TOP RANK FOUNDER and CEO Bob Arum has dismissed a purported fight between his charge Manny Pacquiao and the UFC’s Conor McGregor, and welcomed UFC president Dana White to boxing promotion in typically unrefined fashion.
Eight-division champion Pacquiao claimed last week that preliminary talks had taken place regarding a possible bout between he and McGregor, the latter of whom was stopped by Floyd Mayweather on his boxing debut back in August.
Arum, however, who has promoted Pacquaio for over 15 years, has confirmed that there are currently no talks going on between both parties.
“It’s total nonsense,” said the American promoter. “If there is such a fight, Pacquiao or any other boxer would give McGregor a beating. But there are no negotiations right now. McGregor is still spending the money that he earned from the fight with Mayweather.”
He elaborated on the topic while in conversation with Michael Woods for Bad Left Hook on Sunday, indicating that someone from Pacquiao’s team had indeed reached out to the Notorious two-weight UFC champion, but dismissing the idea in a similar fashion to how he did Mayweather-McGregor.
“It’s old news!” Arum said.
Guess what… It’s not a fucking fight. If you want a spectacle, you can watch it. One thing you can be sure of, Manny wouldn’t carry the guy like the other guy [Mayweather] did.
Arum also told BLH that he welcomed Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing venture because it proves boxing is “not an old man’s sport”, adding: “Our demos are young. When it’s free, a lot of kids don’t have premium television because they can’t afford $15 a month, so when we have a level paying field we beat the pants off them [the UFC]. Not just overall rating, but the demos that everyone is looking for.”
After a vintage comeback year for pugilism, Arum cited ESPN’s figures in laying waste to the narrative that boxing was a thing of the past: “It turns out in the light of day to be total bullshit.”
However, after initially welcoming old foe White to the world of boxing promotion, Arum continued: “Who gives a shit about White? He’s a piece of crap!”
The 86-year-old then said he was only glad to see White involved in boxing “because then it’s an acknowledgement how strong boxing is. He [White] has a UFC that’s cratering, and he needs boxing to save himself!”
The UFC president has hit back in an interview with MMA Junkie, responding to Arum’s ‘welcome’: “You’ll see, Bob. We’ll see at the end.
White continued:
Bob’s the same guy who said the UFC would never work, and the UFC was losing ‘oodles’ of money, whatever the fuck ‘oodles of money’ means. Look at what we’ve done and look at where we are. I mean, come on. At the end of the day, we’ll see who stands where when the smoke clears and the dust settles.
“I’ll give it to him, though. For a fucking 95-year-old dude, this guy’s pretty feisty, man. I’ll give it to him. I’ll give him that.”
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Once the card was given O Leary jumped to his feet with obviously no injury. Is faining an injury in order to get a player sent off a bookable offence ?
I’ve never seen such a miraculous recovery in my life – there must have been holy water in that bottle! Ronaldo would have been proud of that display of amateur dramatics!
That said, Donaghy was out of line.You could argue he was lucky to escape a red but Noel O’Leary was no saint either…
Stamping offence = Red Card.
Mary pulled me cardigan so do i get to stamp on Marys leg?
there was no stamp, a slight kick, and o’leary deserved it.
It was still studs into the leg, therefore an act of aggressive play thus meriting more than a yellow. What was more serious was Gooch Cooper’s attempted strangulation of Denis O’Sullivan on the ground later in the match. While I am a Cork fan this should not detract from the severity of these two incidents. If the Examiner camerman can get a shot of Cooper then surely RTE must have some footage somewhere from the cameras at the ground. It is high time a zero tolerance policy regarding off the ball intimidation was brought in. As someone who has attended many Cork v Kerry games in the past (didn’t get to Killarney due to heatstroke suffered on Friday at the U14 Feile) this one was quite clean in terms of off the ball shenanigans. Even so foul play is foul play regardless of who is involved. It is a pity this has detracted from an intriguing game (even if Cork were pathetic in the 1st half) which was played with an intensity that has been unmatched this year so far.
ha yer gas in cork.. strangulation attempt?? he held his jersey at his chest level.. not attempt to strangle at all. suppose ye have forgotten kavanagh’s real strangulation of gooch in the munster championship.. didnt see anybody in cork getting worked up over the cccc’s decision to overlook that incident.
retaliation in any sport is a shame to watch but in this case the cork player gave Donaghy no choice he refused to disengage from the jersey pulling stopping Kieron from getting back into the play, something like that alone should be a sending off offence the ref and linesman took all this into account and treated the incident for what it was, Donaghy being targeted in the hope of getting him sent off, its a tactic see way too often used by losing sides, if they tried that in real life they would fully expect to be decked with no action taken against them as it would be self defence, and get it right, Keiron used his leg to push the player away from him, it wasnt a stamping
Not condoning Donaghy at all, he put the studs in, but this is Noel O’Leary we’re talking about. He specialises in ‘frustrating’ his opponent by any means necessary.
The ref probably got it right. If all a player needed to do to get sent off was to drag out off his opponent after the ball had gone and then react like he’d been shot then games would end with about 21 players left on the pitch. O’Leary should have seen yellow too.
This is not ‘stamping’. Its kicking out at a player who was fouling you off the ball. O’Leary was not badly hurt and made an absolute meal of it. O’Leary likes to play the hard man act. He didn’t look that hard here.
Just a pity Paul Galvin wasn’t there, eh?
Red card offence every day of the week according to the rules. There is no defence.
That should read “If all a player needed to do to get another player sent off…”
Red card, no doubt. O Leary is far from an angel and would still be stuck into Donaghy if he could, but he retaliated soccer style and that should have been enough to see red. I have watched Kerry admiringly for the past nearly 40 years and it is only in the past few years that disciplinary questions have really raised their heads in the kingdom, to their serious detriment. Galvin and the O’Sheas resort to tactics that neither they nor their predecessors never needed to. I have no problem with physicality but dirt was rarely in Kerry’s footballing repertoire. Kerry losing Donaghy at that stage would most certainly have cost them the game. If I was O Connor it would be a major issue for me. By the by I’m not a Kerry man but Gooch is not a dirty player and this ‘strangling’ incident was nothing if looked at closer. Both players should have seen yellow. What concerns me is the amateurish officiating in the game today. It is pathetic and it is the officials who are falling behind.