Arum: “People Don’t Particularly Pay Attention To Women’s Fights”
It’s been reported how Top Rank are almost certain to announce the big and potentially thrilling 130 pound battle between Oscar Valdez and Shakur Stevenson for the night of April 30th. The problem? The women’s super-fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano has been announced for that same night; in New York. I don’t know about you, but one of the things that bugs me about modern day boxing (aside from the fact that there are far-too-many-world-titles-it-was-so-much-simpler-back-in-the-day) – is when TWO massive can’t miss fight are scheduled to go head-to-head with each other.
Surely a compromise could be reached in such a case? But Bob Arum, in coming out with comments that have already caused some controversy and are sure to earn more, has said that in his opinion there really is no problem. Why? Apparently, we fight fans “couldn’t care less” about women’s boxing.
“People don’t particularly pay attention to the women’s fights,” the Top Rank boss said when speaking with IFL TV. “ESPN made the schedule and they couldn’t care less. I don’t want to denigrate fights. I don’t want to be accused of being anti-women in sports, but I’m telling you, this is like the Premiere league versus women football.”
Arum – who was recently ludicrously accused by a big-name fighter of being racist – might soon wish he’d not said what he did say here. We know Arum speaks his mind and good for him for doing so; usually, anyway. But to put down women’s boxing in such a way is a bad thing. Surely Bob knew he’d get some major backlash for his words? It wasn’t too long ago that Arum rightfully praised the superb action fight between Mikaela Mayer and Maiva Hamadouche as “the best fight of the year, male or female.”
Now Arum comes out and basically offends all women boxers. It doesn’t add up. Maybe Bob was having a bad day. In any case, the night of April 30th promises to be a big, big night for boxing. If it comes down to being able to tune in and watch only one of these two potentially modern day classics live, which fight will YOU choose?
It’s a tough call, regardless of what Bob Arum says. Or said.
