Bob Arum Quotations

If you think Barkley was mad before the fight, wait until he sees how many people are taking part of his purse

Sugar Ray Leonard's retirements last about as long as Elizabeth Taylor's marriages.

Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter I've ever seen

Don King sucks...Don King sucks...Don King sucks...

My matchmakers said Shane would make the most entertaining fight for the fans. For pure name recognition Shane Mosley is the best fighter for marketability.

Shane Mosley is a dangerous fighter. He is bigger than Manny, strong and he still has his speed. He has never been stopped. He can take anyone's best punch and come back as strong as ever. He's so resilient. You can't hurt him.

Nobody can count Shane Mosley out. He is a good, good fighter, especially when he fights an aggressive opponent like Manny Pacquiao.

Hopkins is talking about fighting at Yankee Stadium but that's rubbish. If he fought at Yankee Stadium, even the ushers wouldn't want to watch him. Bernard Hopkins couldn't draw breath.

I'm gonna make a ton of money on the rematch, but that decision was horrible.

Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth.

Leonard and Ali made their mark on network television, the Olympics ? Ali on 'Wide World of Sports,' Sugar Ray on ABC and so forth. By the time they were ready to go for the big bucks, they were household names. In this environment, it's much tougher.

Ricky Hatton is not going to fight a real opponent until he drains all the money out fighting secondary guys, in my opinion. That's why we decided not to go after him.

I anticipated this ruling and my plan is to begin negotiations with Dennis.

Because we're not very happy with some of the underhanded things that HBO has pulled in this situation. But it's unfair for me to get into it right now. They're not here and I'm sure you'll read about it in court papers that are going to be filed.

He made a mistake by going into the ring, but it was his nephew, and this hooligan (Judah) -- that's what he is, a hooligan -- committed these very flagrant fouls.

(Judah) will probably put up a much better fight because he's fighting for his life, in effect, than if he had just won a victory over Baldomir.

I think the public now is beginning to appreciate this man's talent. As the most talented fighter in the world, he will be in a position to be the biggest attraction and make the most money. I think one thing will naturally follow the other, as long as -- as he said -- is cooperative with the media and knows and understands promotion. The sky's the limit.

James was, and is, very proud of his skills. He's so intelligent, he loves to fight; most guys today in boxing don't love to fight. They fight to get the money. James loves to be in the ring; that's where he feels the most comfortable. So there was always pressure on us when he was fighting for us to get him a fight, even if it was a low money fight.

Mark's a straight shooter. You're not going to be able to feed him (nonsense). He knows the numbers down to the penny and he knows the pay-per-view business like no one else.

I'm still trying to make (the fight). It all rests now on the shoulders of Floyd Mayweather.

Yeah, I know but he won that fight easy.

We believed (similar) fights had been wrongly marketed, to some extent. Urban audiences, African-American audiences weren't getting the attention they deserved.

When Diego Corrales was hurt, Gary called and said we owe it to the people of El Paso to have a very good fight card. You will not be disappointed, believe me.

This will be the best all-around boxing card ever here in Los Angeles, ... The prices of the card are affordable. They appeal to the ordinary boxing fan here in Los Angeles. You will not see tickets for $1000. Fans who love boxing can purchase tickets as low as $25. Over half the tickets are $50 and less.

We're talking with HBO. We want to do this fight on non pay-per-view. We want to see if it's possible to do the fight on HBO, and I am optimistic we can do that.

We've had preliminary discussions with the people there.

There is so much pride in Jose Luis Castillo. It is a pleasure to promote him. He is a gentleman and a family man. He is someone who trains and who is dedicated to the sport of boxing.

You have two of the best lightweights in the world fighting each other. Either one of these two could very well be in the main event, or fighting for a world title very soon. Because both are that good, we can only expect a great fight between them.

What was supposed to happen was that Bobby Kennedy was going to become the secretary of state, Morgenthau was going to be the attorney general and I was going to move to Washington and become head of the tax division. If Oswald had missed, I'd probably be a judge somewhere now.

The public knows this will be a great fight.

There had never been a black guy up to that point who had been a television commentator in the U.S., so I suggested he hire a black guy to do the TV. He thought it was a great idea, so we tried to get Willie Mays.

Erik has to make that decision (whether to fight again). I'm not in favor of it or ... (opposed to) it. It's his call to make, not mine.

The one criticism I have about Don is that he doesn't have any restraint. You make a buck, but it doesn't have to be your last buck.

A lot of times, we'll be promoting a big event and someone on my staff gets nervous and I just laugh at them. Nothing -- trust me, there is no way -- that anything will ever be as tough as that. Everything has been easy since that one.

They're out of their minds. Who do they think they are? This is totally inappropriate. What they've done highlights the fact they're an organization that has absolutely no credibility.

It's a disaster ready to happen again. Why is HBO doing this? Is money so important, or are these guys who are the big names so important?

It's a disaster ready to happen again, ... Why is HBO doing this? Is money so important, or are these guys who are the big names so important?

It's discretionary decision with the referee whether a fight will be canceled, and the referee (Richard Steele) decided to let the fight go on.

After that, it's been a piece of cake.

After the (Leon) Spinks loss (in February 1978), I asked him to promise me that he would never fight again.

It's not completely finalized, but I talked with Steve (Wednesday) and he has given me a proxy to go ahead. It's not really 'official' official, but the building is on hold, and we've got the date (from Showtime), so we're just about there.

I'm not comparing him as a fighter to Marvin Hagler, because there was only one Marvin, but the situation is the same. But I promised Antonio I would do everything in my power to make 2006 his year. If he doesn't get those fights this year, it won't be for a lack of effort. It will be because guys aren't interested in picking up the pen and signing the paper.

I know some heavyweights are disaffected with King and are looking to do other things. If he can put together a tournament, God love him. But remember, you've got to put John Ruiz in it.

I knew what he was trying to do. That type of stuff, which really meant nothing, fueled the controversy and animosity between us.

I have never seen a period of time when the heavyweight championship meant so little. It's clear.

Hopefully you mature as you get older. He's a bright kid. I think the lessons are now sinking in. I think he knows that as a celebrity, he has to protect himself. He can't go to the wrong places.

He can do what he wants. I know there are some fighters disaffected with King. If he can put together a tournament, God bless him. But remember, he has to put Ruiz in that tournament.

The heavyweight division takes as much of a blow on this as Bob Arum did. It's not good for the heavyweight division. You can't cry over spilled milk. Whatever is left out there, you have to make the best of it.

The doctor came in and fired the trainer two weeks ago. We just found out that he's been without a trainer since then.