At first I thought it was about the gay issue. But then I thought about the rift between Arum and Nelson of HBO that has gotten so wide that it seems irreparable. Nelson wanted Crawford vs Matthysse and Bob Arum said no and came up with a Postol vs Mathysse. Two foreigners that did a mere 663K for HBO. Just one sample of the reason for the rift.
Bob Arum:
"...In other words, keep building the fighters and occasionally put them on HBO. And the reason why I say occasionally is I really believe that we have tremendous talent at Top Rank...
I'm not gonna give up our ability to match-make and build fighters to beat at Nelson at HBO whose building boxing for a cup of coffee and thinks he knows something about match-making...
"That's what people don't understand. You have to build up fighters not by putting him on ... putting him against good fighters who they then overwhelm and look good. Now... Nelson doesn't have that vision and I'm not gonna let him screw up our prospects by taking away from us what is our great strength and that's the ability to match-make. And if that means frequently not on HBO, that's too bad we'll find a way.
Speaking of Crawford, do you have an opponent in mind for that defense?
"Well, again, we're gonna put Crawford in with a man we believe will give Crawford a very good fight, which will be an exciting fight for the people in south Florida.
Nelson has some ideas of who Crawford should fight and if he persists in his ideas and HBO continues to back him, then we'll take Crawford elsewhere. In other words, we are a company that prides ourselves in putting on fights and match-making and we're not gonna let somebody else come in and do what we do best. Now, HBO is paying us money that fights on HBO, so they have the right and obligation to reject any fight that we give them, but they're not gonna match-make for me.
Bob Arum:
"...In other words, keep building the fighters and occasionally put them on HBO. And the reason why I say occasionally is I really believe that we have tremendous talent at Top Rank...
I'm not gonna give up our ability to match-make and build fighters to beat at Nelson at HBO whose building boxing for a cup of coffee and thinks he knows something about match-making...
"That's what people don't understand. You have to build up fighters not by putting him on ... putting him against good fighters who they then overwhelm and look good. Now... Nelson doesn't have that vision and I'm not gonna let him screw up our prospects by taking away from us what is our great strength and that's the ability to match-make. And if that means frequently not on HBO, that's too bad we'll find a way.
Speaking of Crawford, do you have an opponent in mind for that defense?
"Well, again, we're gonna put Crawford in with a man we believe will give Crawford a very good fight, which will be an exciting fight for the people in south Florida.
Nelson has some ideas of who Crawford should fight and if he persists in his ideas and HBO continues to back him, then we'll take Crawford elsewhere. In other words, we are a company that prides ourselves in putting on fights and match-making and we're not gonna let somebody else come in and do what we do best. Now, HBO is paying us money that fights on HBO, so they have the right and obligation to reject any fight that we give them, but they're not gonna match-make for me.
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