Bob Arum recently came under fire after he told The Athletic that he has lost money on promoting Terence Crawford’s last three prize fights. “Bud,” apparently, is just not the box office draw like some of the other big-name boxers of his era.
It’s an investment the long-time boxing promoter says would’ve been better spent on a house for him in Beverly Hills, California. So when asked about Arum’s odd statement during the “Contender Series” press conference, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President, Dana White, unloaded on Arum, a man he has never been fond of.
“Can you imagine if I said that,” White barked (via MMA Fighting). “Are you f—king kidding me? You guys would murder me if I said that — I’d never hear the end of that. That’s what you do. That’s not his f—king problem, that’s your problem. His problem isn’t to figure out how you make money.
“You f—king signed a deal with this kid,” White continued. “Your job is to promote him. You made a deal. All of these kids that I sign. If you look at all the kids that we signed, our roster is very inflated right now. We have a very big roster right now, the biggest we’ve ever had in the history of the company. I have to pay these kids. How I pay them is not their f—king problem, it’s my f—king problem.”
White insists that Arum is placing all the blame on Crawford — the WBC, WBO and “The Ring” Welterweight champion — for not generating enough buzz and money. And that’s downright criminal because it’s Arum’s job to promote Crawford, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today.
“Imagine me saying, ‘Oh, I got to pay Conor McGregor this much money. I could’ve bought a house in Beverly Hills.’ Shut the f—k up, you f—king scumbag. Pay your f—king fighter what you owe him. That’s your job. Bob Arum is a piece of f—king sh-t,” White concluded.
Crawford — who knocked out Kell Brook last Saturday night (Nov. 14, 2020) — is widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today. So if White ever gets ZUFFA Boxing up-and-running, perhaps he can steal the talented boxer away from Arum.
That, or “Bud” can follow Canelo’s lead ...
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