Manny Pacquiao is the world's best boxer, but from the looks of the crowd at his fight Saturday night, the American public hasn't fully embraced him. The Mandalay Bay failed to sell out, with a rather paltry crowd of 8,362. So what was the problem? Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, says he knows who's to blame:
"There's one guy you can blame, and that's George Bush," Arum said. "With gasoline prices the way they are, people just can't afford to come in from California."
Arum wasn't done there; he's also quoted as saying, "I don't care if it's Obama or McCain. We want a change and we're going to get a change. These eight years have been the worst eight years that I can remember in the United States."
So if President Bush has now lost the support of rich white men like Arum, who exactly makes up the 25% or so of the country who still like him?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-01-2008 @ 1:37PM
crooked dick trickle said...
President Bush does not care about boxing.
/Kanye'd
//Obligatory
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7-01-2008 @ 2:07PM
Tony Moschetti said...
Bobn Arum is a mindless idiot if he thinks Bush, or any president has anything to do with oil or gas prices. Oops, check that, Bill Clinton did veto legislation that would have permitted drilling in ANWR in 1995! When the Demo-Rats took over the congress in 06' gas prices were $2.49 a gallon, and the charismatic Speaker of the House, "Wide eyes" Pelosi told us she had a common sense plan to bring that price down! Bush has been trying for years to get the Demo-Rats in congress permit oil exploration on our own lands. The most recent attempt was just recently when, on a straight party line vote, the Demo-Rats voted 9-6 in committee to not bring the motion up for a vote on the House floor. Arum must be afflicted with BDS!
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7-01-2008 @ 2:10PM
Trogdor said...
Setting aside Arum's case of BDS for a second, did anyone point out to him that just a month ago a UFC event in Vegas drew over 13K paid? Methinks the problem might be something other than an insignificant change in fuel costs during that time.
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7-01-2008 @ 2:21PM
Joel said...
Yeah, rich white men like George Soros have been huge fans of Bush up until now... what happened?
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7-01-2008 @ 4:09PM
grapevinesooner said...
When did Bob Arum become the spokesperson for all rich white men?
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7-01-2008 @ 5:55PM
Martin said...
When you are a promoter for the "world's best boxer" and you don't sell out the arena, in dishing out blame, you might want to look in the mirror.
As for the price of gas, anyone who has even a paltry knowledge of economics, or even common sense, recognizes that the population of the world is increasing exponentially, the per capita demand for oil in the most populous countries (China and India) is increasing exponentially, the supply of oil is stagnant, and thus demand exceeds supply.
Those who do not have even a paltry knowledge of economics or common sense say "Gee, it must be Bush's fault." Those people should not be allowed to vote, drive, or have children.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:47PM
isidrocuartero said...
I think a lot of boxing fans watched the fight at home and others in cinemas etc...
Just the same ,we enjoyed the fight to the maxx,thanks Mr Bob arum.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:26PM
DCRJ said...
I am just curious, why did you put a Gerry Penalosa photo in your article ? yeah I know that's Manny in the dark shades and Freddie Roach on Gerry's left side but what's Gerry Penalosa got to do with your article ?
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7-02-2008 @ 1:38AM
Adam F said...
I think the real reason is that the sport of boxing is not as popular as it used to be. I remember the great heavyweight fights such as Ali-Frazier in the 70's were regarded as events not to be missed and continued somewhat into the 80's with the middleweights like Hagler, Leonard,Hearns and Duran.
I blame greedy promoters for taking boxing away from public view with all the pay-per-view fiascos that we have now. I mean there are some stinker matchups that still end up as PPV at 50-60 bucks a pop. We can't even see boxing on broadcast TV anymore. Everythings on cable and PPV. How the hell do you expect mainstream America to even know who Pacquiao is? We have a whole generation now who couldn't care less about the sweet science as a sport.
What needs to happen is to bring boxing back into public view by airing the fights on regular TV like it used to on ABC's Wide World of Sports (RIP Jim McKay)and be announced by a Howard Cossell type. Then people will get to see rising stars in the sport. I mean who could forget Muhammad Ali in the golden days of boxing?
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