By Norm Frauenheim–
LAS VEGAS – A rematch Saturday marked mostly by polite exchanges between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley suddenly got a shot of some old-school trash talk from promoter Bob Arum, who is angry at the MGM Grand for selling Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Marcos Maidana on May 3 with advertising throughout the casino.
A Mayweather mural, estimated to be 20 stories tall, soars up the side of the MGM Grand and overlooks the busy intersection at Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard, The Strip. For nearly every Pacquiao-Bradley poster on the sides of slot machines, there’s one of Mayweather-Maidana staring back at it. Outside the door to the media’s workroom, a Mayweather-Maidana ad hangs from the ceiling, above a Pacquiao-Bradley poster.
By the time the 82-year-old Arum arrived at the formal news conference Wednesday, he had seen enough, especially of Mayweather looking down at him.
Arum began the news conference by introducing Richard Sturm, MGM President of Entertainment & Sports as “the president of hanging posters for the wrong fight.’’
The media asked for a response from Sturm following the news conference. Several hours later, none was forthcoming.
Meanwhile, Arum was just getting warmed up during a one-man stand-up that included a vague reference to Frankie Carbo, a 1950’s gangster who owned a piece of Sonny Liston.
“I know that at the Venetian, they wouldn’t make a mistake like this,’’ said Arum, who is friends with Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Venetian in Vegas and Macao, China’s gambling mecca and fledgling boxing market. “They would know what fight they have scheduled over the next three or four days.
“They wouldn’t have a 12-to-1 fight being advertised all over the building that’s going to take place three weeks from next Saturday. But that’s why one company makes a billion dollars a quarter and the other hustles to pay its debt. So there it is.”
Arum’s bitter feud with Mayweather is hardly a secret. It too was evident in a discussion that Arum had with Bradley while still on stage and not far from the microphone.
“Why don’t you ask the guy whose picture is all over the building? When is he going to fight somebody real?’’ Arum said in a booming voice that really didn’t need any electronic amplification.
Bradley replied: “I’ll let you ask him that.’’
As it turned out, Bradley might have been the only one who had anything nice to say about the MGM.
“I’ve never been in a hotel room with stairs,’’ Bradley said of his suite. “You need an elevator in there.’’
An elevator decorated with a Mayweather-Maidana poster, of course.
