By Chris Robinson
It was a crowded scene on Wednesday at Manny Pacquiao's open media workout in Los Angeles. A bevy of reporters mingled with Team Pacquiao and other pugilistic hopefuls in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest fights of the year with the Filipino star's May 7th clash against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand right around the corner.
Towards the end of the day I caught up with Top Rank boss Bob Arum, who was as laid back as ever as he took everything in. There is always something going on in Arum's world, it just depends on what day of the week you happen to catch him.
I first asked Bob about the recent Kermit Cintron signing by Top Rank, as his outfit added the former welterweight champion to their stable just recently in hopes of matching him with some of the bigger names from their roster.
"He's a very good fighter, Cintron," Arum coined. "We love the middleweight division, junior middleweight division, we have a lot of fighters there. Welterweight; he can fight those guys. And who knows, eventually he may be a good opponent for Manny Pacquiao.[Cintron] says that he can make 147."
Another interesting proposition would be for Cintron to face the winner of the upcoming rematch between Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto. Cintron's only two knockout losses are to Margarito and there would be a revenge factor there but I asked Arum if that fight would be more enticing than a duel with Kermit's Boricua brethren Cotto.
"An all-Puerto Rican fight with Cotto. It's a good Madison Square Garden fight," Arum said without hesitation.
Arum had his eyes fixed to the tube when he finally got around to seeing Victor Ortiz score a huge upset in derailing WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto in Mashantucket, Connecticut. After four knockdowns and several thrilling moments, Ortiz is now a champion and Arum concedes that he never saw it coming while also taking a few digs at Berto.
"He surprised me," said Arum. "I didn't expect that he would win that fight. Berto obviously is a built up guy. But that's not to take anything away from Ortiz. He took it to Berto and he won the fight. But for anybody to spend the money on Berto that they did, millions and millions of dollars, and to get really nothing because they had never really put him in a tough fight, it's sad."
On that same Saturday night Arum had to swallow an upset of another kind as his fighter Juan Manuel Lopez surrendered his WBO featherweight belt to a resilient Orlando Salido in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Lopez didn't seem himself as he was dropped hard in the fifth and eventually stopped, although possibly prematurely, three rounds later.
Arum says that he writing was on the wall because Lopez didn't come in with a champion's mentality.
"First off all Salido fought a very good fight. Lopez had it coming because he didn't train the way he should have. It was combination of Salido being motivated and good and Lopez not being ready for that kind of fight," Arum continued.
For the moment that kills any buzz surrounding a Lopez meeting with WBA champion Yuriorkis Gamboa from Cuba, a fight that was looked at as one of the most mouth-watering in the game. I asked Arum if we could still see it happen down the road but he realistically pointed out that Lopez has business with his conqueror from Sonora, Mexico to settle before anything else.
"We'll see. Lopez, in order to get involved in a Gamboa fight, he's got to show that he can beat Salido."
