It is a statement echoed all too often by young people who have abandoned the sport of boxing in favor of the excitement they find in Mixed Martial Arts.
But why?
It is a question that has plagued boxing for a number of years now and has been debated ad nauseum, but in his typically pompous fashion, promoter Bob Arum may have finally hit the nail on the head.
After Yuri Gamboa took out Rogers Mtagwa in two rounds, and Juan Manuel Lopez took out Steven Luevano in seven to claim his blah-blah-blah belt, on January 23rd, fans rightfully expected to now see them square off against each other.
Because the best fight the best, right?
Not in Bob Arum’s world.
Reacting to the fans expectations, Arum said, “I know what people want, and they can go f**k themselves.”
By “the people,” Arum means you, the boxing fans. The same people who made him a very wealthy man.
Yes Dana White, there is a Santa Claus.
The last time a person was so infuriatingly arrogant about how little concern they had for the people filling their pockets with money, his head ended up in a basket looking back at the body it used to be on.
“I want to see those two clean out the division,” Arum continued, “and I don’t want to see them rush to fight each other.”
Of course, what Arum really meant is that boxing fans can once again grab their ankles as he cleans out their wallets on a bunch of meaningless fights, before he even thinks about making the fight that fans might actually want to see.
Bob Arum doesn’t care about the fans, and he doesn’t care about the fighters he promotes. He cares about money, period.
Arum is a businessman, plain and simple, and boxing is just a business to him, nothing more, and nothing less.
What is lost on a man like Arum is that boxing is also a professional sport, and as such, should be treated with dignity and respect, as should the fighters and the fans, who ultimately fuel the entire sport with their hard-earned cash.
What Arum apparently needs to learn is that fighters are not just pieces of meat that throw punches at each other, and fans are not walking ATM machines.
The sport of boxing has been hijacked by people like Bob Arum. Some are promoters; some are political appointees that sit on corrupt boxing commissions. Some are referees that go with the hometown fighter so they don’t upset the promoter who pays them, while others are fighters who constantly find ways to improve their records while avoiding any real competition. Some run cable networks that broadcast the whole mess.
Not to mention what the sanctioning bodies have done to the sport.
The migration of young fans from boxing is not a good thing. Especially in light of the fact that in many instances, the love of boxing has always been passed on from a father to his son or daughter, and the breaking of that cycle is the single most dangerous threat facing the sport of boxing today.
Because the young fans that have left boxing will not be passing along a love of boxing to their children. They will pass along a love of the sport that they have migrated to.
And that sport is Mixed Martial Arts.
If only boxing fans would realize the power they hold in their wallets, change would come in a hurry.
Because a sport can’t exist without money, and the only place for boxing to get that money is from the fans.
So how about we send a message to Bobby.
The next time Bob Arum tries to sell you some meaningless fight featuring a top contender against some scrub, don’t buy it.
The next time Bob Arum puts on some mediocre main event with a snore-fest as an undercard, don’t buy it.
The Eagles once sang, “Often times, it happens that we live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key..”
Well fans, you do have the key because you have the money.
And it’s time for the fans to stand up against the people destroying this sport.
It’s time for the fans to tell Bob Arum what he can go do to himself.
It’s too bad that the writers of “Two and a Half Men” didn’t give Charlie this response to his nephew:
“No Jake, boxing doesn’t suck… Guys like Bob Arum suck.”
Allan Scotto can be reached at boxingriter@aol.com
