -- universal congratulations. And it's not anything against HBO or anything like that. Fighters realize the opportunity. They're not stupid. They realize the opportunities that could come from this.

This is not something that is the monopoly of Top Rank. In other words, if this works, then all of the networks, not only CBS, but all of them may start showing boxing on terrestrial networks like we had in the 1970s and the 1980s.

And everybody will participate -- other promoters, other fighters. If I was doing this, and I sort of had a monopoly, not that I wouldn't be good for me, then people would say that he's doing it to feather his own nest.

But I'm doing this not only to feather my own nest, but to feather the nests of everybody else. I'm just being the pioneer. Look, what we have now is network television, I think, in the position to come back to boxing.

In addition to that, we have all of the stuff that didn't exist 20 or 30 years ago. We have all of the social media like the networking, the internet, the Facebook and the Twitters.

We have all of these ways to communicate. Now, if we have the biggest possible platform combined with this unbelievable social networking, imagine what you can do with the sport.

This is not pie in the sky. Look at what happened in Mexico. In Mexico, for 10 years, there wasn't boxing on terrestrial television. Fernando Beltran is our Mexican affiliate.

We were doing a fight on HBO Boxing After Dark in the Anaheim Pond. Fernando arranged for T.V. Azteca to show that fight. They did a good rating. They did another fight, they got a better rating.

Now, boxing, with both T.V. Azteca, and, Televisa fight for fights, and the fights get better ratings than anything, and is running a close, close second to professional soccer.

Well, sh*t, that's because of terrestrial television and because it has now become a mainstream sport again in Mexico.

BoxingScene.com: Will Manny Pacquiao ever fight here in New York City, perhaps at Madison Square Garden or the New York Yankees Stadium?

BA: You will never, ever ever, see Manny Pacquiao fight in New York city. Manny Pacquiao is a foreigner, and when he fights in Nevada or Texas, we take 30 percent out of his purse for the IRS.

And if he fought in New York, on top of that 30 percent, there would be an additional 14 percent tax, which he can get no credit for for his Filipino taxes because it's a state tax.

So you would in effect, be taking 14 percent out of his purse. And if I suggested to Manny Pacquiao that he come into New York and allow himself to be subject to New York taxes, he wouldn't speak to me. And he would be right not to.

BoxingScene.com: Can you shed light on your thoughts about the promotion of the Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander fight?

BA: Two things about that fight. Don King's [Alexander's promoter] wife was dying when that fight was scheduled. Don King, in his right mind, wouldn't have put that fight in the Pontiac Silverdome.

That was Gary Shaw, who calls himself a promoter, and who is, in effect, just a booking agent. So for Gary, it's the easiest way out to grab some sucker's site fee and say, 'Well, it's not my concern that only 600 people bought tickets to the fight.'

But it should be his concern. If you're promoting, then you want to put the fight on the biggest possible stage, particularly when you're getting the money that you're getting from HBO to make the most noise with the fight.

That's what we do at Top Rank Promotions, yet people just criticize us because they don't know what to do. They don't have the ability to do it. So they think that there is something funny going on.

They ask, 'Why are you matching your own fighters with each others?' Well, we match them with our own fighters so that we don't have to deal with idiots like Gary Shaw.

Then we can promote the fights the way that they should be promoted. See, we don't have that problem with Lou DiBella. We would do a fight with Lou DiBella's fighter because Lou DiBella understands the value of a good promotion.

BoxingScene.com: What would you do with a fighter like a Devon Alexander, who has a great story behind him and who is a good draw in his native St. Louis?

BA: Obviously, Devon Alexander has a following in his home town. But look, now, at what has happened. Alexander has a comeback fight on HBO for a ton of money.

Now, that's good for Devon Alexander. On the other hand, I assume that HBO, because they're paying him a ton of money, is going to want him to go in with a real, tough fighter.

That's bad for Alexander. Coming off of this fight, if the market had its way, Alexander would fight a relatively easy fight for not a lot of money, get his confidence back, obviously in St. Louis.

But what HBO has done is to have screwed up the market place, and has screwed up fighters, even those with no intentions to screw up Alexander.

I mean, he got cut and he lost the fight to Bradley. He didn't look very good in the fight, and, now, to justify a humongous rights fee, they're going to want to take their pound of flesh. And that may destroy Alexander forever.

That system is broke. That's a system that will never work. That's an Al Haymon-designed system designed to suck money out of HBO, and to suck money out of the business.

It stinks, and it's put in place by greedy people who aren't looking out for the best interest of their fighter. 

BoxingScene.com: Do you consider Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey, and, Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman, respectively, at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and, the New York Yankees' stadium a success despite the fact that they weren't necessarily great fights?

BA: Yes. Because we are promoters, and we work hard to promote the event. That's what I tell people. That's what our job is. One would think that that's the job of every promoter.

But in this day and age, look what's happening. You've got Lou DiBella, who is a very intelligent guy, and who would want to really promote, and he has a flair that he could promote.

But he promotes an Al Haymon fighter [Andre Berto.] Now what does Al Haymon do? He sucks all of the money out for his fighter, and leaves Lou with no money to promote.

Now Lou isn't crazy. He's working on such a small margin, that he doesn't have the money to spend to promote the fight the way that it should be promoted.

We, on the other hand, we do it differently. People say that you match your fighters against your own fighters, and we do that. But we do it largely so that we can have a pot of money there to do what we did in Yankees Stadium.

It cost us $1 million to do that setup. But if you're paying the fighters all of the money, then you can't do that sort of promotion in that type of a setup. But in order to promote boxing correctly, you must be able to do that.

You must be able to promote. But if you let a manager, who makes the deal with the network to suck up all of the money for his fighter, there is no money to promote.

It's sad. That's really sad. And that's where this business has evolved to. By letting Al Haymon in the door, and making Al Haymon a big source. They have cut the promoters' balls off so that he can really promote.