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11/03/10 - UFC and boxing promoter declare (temporary?) truce over Pacquiao
As unlikely as it seems, given that Dana White and Bob Arum have been at each other’s throats for several years now, it seems a temporary truce has been agreed between the UFC president and one of boxing’s biggest promoters.
Arum heads up Top Rank and will be promoting the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey WBO title fight on March 13th. UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy was originally going to take place on that date, but was moved to avoid a clash with Pacquiao, who was originally slated to face Floyd Mayweather Jr.
In the past Arum has decried MMA as being akin to “rolling around like homosexuals on the ground” while White has previously criticised Arum for putting weak undercards together and "sucking the life out of the sport [of boxing].”
But the Pacquaio-Clottey fight has apparently reconciled them as White, who boxed as a youngster and still loves the sport, has urged his Twitter followers (who number over one million) to buy the match on pay-per-view when it takes place.
White and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta have said they will be ringside for the fight, along with a host of big name celebrities, and Arum has publicly thanked the UFC pair for their support in promoting the fight. The co-operation is a rare scene and contrasts starkly with situations we have seen in the past, such as the UFC 103/Mayweather Jr. clash.
Going head-to-head on the same dates is beneficial to neither sport and the promoters know that. In addition, new landscapes have perhaps buried past rivalries. Boxing has a dearth of big names and promoters must maximise revenues whenever they can, while the UFC has its crosshairs hovering squarely over Strikeforce and its nation-reaching CBS deal.
Add that to a fragile economy and the shrinking disposable income available to many consumers and it only makes sense for all the rival promoters to cease fire, at least until conditions improve. To continue clashing dates and counter-promoting each other would be a pointless war of attrition, so look forward to more mutual expressions of respect between the MMA and boxing world in 2010.
John Joe O’Regan
John.fightersonly@gmail.com
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