Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and pound-for-pound boxing great Floyd Mayweather have been at odds with each other for years now and have gone back and forth in a war of words with each other through the media for much of that time. Arum crossed the line Friday when he compared Mayweather’s list of demands in order for Manny Pacquiao fight him with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated figures of the last century according to The Sweet Science’s Michael Woods.
“This is like a tactic, I’m not equating the politics, it’s like Hitler,” he continued. “Before the Second World War, ‘give me Czechosolovakia, there’ll be peace,’ and this and that..and (Neville) Chamberlain (then UK Prime Minister) kept appeasing, kept appeasing…was there ever going to be peace? No. No. It’s not going to get anybody closer to that fight,” Arum said.
Even when Woods pointed out that the comparison was pretty harsh Arum didn’t shy away from his original statement and added more to his argument.
“That’s the truth,” he said. “That’s the truth. You do something like that that’s the tactic. You bully, you bully, you bully…finally the guy says, ‘Enough,’ and he says, ‘See, you don’t want to fight me,” Arum added.
With all of the roadblocks that have halted the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight from happening; this could be the final nail in the coffin for the dream bout. Sure the two have called each other names before, but Hitler, that’s a whole new level of trash-talk for the two.
Arum is not afraid of controversy and he could be saying this to garner attention as he and Pacquiao began the media blitz leading up to the April 12 rematch with WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
Arum could try and save face by apologizing to Mayweather in the coming days, but with the bitter history between the two you probably have a better chance of hitting the lottery before you hear Arum tell Money May he is sorry.
