Bob Arum's getting more irate with HBO

During Thursday's final news conference promoting the Fernando Montiel-Nonito Donaire bantamweight title fight Saturday night (HBO, 9:45 ET/PT) at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Top Rank's Bob Arum also made remarks about the televised co-feature during which he attacked HBO and welterweight titlist Andre Berto.

Philadelphia welterweight Mike Jones (23-0, 18 KOs) fights Jesus Soto-Karass (24-5-3, 16 KOs) of Mexico in a rematch of Jones' majority decision win in their November barnburner on the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito HBO PPV undercard.

Arum is irate because HBO is working to finalize an April 16 fight between Berto and junior welterweight Victor Ortiz, who is moving up in weight after fighting to a draw with Lamont Peterson on HBO in December in lackluster performance. For the past few years, HBO has been widely criticized for paying big bucks to Berto for a series of fights against lesser opposition.

With HBO senior vice president Kery Davis sitting only a few feet from Arum on the stage, Arum went off.

"Why is Andre Berto fighting a 140-pound fighter who had a draw with another 140-pound fighter?"Arum asked, his comments clearly directed toward Davis. "There is one thing that I'm sure of -- that these two fighters, these two welterweights [Jones and Karass], if they fought Victor Ortiz they would destroy him. Why is Andre Berto fighting Victor Ortiz and not fighting the winner of this fight? That's a question that we all should be asking. What the hell is going on?" The relationship between Arum and HBO is already at an all-time low after Arum took the May 7 Pacquiao-Shane Mosley pay-per-view fight from HBO to rival Showtime.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=6133688

For once I agree with Bob.

+1

Meh. I give Jones and Karass zero chance of beating Berto. At least Ortiz has a chance to knock him out.

kbyte wrote:Meh. I give Jones and Karass zero chance of beating Berto. At least Ortiz has a chance to knock him out.

Erm Berto was knocked down by Cosme Riveria and wobbled by Luis Collazo, it's not like he's walking around with Mosley's chin or Floyd's footwork.

I gurantee you Davis will be "leaving to persue other options" very soon

HBO won't fire Greenburg. Greenburg probably got pay out if he's fired. Just waiting for his contract to expire.

There will be a major over-haul with HBO in the near future. I think Turner Sports will be taking it over, and to counter Showtime-CBS synergy, they will air fights on Turnet networks like TNT

kbyte wrote:Meh. I give Jones and Karass zero chance of beating Berto. At least Ortiz has a chance to knock him out.

I'll address 2 pts Arum made:
1-Jones and/or Soto Karass would beat Ortiz- AGREED. Ortiz would get stopped late by Soto Karass and Jones would be able to outbox him to a decision.
2-Jones/Soto Karass winner would have a better chance against Berto- WHO CARES?? Ortiz doesn't have the power to KO Ortiz and his chin won't hold up. Soto Karass is tough and could give Berto a few rough moments, he would get stopped by Berto. Jones-is athletic and could win 3-5 rounds but I don't think he is strong enough mentally to fight hard for 12 rounds and win a decision.