Sports FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015 Promoter Bob Arum still going strong at 83 LAS VEGAS: Boxing promoter Bob Arum, over $100 million from the welterweight there is no rematch clause in the contract promoting Ali’s fights. Over the next dozen who is showing no signs of slowing down at unification bout with 60 percent of the and he doesn’t want one. years he promoted two dozen Ali fights, age 83, says he will continue to make block- purse going to Mayweather and Pacquiao including the 1975 Thrilla In Manila against buster fights until they “put me in a box.” “My collecting the other 40 percent. ‘Most hellish time’ Joe Frazier. Arum also promoted world problem is when you get to be an age that I The blockbuster bout could generate a “I am 83 years old. I’ve been through the heavyweight champion George Foreman in am you are afraid to stop because you wonder record $400 in revenues with the majority of most hellish time of my pro career,” Arum the 1970s. Under Arum’s guidance, Foreman how long you are going to last,” said Arum. that coming from pay-per-view buys. said Wednesday. Arum, who grew up in a switched his persona from a menacing bully “If you just put your head down and keep The numbers are staggering even for Jewish community in Brooklyn, is the son of in the ring to a fun-loving likeable champ going you figure to last longer than if you Arum who has promoted some of the an accountant. After attending Harvard law who could still knock people out. just quit. “I will do it until they put me in a biggest fights in boxing history. “I am not school he got a job in Robert Kennedy’s Arum has also rubbed a lot of people the box or I can’t do it anymore.” The often going to project any numbers because any Justice Department, becoming the head of wrong way. In 1981 he uttered the line he is bombastic Arum has handled some of the number I say people will say ‘there he goes, its tax division in 1965 at age 34. now most famous for saying, “Yesterday I biggest names in the sport, including bullshitting us again,’” Arum said. He then went into private practice and was lying. Today I am telling the truth.” Muhammad Ali, Marvin Hagler, George “If the numbers turn out to be what we started doing some work for a group of busi- Arum was at it again on Wednesday Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya. His latest hope for, each fighter will make more mon- nessmen who were involved in boxing. when talking about the record-setting rev- protege is Filipino icon and eight division ey than a complete major league payroll of Arum ended up getting NFL star Jim enue the Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown champion Manny Pacquiao, who is gearing most baseball teams.” Arum described this Brown a job as a television commentator. would generate. “Any number I say nobody up to face Floyd Mayweather on Saturday. as the most difficult promotion of his career Brown then introduced Arum to his friend Ali. believes it. And I don’t believe it anyway,” Both fighters are expected to make well which has lasted some 50 years. He said One thing led to another and soon Arum was he said. — AFP Pacquiao, Mayweather spark Hall of Fame buzz CANASTOTA: A worldwide buzz about tomorrow’s showdown between Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten US star Floyd Mayweather has brought a special spark to a small rural upstate New York town. Attendance has been on the rise at the International Boxing Hall of Fame since the long-awaited showdown was announced months ago, executive director Ed Brophy said. “Everybody is talking about the fight, from boxing fans and sports fans and beyond that, to non-sports fans,” said Brophy. “We’ve had more people and that is the number one subject.” While Pacquiao and Mayweather finally come together on the neon-lit Las Vegas Strip, they have been linked for a long time on a wall for “Great Champions” in the southeast corner of the Hall of Fame main building, in the shadow of a toll booth off a quiet New York State Thruway exit. Black and white photos of Pacquiao and Mayweather are side by side in the display of nine top fight- ers, in some ways a preview of coming attractions list for the Hall of Fame inductee plaques on the opposite side of the building. “They have been like that for years,” Brophy said, as if waiting for the day when they would finally be side-by-side in the ring after a failed 2010 effort for a Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown. In the middle of three rows of three photos is Pacquiao, his arms folded in front of him, eyes glaring out the front of the photo, his LAS VEGAS: People take photos in front of a Mayweather Promotions bus parked in front of MGM Grand Hotel & right upper arm tattoo facing forward. To the right is Casino for the upcoming fight between WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and WBO welter- Mayweather, looking slightly to the right, both fists raised with a weight champion Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two boxers will face each other in a unification bout smile on his face. Around the display room are artifacts, posters, tomorrow in Las Vegas. — AFP tickets, souvenirs, gloves and trunks and robes and so much more from boxing history, as if waiting for what Mayweather and Pacquiao will contribute when the day arrives. Mega-fight not good vs evil ‘Boxing finds a way’ The big May fight 40 years ago in Las Vegas was Muhammad LAS VEGAS: Floyd Mayweather insisted yesterday that his block- between the camps kept the top pound-for-pound fighters of their Ali against Ron Lyle, described as “worthy contender - Denver” in buster fight against Manny Pacquiao is about boxing and business, generation from meeting in the ring. a poster for the Don King production. not angels and demons, as the rivals went eyeball-to-eyeball at their Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, whose Top Rank Promotions is And there is a good reason Mayweather and Pacquiao will final pre-fight press conference. Pacquiao goes into tomorrow’s bout partnering with Mayweather Promotions to produce the event just as shatter boxing revenue records. The Ali-Lyle fight had $12 for its that has the boxing world buzzing trailing a mantle of humanitarian television rivals HBO and Showtime have come together in a rare cheapest ticket price and $100 for ringside at the Las Vegas deeds. The two-term congressman tipped as a future Philippines partnership, said the experience had been “hellish”. president has left womanizing and gambling ways behind him and Convention Center. Plaster fist casts of such legends as Britain’s while he stands to make some $100 million for his night’s work on Intriguing match-up Lennox Lewis and Jack Johnson are humbled by the huge hands Saturday, the devout Christian says he hopes the intense focus on the However, the long-awaited bout has captured the imaginations of of Primo Carnera, but the romantic heyday of the sport’s glam- fight will be a stage for the glorification of God. “I want to inspire,” fight fans and casual observers around the world. orous past is celebrated, many of these legends formed when Pacquiao said. “I don’t take nothing away from Pacquiao, he is going to be an print media and radio were the main ways people learned about But Mayweather won’t be playing the devil, despite a history that intriguing match-up on Saturday,” Mayweather said. “He didn’t get to fights and boxers. Some of the inductees resonate to the includes two months in jail in 2012 for an assault on an ex-girlfriend where he got by not beating tough opponents.” It’s that kind of Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. There’s Bob Arum, the “Pac-Man” in front of two of their children. “I am a realist,” said Mayweather, the measured respect that has Roach doubting that Mayweather’s heart promoter inducted in 1999, 33 years after his first fight. 38-year-old American who has parlayed a perfect 47-0 ring record is in the fight. “I wonder if he’s going to show up,” Roach said shortly And there’s Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, the 2012 Hall into a reign as the highest paid sportsman on the planet. “This fight is before the fighters took the stage at the MGM Grand’s 1,950-seat Ka inductee who worked under Eddie Futch to learn the art, opened not good versus evil. It is one fighter who is at the top and another.” Theater-usually the home of Cirque du Soleil. his own WildCard Gym in 1996 and has guided such fighters as It was Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach who first billed the fight as Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson strolled in-only one of Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones and Amir Khan. And good against evil, citing Mayweather’s record of domestic violence. the boxing legends, A-list celebrities and casino high-rollers drawn to there’s Rocky Marciano, who died on the eve of his 46th birthday “For the first time in my life with Manny Pacquiao, this is the first the event. “I think he was forced into this fight,” Roach said. “I don’t after a 49-0 career with 43 knockouts, the 1950s era heavyweight fighter he hasn’t liked.