At the risk of incurring Dan's wrath I have to say that although Bob Arum has made some fantastic fights I have to say that imo he could have been much better for the sport than he has been since he's been promoting for over 60 years and has had a major influence on the sport for at least 40 of those years.
At the risk of incurring Dan's wrath I have to say that although Bob Arum has made some fantastic fights I have to say that imo he could have been much better for the sport than he has been since he's been promoting for over 60 years and has had a major influence on the sport for at least 40 of those years.
He could have been much more of an influence in getting a proper year-round drug testing protocol established for boxing – this isn’t as hard a task as some in boxing would have you believe.
His recent defence of Oscar Valdez appears to show that, at best, he just doesn't regard the PED issue seriously enough, and at worst, he doesn't have the integrity needed to want to stop the cheats.
The second area (actually connected to the first), he could have done more about is boxer's health during and after their careers.
Top Rank, and many other top boxing organisations, are the financial contributors to Dr Charles Bernick’s Professional Fighters Brain Health Study at the Lou Ruvo Center in Cleveland which is looking for answers about the connection between concussion and CTE, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain maladies suffered by the vast majority of boxers to varying degrees.
However, these kind of research programs could have, and should have, been started many years ago and someone with the influence of Bob Arum, if he had any care for the fighter’s he represented, would, and should, have done that.
In my view Top Rank, and all boxing organisations, have been very late in taking this issue seriously and my suspicion is that they were forced into doing this by the study of NFL players’ brains and their link to concussion followed by the subsequent compensation cases.
So, yes, Bob Arum has made some great fights over the past 60 years or so, however in some important areas he could, and probably should, have done a lot more.
Good kick back Ozz The truth is boxing anseres to no one in the long run other then to those in the fight game and it is a tight clique of promoters, platforms and bodies etc.. So I follow your reply. During the dark days of the Pandemic and no crowds allowed I often wondered how Arum could have allowed Big Baby a chance to fight he turned up dirty and it did not happen but it stuck in my mind. Guilty or distracted who knows ? It brought some attention to the fight even tho Big Baby never fought on the card. Accidental/miscue who knows but it stuck with me. Arum has brought a lot of fights to the fans but he is a promoter. The hardship of ex-boxers is the responsibility of all envolved is how I see it that includes the fans so good point on that one too. They call the shots, they make the money so they ansere to themselves until fans learn or decide to hold back on paying for fights or watching fights then they have a say until then they ansere to no one.
At the risk of incurring Dan's wrath I have to say that although Bob Arum has made some fantastic fights I have to say that imo he could have been much better for the sport than he has been since he's been promoting for over 60 years and has had a major influence on the sport for at least 40 of those years.
He could have been much more of an influence in getting a proper year-round drug testing protocol established for boxing – this isn’t as hard a task as some in boxing would have you believe.
His recent defence of Oscar Valdez appears to show that, at best, he just doesn't regard the PED issue seriously enough, and at worst, he doesn't have the integrity needed to want to stop the cheats.
The second area (actually connected to the first), he could have done more about is boxer's health during and after their careers.
Top Rank, and many other top boxing organisations, are the financial contributors to Dr Charles Bernick’s Professional Fighters Brain Health Study at the Lou Ruvo Center in Cleveland which is looking for answers about the connection between concussion and CTE, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain maladies suffered by the vast majority of boxers to varying degrees.
However, these kind of research programs could have, and should have, been started many years ago and someone with the influence of Bob Arum, if he had any care for the fighter’s he represented, would, and should, have done that.
In my view Top Rank, and all boxing organisations, have been very late in taking this issue seriously and my suspicion is that they were forced into doing this by the study of NFL players’ brains and their link to concussion followed by the subsequent compensation cases.
So, yes, Bob Arum has made some great fights over the past 60 years or so, however in some important areas he could, and probably should, have done a lot more.
Good kick back Ozz The truth is boxing anseres to no one in the long run other then to those in the fight game and it is a tight clique of promoters, platforms and bodies etc.. So I follow your reply. During the dark days of the Pandemic and no crowds allowed I often wondered how Arum could have allowed Big Baby a chance to fight he turned up dirty and it did not happen but it stuck in my mind. Guilty or distracted who knows ? It brought some attention to the fight even tho Big Baby never fought on the card. Accidental/miscue who knows but it stuck with me. Arum has brought a lot of fights to the fans but he is a promoter. The hardship of ex-boxers is the responsibility of all envolved is how I see it that includes the fans so good point on that one too. They call the shots, they make the money so they ansere to themselves until fans learn or decide to hold back on paying for fights or watching fights then they have a say until then they ansere to no one.