Until recently, it was pretty easy to argue NBA commissioner David Stern was the worst executive in all of sports.
Now, that title belongs to boxing promoter Bob Arum by a landslide.
If it weren’t for Arum, sports fans would be getting ready for the mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both boxers recently said they were interested in fighting each other, and all it would have taken was an agreement from both of their sides to fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in May.
That’s where Pacquiao’s promoter dropped the ball. Instead, he wanted to build a 40,000-seat temporary arena in four months to house the fight. Arum didn’t acknowledge Mayweather’s conditional contract with the MGM Grand. In fact, he wanted to schedule the fight just days before reporting to jail to serve his postponed domestic violence sentence.
This is the third time this dream fight has fallen apart in three years. Arum settled for Pacquiao by scheduling him with ho-hum opponent Tim Bradley, while Golden Boy Promotions set up Mayweather for the next-best bout against Miguel Cotto.
Pacquiao vs. Mayweather is the key to saving boxing and making the sport popular again, but that’s not going to happen under Arum’s watch.
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