by David P. Greisman
Bob Arum of Top Rank hasn’t shied away from criticizing the May 3 pay-per-view bout between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana that is being put on by his company’s promotional rival, Golden Boy Promotions.
Arum has noted the odds and called it a noncompetitive matchup. On a media conference call on April 16, Maidana and his trainer, Robert Garcia, responded to Arum’s criticism.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Maidana said, with Garcia translating. “All I got to say [is] for people to come and order the fight, because they’re going to enjoy a good fight. They’re going to see me beat Floyd Mayweather.”
Said Garcia: “He [Bob Arum] knows that I’ve trained a lot of fighters under his banner, and a lot of times I’ve been the underdog on those fights, from Steven Luevano to Brian Viloria when he fought ‘Archie’ Solis. Brandon Rios himself, Bob Arum thought [Anthony] Peterson was going to dominate Brandon, and we upset the whole HBO and people thinking that Peterson was their next star. We’ve been in it before. I think Bob should know better than that. He knows that I’m training ‘Chino’ Maidana, and he knows what I can do.”
Garcia chalked it up to Arum speaking out of the heated discourse between Top Rank and Golden Boy, and perhaps to try to have an effect on the pay-per-view’s buy rate.
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at [email protected]
