Arum is betting big on Pacquiao / Margarito

Arum is betting big on Pacquiao / Margarito.

Mike Cassell “The Philadelphia Boxing Report”

                          In the back of my mildly twisted boxing mind, I envision Antonio Margarito sitting before a  big mahogany desk, in a dark smoky room somewhere deep in the offices of Top Rank promotions. Bob Arum (The Godfather) sits quietly behind his desk, hands clenched together staring with his piercing gaze into the eyes of disgraced welterweight Antonio Margarito. “So, you come to me ask a favor?” Arum says. Well……, you get the idea. Margarito’s people may have just did that, not on the day of his daughter’s wedding, but shortly after the midnight deadline imposed on Floyd Mayweather Jr by Bob Arum. At first glance of a Margarito / Pacquiao match up you might ask, is this just another fight that is easy for Arum to make? Does anyone really care about Antonio Margarito after it was found that he was preparing to fight with loaded gloves against Shane Mosley back in January of 2009? The California department of justice laboratory likened the substance trainer Nazzim Richardson noticed on the wraps of Margarito just hours before the fight to, plaster of paris. Margarito was ordered to have his hands wrapped again and he was subsequently stopped in nine rounds by Shane Mosley. In late January, the California State Athletic Commission suspended Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, pending further investigation. All state boxing commissions honored the suspension, which meant Margarito could not box in the United States. Margarito, widely thought to be a “hard luck” case that had to fight everybody else, because Floyd Mayweather Jr simply wouldn’t fight him, would become an outlaw and an outcast in boxing. Even his underground “diehard” fan base seemed to disappear after the suspension of the disgraced former champion. Everybody except that is, Bob Arum.

ARUM THE SALESMAN:

Bob Arum’s stable is virtual who’s who in the upper crust of professional boxing, especially the welterweight division. He knows better than anybody that what comes around, goes around. He helped make the careers of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Oscar De La Hoya and now that these men are power brokers in the division, and they have to deal with him. But Arum has shown time and again that he doesn’t exactly have to deal with them. He has pitted his own top fighters against each other many times in the past, so it is no surprise that Antonio Margarito is back again. Margarito has fought Cotto and Clottey. Clottey and Cotto have both faced Pacquiao and each other. With Mayweather cooling his heels, Margarito was probably always Arum’s “go to” guy anyway, “loaded gloves” controversy be damned! Arum will sell the old downtrodden “underdog” story, and the “everybody deserves a second chance” cliché. Nobody sells better than Bob Arum. After all, how do you think he was able to lure Manny Pacquiao away from Golden Boy promotions in the first place? That battle for Pacquiao, and won by Arum shows the true genius and vision of the promoter.

DRUGS, LIES AND VIDEO TAPE:

Manny Pacquiao is a phenomenon, but he is only human, isn’t he? How many more times can he continue to brawl with naturally bigger men and sustain the kind of beatings he has. Floyd Mayweather has paid the Filipino banger the biggest compliment possible by inferring, well out right saying that Manny must be on some kind of performance enhancing drugs. After the Cotto fight, it really made the Mayweather clan blink twice, and start postulating about the whole blood testing mess. Words are words, but the facts are the facts. There is no evidence, physical or circumstantial that Manny has ever taken any kind of performance enhancing drugs. The only evidence is the totally dominating victories over Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto. Instead of filing a lawsuit against the Mayweather clan, Pacquiao should be thanking them for the brilliant public relations. They truly believe that there is no humanly possible scenario for the Philippine born typhoon to have beaten those top fighters, and in the manner in which he beat them. They are basically saying, he is either on drugs, or superhuman. Good work men. You just convinced your opponent that he is unstoppable. And now you’re going to fight him? If you need more evidence, watch the tape. There is plenty of it, because Roger Mayweather has probably watched every second of it. The biggest lies in boxing right now, are the reasons the Mayweather clan will not fight Manny Pacquiao. First it was because of the tumultuous relationship with Top Rank chief Bob Arum, and then it was all about “money” and “popularity” of an opponent, then lastly about Olympic style drug testing. Hate Margarito if have to, but at least the man will fight.

ARUM AND MAYWEATHER WIN:

The move to pull Margarito out of boxing purgatory is brilliant. Think about it. The first winner is Floyd Mayweather Jr, who will again get to sit back and watch Manny Pacquiao take another savage beating at the fists of a bigger man. Win or lose, Manny is going to take a series of very big shots. As Mayweather waits, Manny may be winning, but he is paying a big price. A price the Mayweather clan is acutely aware of. The other big winner with a fight like this is of course Bob Arum. If Manny wins this fight, he will look even more invincible and it will make a Mayweather fight even more attractive, if you can ever imagine that. If Margarito should somehow pull out a victory, we will be talking about a boxing comeback story like no other. Worst to first, in popularity that is, with one big win. Now Arum would hold all the cards, along with a very grateful Margarito who Mayweather wouldn’t fight in the past. Arum would still have Pacquiao, who Mayweather won’t fight now. Arum knows that Mayweather will have to fight Margarito if he wins, or finally agree to face Pacquiao after the beat down of another title fight. To the Godfather Bob Arum, he could care less who wins or why, because there is one thing that is absolutely a sure thing in this whole hot mess. Arum gets paid no matter what happens. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain; he knows exactly what he is doing.