Bob Arum Needs To Retire Before He Ruins Boxing—Again!

This weekend should have been a good one for Top Rank and Bob Arum with a great matchup between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez.

Martinez was easily on all three scorecards but it was a lively action filled fight between two top fighters that lived to it's advance billing. It should have been a great weekend for Bogus Bob.

It was until news that Edwin Valero, Top Rank's rising star from Venezuela was arrested on charges of killing his 20-year-old wife. 

The fact that Federal Police in Caracas are willing to arrest Valero indicates that Dinamita is in serious trouble. Edwin is a national hero in Venezuela and a personal friend of President Hugo Chavez.

Valero did enter rehab for alcoholism this past March, but only after numerous brushes with the law both in Venezuela and the US.

Like many promoters before him, Arum has mostly blamed others for Valero's problems. He's also consistently found ways to continue getting fights for the young man even at the risk of his health.

I think it's very obvious at this point that Arum has never cared about Valero's welfare. Or that of the sport of boxing.

That's Arum. He makes money, he ruins fighters and he screws over the sport that has made him a rich man. 

This has been a banner year for Bob in his long quest to ruin boxing. 

He started the year helping to quash the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight that sports fans were clamoring for the last year and a half. He followed that up with an end run around US boxing authorities to stage an Antonio Margarito fight in Mexico, and now the Valero mess.

That is a pretty good trifecta of scumbag moves that cheat both fans and his own fighters for the greater good of Bob Arum.

The thing that gets me though is that Bob's moves don't even make sense for Bob. 

Finding ways to keep Valero out of jail and fighting has obviously been a huge disaster. But even Top Rank's seemingly clever ploy to corner Mayweather hasn't worked out that well.

At first it seemed like the Pacquiao withdrawal would give Manny and Top Rank the edge against Mayweather in upcoming negotiations. Pacquiao versus Clottey appeared to be a much better fight than anything Golden Boy proposed for Money May.

Then Sugar Shane Mosley was able to get out of his fight with Andre Berto and agreed to fight Mayweather May 1 and the bargaining edge disappeared. 

I think the Margarito gambit will end badly as well. 

First of all, Roberto Garcia is a very tough opponent for Antonio. It also isn't a good idea to spit in the face of US boxing authorities if you ever want to fight in the US again. 

It's very doubtful whether either Valero or Margarito will fight in the US ever again. And they most certainly will never be the top fighters they once were.

I also wonder whether boxing fans will ever see a Maywether-Pacquiao fight. A fight that could have brought the sport of boxing back into the national consciousness if it ever happens.

I have always believed that when a man makes his bed he needs to sleep in it. But in the cases of Pacquiao, Margarito, and Valero in 2010, Bob Arum certainly provided the fitted sheets.