Bob Arum admits he killed Pacquiao-Crawford fight, didn’t want to see Manny take damage

Badlefthook.com

In this sit-down with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV, Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum answers questions on a number of topic — raning from Vasyl Lomachenko’s future to being the one who prevented a Manny Pacquiao vs. Terence Crawford fight from happening. Check it out…

Arum on Jose Ramirez expressing interest in fighting Lomachenko:

“Well I think [he would like that fight] but, again, Jose’s a real 140-pounder and I don’t know if Loma will ever be ready to go up to 140. Remember, he’s not superman — he’s a great fighter is Lomachenko, technically the best fighter I’ve ever seen — but he’s a featherweight that’s now fighting as a lightweight. To go another weight division, to 140, seems like a lot.”

On if that makes him appreciate Manny Pacquiao more since he managed to climb so many weight classes:

“Horses for courses, as they say. Remember Manny was at this very, very light weight because he was living on the streets in Manila, he didn’t have much to eat, and therefore he really was malnourished when he first started out. I mean that doesn’t denigrate his accomplishments, but it’s a little different.

“Lomachenko, at his peak form, when he was in the amateurs was a featherweight and started professionally boxing as a featherweight.”

On if he saw Pacquiao-Broner:

“No, I saw clips of it though. You know, again, you know, it’s very hard to tell very much from that fight because I think for the last two or three years Broner has been more of a posture-er than a fighter.”

On Keith Thurman being talked about as next possible opponent for Pacquiao:

“Well I don’t think Keith Thurman can fight anymore. I thought he was awful with Lopez. I mean let’s be honest about it: Lopez is not an elite fighter, never was an elite fighter, and he had Thurman out of there in the 7th round. And you know Lopez is not known for knocking anybody out, and the referee could’ve very well stopped the fight in that round.”

On if he that means he believes Pacquiao could still fare well against Thurman:

“Yeah, I think that’s a winnable fight. Yeah I do…”

On Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, liking that fight too:

“Yeah, I think Freddie’s sees the same thing I did.”

On what he thinks of Pacquiao-Broner doing 400,000 PPV buys:

“How do you know that they did 400,000 buys?! It’s nowheres near there. I mean, don’t use [the reported] figures. I mean, we all report buys, and there’s no accountability. And a lot of the reasons we report the buys is because the press is so insistent on it — it’s all unreliable. Unreliable. I know for a fact that it didn’t do anywhere nears 400,000.”

[Wil’s Note: Bob low-key admitting to lying about sale figures, just as a general business practice].

Based on his information, would he rate the Pacquiao-Broner fight as a success:

“It depends. I thought it was a success because I didn’t have to pay for it. I mean, but if I put up $20 or 25 million for Manny Pacquiao, I would be nursing my wounds having lost a lot of money. Now if you go into a Mayweather fight, well okay, maybe you can get it back, but that’s a little bit high stakes gambling which is not in my DNA.”

On if a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch turns out any different:

“I have no idea. I mean Mayweather’s not a fighter anymore. Can he go into training and recapture any of the ability that he had? I don’t know. Once these fighters reach a certain age, retire for a period of time, when they come back you never know what you’re gonna get. Sugar Ray Leonard came and didn’t look good. Hector Camacho got whacked out. You know, it’s not the same guy! It’s a guy with the same name, but it’s not the same guy [laughs].”

On if he has any concerns about Pacquiao taking on young champions in their prime:

“Well all I would say is that I just hope that he doesn’t get hurt. You know, when you reach a certain age it becomes more dangerous than when you’re younger, because the cranium doesn’t enable you to absorb blows if you’re older than if you we’re younger. When you’re younger it has a lot more resilience than when you’re older. Now that’s not invariably the case, that wasn’t the case with George Foreman, but pretty well it’s been the case. So you just have to hope that — Manny Pacquiao’s a wonderful person, he’s brought lot to the sport, he does a lot for his country, and you wouldn’t want to see him get hurt.”

On if he would have any reservations of making a fight between Pacquiao and Terence Crawford:

“Well I killed the fight. Yeah. [I wouldn’t want that for Manny] because I know how it would end…Not that I knew that it would end in serious disability for Manny — that I wouldn’t know — but as a fight it would only end one way.

“Forget my emotions, I wouldn’t wanna see him take that kind of damage because it might affect his future life — quality of his future life.”