Las Vegas Sun

June 19, 2013

Currently: 76° | Complete forecast | Log in

Fight snapshot: Arum takes a pot shot during Pacquiao training

Published Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 | 3:17 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 | 3:21 a.m.

This happened during a Manny Pacquiao training session at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif., where Pacquiao was preparing for his welterweight title fight Saturday against Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters, was holding court. He was about to launch into one of his innumerable anecdotes from his storied career in the boxing business.

This one, although we never got to hear the whole thing, evidently took place in the early 1970s, when Arum was living in New York City.

"I'm sitting in my apartment and the phone rings," Arum was saying. "Now, just before the phone rang, I had just finished rolling a joint ..."

Whoa. That line drew the attention of a publicist for the fight, who interrupted to declare the statement "off the record," unfit for use in print, on video, in blogs, or anywhere else.

Arum overruled him, though.

"So what? They can use it however they want to use it," Arum growled later. "Big deal. So I smoked some grass 35 or 40 years ago.

"Who cares?"

Indeed, for my money the only shocking or newsworthy part of the whole affair is that, in 2009, someone still uses the decidedly retro slang term "grass."

There's no truth to the rumor that Arum also predicted a far out and groovy performance from Pacquiao in the ring.

Discussion: 1 comment so far...

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.

Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.

Post a comment

Commenting requires registration.

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy.

If you would like to submit your comment as a letter to the editor, you may submit it here.

Most Popular