Comments Thread For: Bob Arum Sound Off, Drops Heavy Bombs on HBO's Peter Nelson

[Afi23]

Lets be honest here. Lomachenko wanting the fight is the reason this fight is happening. This wasn't Arum's or his matchmakers idea like he's trying to to credit for.

Thank you! In this specific case, Rigo and Loma made the fight happen!

[TexasCowBoy]

Yeah but PBC is circling the drain due to over paying and mismatching , Arum has been putting on great fights for awhile (decades)

[OctoberRed]

Lets be honest here. Lomachenko wanting the fight is the reason this fight is happening. This wasn't Arum's or his matchmakers idea like he's trying to to credit for.

That's not entirely true.

The fighters could want to fight each other all they want, but someone has to pay for it, ESPN, and someone has to negotiate to get the money that both fighters want, Top Rank.

They tried to make the fight at HBO, but Nelson would not offer up enough money to make it happen - and he was offered the fight at a lower price than ESPN is paying.

Nelson's main concern, is that they pay a big fee to get the fight and it turns into a stinker with Rigo just moving and boxing for twelve rounds or its a chess match for twelve rounds. Because of those concerns, they wouldnt offer up enough money to satisfy both boxers.

[Scopedog]

Why does the title make it sound like Arum challenged Nelson to a rap battle

[OctoberRed]

Why does the title make it sound like Arum challenged Nelson to a rap battle

DJ BobFather vs. MC Nelson.

[Liondw]

These two fighters, Loma and Rigo, are technically better than just about any other fighter out there but sadly not that well known commercially. Yet you can put an mma star like McGregor, who doesn't box that well to be honest, and the guy makes more in one fight than Lomachenko might make in his whole career.

[Boxing Logic]

I was leaning towards taking Bob Arum's side on this one, but then he went and exposed himself with this quote:

At Showtime, to some extent, [boxing manager/adviser] Al Haymon has the same type of relationship. I think [Showtime Sports head] Stephen Espinoza relies on him to present good fights that he could put on the network,"

So basically, Arum wanted Nelson to be his puppet, and Nelson said no. I am team Peter Nelson on this one. And FYI, the cards Arum is referring to are ****ty cards like Crawford-Postol, and Valdez-Marriaga, the latter of which was competitive but resembled more of an ESPN Friday Night Fights main event than an HBO main event. Plus, we know of Marriaga now, do to his decent performance against Valdez and his domination at the hands of Lomachenko, but back then he was a complete unknown to US Audiences. And until he can actually beat a top guy at 122 or 126, he hasn't proven enough for me to be excited to see him headlining cards in the future, either.

If Nelson rejected Loma-Rigo, then that would be a different story, but so far it sounds like all the cards he rejected from Top Rank deserved to be rejected. If anything, Nelson's only error recently at HBO was not rejecting more cards, like Cotto-Kamegai, to save money for meaningful fights, given the limited budget he has to work with. Otherwise, he has ponied up only for the fights that deserve it, either top level fights between TWO top guys, or top action fights, which is the way it should be. No one wants to watch a mismatch between a boring A-level fighter and a B-level fighter, and no one wants to watch a mediocre fight between two B-level guys.

For Bob to be complimenting Al Haymon's relationship with Showtime, when that relationship has been toxic to boxing and possibly even corrupt, shows his thoughts on this subject have little merit. He is talking out of self interest, whereas it is Peter Nelson's job to look out for BOXING FANS' interests, i.e. his subscribers who most want to see top level, meaningful fights, and who second most want to see entertaining fights, and preferably, want to see both those criteria combined. Nelson's other major error has been waiting too long to get GGG-Canelo made, as well as Kovalev-Ward, but he may not have been in full control of the timlines of those two fights. Also, overmarinating Inoue-Chocolatito to the point of ruining it. But again, may not have been his call, although I do hope he starts to assert the power of his position on that issue as well more than any other. Making fights on time is just as important, even more important, than the names in the fights. But even if he was to blame for that, this would be no defense to boxing fans or the sport overall, but in terms of Arum's comments specifically about Espinoza, it would be relevant to point out that Espinoza has been even worse about that in the past than Nelson has been so far.

