Arum is right (he is lying)

Top Rank’s Bob Arum is famous for saying: “I lied yesterday. Today, I am telling the truth.”

And he is right on target when he said the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is not the biggest fight ever in professional boxing. It was the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier I that will go down in history as the greatest ever, according to him.

Imagine if it happened today – in the age of social media, Internet and cable TV. How big would it be?

Until the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is played out in a manner that it will equal or surpass the level of ferocity and animosity of, say, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns and the Ali-Frazier Thrilla in Manila, no one should be so unfair as to call it the greatest ever.

Ali and Frazier have bad blood between them amid the global anti-Vietnam War movement that polarized not only America but the rest of the world. 

They fought at the height of the Cold War.

Their first fight was politically charged. Ali was coming from forced “exile” after refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War. Incidentally, he, then Cassius Clay, renounced Christianity to embrace Islam.

Imagine if that happened today in the American “War Against Terror.”

In the last of their 3 fights, an exhausted Ali, who won via technical knockout when Eddie Futch vehemently prevented Frazier from answering the 14th round bell, said it was the closest there was to death.

Hagler and Hearns came during a talent-laden era where the best fought the best. They are their generation’s pure and unadulterated fighters. Boxing purists hail their encounter as the best-ever 3 rounds in professional boxing which ended in a Hearns konockout.

During their time and prime, it was not unusual to fight 6 or more fights in a year.

Today, with big money and pay per view television effectively cutting off boxing fans from live gates and free viewing, only marquee fighters get to have their fight shown on live feed.

They also put new meaning to marquee fighters. Marquee means cash register ringers.

Hype played in the buildup of a fighter.

Floyd has become the symbol of new marquee fighters. His career has been carefully plotted. But his choice of opponents oftentimes was found wanting.

Pacquiao belongs to the old school with a different twist. A charismatic demon atop the ring.

On Sunday, I hope Arum will again be lying.

Everybody wants the fight to live to its billing.

The Biggest Fight of the Century, the Ali-Frazier I offering included. – Rappler.com

Edwin Espejo is a freelance journalist based in General Santos City.