‘The incentive is gone’: Arum says fighters playing it safe to ensure paydays, resulting in bad fights

Bob Arum breaks down why we’re seeing underwhelming performances in some of boxing biggest cards.

Bob Arum talks to boxing media about a couple of awful boxing cards that started the weekend, a better ending of the weekend for the sport, and gives his thoughts on the upcoming Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford fight. Here’s some of what the sage old promoter had to say.

Arum on Inoue vs Cardenas

“It was a brilliant performance and thank God it was a great fight within a great show and boxing needed that having swallowed and paid money for Friday night’s show from New York and Saturday’s show from Riyadh. This was really what boxing’s about. The other stuff, it defies what it’s about but it’s certainly not entertaining — it’s agonizing.

On if he would be hesitant to let one of his fighters appear on a Turki card if he thinks it could be a dud, considering what we’ve just seen

“No. Let’s be honest about it, there’s no medals on any of us in boxing. And if the Saudis offer one of my fighters really big money to fight in a fight that I really believe will be non-competitive and boring — yeah, I would send them over because the money is the money. This is a business, we’re not playing around and we’re not amateurs.

“So while I might not like sending my fighter to any place if he’s going to be in a boring fight, if the money is so overwhelming I really have no choice.”

On Canelo vs Crawford and Haney vs Ramirez

“Who knows with these guys getting so much money what their incentive is to really perform. I mean, look what happened. Let’s be honest, Canelo was in a not a very good fighter on Saturday and he was getting $50M to fight him and he had already been promised $100M to fight Crawford. So why would he take a chance, right? But that’s no good for boxing.

“Now see in the old days when we had a fighter like Sugar Ray Leonard or Oscar De La Hoya doing a fight, they had a reason to really give the crowd an entertaining fight because their next fight had already been agreed to but they stood to make extra money from the PPV, from the gate, so there was always an incentive for them to look good.

“Now the incentive is gone because they promise great money for their next fight and the only sure way they’re going to get it is to not engage in a fight. I mean Devin Haney is a very good fighter. You saw the fight with Ramirez, that was a disgrace. That was an absolute disgrace. But if you’re Devin Haney and you’re getting good money for the fight with Ramirez and you’re going to get super money to fight Garcia — because he assumed Garcia would win — then why would he take any risks? But that’s not for boxing, that’s terrible for boxing.

“If they’re each going to fight [Canelo and Crawford], really fight, I think it’s terrific. It’s really interesting. But, again, if I had to pay money to watch that fight I wouldn’t do it because Canelo has shown in his last few fights that he’s just a businessman, he’s not in there to entertain the public. He just takes the big check.

“But, again, if Canelo really fights — because it’s safe to say Terence always fights, he doesn’t know anything else — then it could be a good, interesting fight.”