But from a boxing fan's perspective, that is no excuse, and if Nelson does not start making these best fights before the fighters hit age 32 in the future, whenEVER possible, I will stop defending him as well. But for now, and on this issue specifically, I am team Peter Nelson all the way. It sounds like Arum wants a puppet, and kudos for Nelson for not being that, at least so far, at least not to Top Rank. There have been times when he's acted like a puppet to Roc Nation, however, so once again, I will stop defending him in the future if he does not improve in areas such as that. But good for him for not spending HBO's limited budget on Arum's tuneup fights for Valdez and Ramirez and so on.

[ELHITMAN606]

I was leaning towards taking Bob Arum's side on this one, but then he went and exposed himself with this quote:



So basically, Arum wanted Nelson to be his puppet, and Nelson said no. I am team Peter Nelson on this one. And FYI, the cards Arum is referring to are ****ty cards like Crawford-Postol, and Valdez-Marriaga, the latter of which was competitive but resembled more of an ESPN Friday Night Fights main event than an HBO main event. Plus, we know of Marriaga now, do to his decent performance against Valdez and his domination at the hands of Lomachenko, but back then he was a complete unknown to US Audiences. And until he can actually beat a top guy at 122 or 126, he hasn't proven enough for me to be excited to see him headlining cards in the future, either.

If Nelson rejected Loma-Rigo, then that would be a different story, but so far it sounds like all the cards he rejected from Top Rank deserved to be rejected. If anything, Nelson's only error recently at HBO was not rejecting more cards, like Cotto-Kamegai, to save money for meaningful fights, given the limited budget he has to work with. Otherwise, he has ponied up only for the fights that deserve it, either top level fights between TWO top guys, or top action fights, which is the way it should be. No one wants to watch a mismatch between a boring A-level fighter and a B-level fighter, and no one wants to watch a mediocre fight between two B-level guys.

For Bob to be complimenting Al Haymon's relationship with Showtime, when that relationship has been toxic to boxing and possibly even corrupt, shows his thoughts on this subject have little merit. He is talking out of self interest, whereas it is Peter Nelson's job to look out for BOXING FANS' interests, i.e. his subscribers who most want to see top level, meaningful fights, and who second most want to see entertaining fights, and preferably, want to see both those criteria combined. Nelson's other major error has been waiting too long to get GGG-Canelo made, as well as Kovalev-Ward, but he may not have been in full control of the timlines of those two fights. Also, overmarinating Inoue-Chocolatito to the point of ruining it. But again, may not have been his call, although I do hope he starts to assert the power of his position on that issue as well more than any other. Making fights on time is just as important, even more important, than the names in the fights. But even if he was to blame for that, this would be no defense to boxing fans or the sport overall, but in terms of Arum's comments specifically about Espinoza, it would be relevant to point out that Espinoza has been even worse about that in the past than Nelson has been so far.

But from a boxing fan's perspective, that is no excuse, and if Nelson does not start making these best fights before the fighters hit age 32 in the future, whenEVER possible, I will stop defending him as well. But for now, and on this issue specifically, I am team Peter Nelson all the way. It sounds like Arum wants a puppet, and kudos for Nelson for not being that, at least so far, at least not to Top Rank. There have been times when he's acted like a puppet to Roc Nation, however, so once again, I will stop defending him in the future if he does not improve in areas such as that. But good for him for not spending HBO's limited budget on Arum's tuneup fights for Valdez and Ramirez and so on.

Man you really hate Haymon PBC did he steal your lunch or something ***** wrote a whole book

[robbyheartbaby]

Why does the title make it sound like Arum challenged Nelson to a rap battle

Hahaha this is the best comment ever lol!

[A.K]

exactly. He's basically admitting that ESPN deal allows him to air whatever he wants. As a fan I don't like the sound of that get ready for some trash cards on ESPN. Much rather the network having some sort of say in the quality of the matches. Isn't that the complain fans had with PBC? Arum doesn't get a pass from me for doing the same thing. Look at the sat card other then the main event every fight on there is utter garbage. And Arum just told you he's the one in control not ESPN so Arum in the one to blame.

He’s putting on Loma vs rigo chill how you gonna say trash cards when he could be putting on the foty this Saturday