Arum Predicts: "Margarito-Gomez will be a fight of the year finalist!"

thehype: Boxingtalk would like to welcome Bob Arum to tonight's T.N.T. chat session

Nay_Sayer: What did you learn from promoting the golder girl?

BOB_ARUM: I really learned the power and the influence of the Hispanic community. That really opened my eyes to the vast market out there.

BOB_ARUM: I also learned to never fall in love with a fighter because they always break your heart.

JJJJermain: Bob tell me why i should order the PPV on Saturday ive never seen Gomez fight is he a threat to Margorito?

BOB_ARUM: Gomez is a real Hispanic warrior and the best kind. He comes and he has tremendous power. He's probably the hardest puncher in the welterweight division and I definitely think he's going to be competitive with Margarito.

BOB_ARUM: I'm predicting that this fight, at the end of the year, will be one of the top candidates for fight of the year.

p4p_king: WHATS UP BOB? WHO WINS FLOYD OR MARGARITO?......LET US KNOW

BOB_ARUM: Well, you're dealing in that situation with a guy who I think is the strongest welterweight and the best pure boxer I've seen since Ali with Mayweather.

BOB_ARUM: Speed generally wins and you have to make Floyd the favorite

BOB_ARUM: But it's a tough fight for him because Margarito is a bigger Castillo and he can give Floyd some serious problems

One_Punch: Bob, any thoughts on the Winky-Shaw thing from last week? How do you feel about competing for tv dates with fighters-turned-promoters who have no staff, no office space, no overhead, no fighters, no investment in the development of fighters, etc, etc, etc?

BOB_ARUM: Yeah, I think it all came out the way it should have come out. There was no reason for this to have occured in the first place. I announced from the get go my support for Gary and I thought anyone who interfered with his rights was liable to legal damages.

BOB_ARUM: I'm glad it's been resolved and there will be no adverse legal consequences.

Antonio00: Bob, whats the chances Top Rank lands the May 6th date with Margarito ?

BOB_ARUM: That's something we've been talking to Showtime about. It's something we would like to do. A number of fighters have been mentioned as opponents, but believe me Margarito has to get by Gomez which isn't a lock.

BOB_ARUM: And if this fight takes a lot out of him, he might not be ready for May.

BOB_ARUM: Now there's a few question marks about it, but by Saturday at midnight, we'll have the answers.

Bizzle_Souza: Whuddup Bob, ur the best at what u do. Please sign the Collazo vs Cotto contract. It would be a great fight and if you want Cotto's next fight in MSG the thats perfect. Title fight,and a great fight. Whats up w/ the Cotto vs Hatton situation?

BOB_ARUM: It really hadn't occured to me because Collazo is a welterweight. I think we want to keep Cotto at junior welterweight so it would be much easier to have him fight the winner of Castillo-Corrales later this year.

BOB_ARUM: Bringing him back down would be no easy task.

BOB_ARUM: I'd love him to fight Collazo. I just don't think we could do it in June.

Kid_Azteca: With all due respect.  How do you justify selling this Margarito card as a PPV event?  At $40 no less?  It is an insult to fight fans and especially your target fan base, the latino market.

BOB_ARUM: I think it's a great card. Margarito-Gomez don't have the same names as Vargas and Mosley, but they're not over-the-hill fighters and I think at this point they're both much fresher than Vargas and Mosley who were top fighters years ago.

BOB_ARUM: Viloria is in a good fight and so is Calderon and we have Chavez Jr. fighting the guy who fought him to a draw.

BOB_ARUM: I think it's a terrific card. By all means, if people don't believe it's not worth it, don't pay the money. I'm not going after anyone with a gun.

BOB_ARUM: But there's no delay and I think it's going to be a great, great action packed card.

BOB_ARUM: No delay the following week so if you want to see what people will talk about as one of the fights of the year, the only way to see it is to buy the PPV.

katrina: how important was making this fight for you and Floyd with king and Zab and is there a rematch clause?

BOB_ARUM: It was very important. Everything said with me and King, I still get a kick out of working with him. He tries to get under my skin and I get under his, but we always do far more than people anticipate. We had Leonard and Duran in Montreal and De La Hoya-Trinidad.

BOB_ARUM: We think this will do really well and it's going to be a very exciting fight.

BOB_ARUM: Floyd's greates attribute is his speed and Judah can match that and he has a pretty good punch. I think Mayweather handles Judah and King thinks his guy is going to win.

BOB_ARUM: It's going to be a great promotion and it's going to have a tremendous undercard

BOB_ARUM: We're going to have Arce-Alvarez and the other two matches will be announced shortly.

BOB_ARUM: We have over $3.5M in tickets sold and we're moving towards a sell out so I'm very pleased.

nige2011: Bob, or you and Juarez still cool, or is there beef now that he can't get on TV?

BOB_ARUM: I never promoted Juarez.

cjc: bob, will erik morales fight a tuneup bout before the paquaio fight, and do you think he needs one?

BOB_ARUM: Absolutely not. He doesn't need one. All he has to do is not blow up and keep the weight off so he's near weight when he gets into camp. If he does that, the results will be different. He got knocked out because his legs went and his legs went becuase of the dieting.

BOB_ARUM: The third fight will be at 132 and I think that gives him an advantage but he's not going to do a tune-up fight.

BOB_ARUM: Incidentally, Pacquiao will be in the audience on Saturday night because Brian Viloria is very popular in the Philippines and Manny will be doing commentary back to the Phillipines.

BOB_ARUM: And Morales will be there because he promotes Aguirre, who will be fighting Viloria.

BOB_ARUM: So both of those guys will be at the Aladdin on Saturday.

KO_Kid: Since everybody's crying about the belt...after Mayweather beats Judah all he has to do is beat the bum that beat Judah.  What's his name?  Baltazar?  Baltimore?

BOB_ARUM: Baldomir. At this point of his career, Floyd only wants big fights. He only wants big PPV fights and I think if Margarito is successful against Gomez and Mayweather is successful against Judah, I think that becomes the logical fight and I think it would do big business.

rpbrown29@hotmail.com: With HBO holding a date for Oscar in September, would you consider trying to make a Mayweather-De la Hoya fight? And what about Margarito vs.  Mosley,Gatti, Collazo or Baldomir is that something that you guys would make?

BOB_ARUM: I don't know who HBO is holding a date for when he hasn't got in the ring for a May fight and they're holding September.

BOB_ARUM: I already have UNLV football stadium on hold for September 16. It will hold 27,000 people and it's going to be one of the most colorful events of all time, so if Oscar wanted to fight Floyd he'd have to fight him on a different date.

BOB_ARUM: We're going to put the ring on the end of the end-zone and sell it out through the forty yard line.

hitman: Bob, Cotto is your top prospect.  Does it concern you the way he's been getting hurt his last couple fights?  Do you think he can really stand up to Castillo?

BOB_ARUM: It really concerns me and that's why we laid him off for the period of time we had. They discovered he had a busted eardrum from the Corley fight and that's why he's looked shaky in some of these fights.

BOB_ARUM: His eardrum has now healed and I think it's going to be smooth sailing for Cotto, but that's why you make fights and you make big fights because you never know who's going to win.

BOB_ARUM: I don't know who would win between Cotto and Castillo and that's why it's going to be a tremendous fight when it happens.

Fan: Bob, do you think Dong King stole Tyson's money? what's your personal opinion on that?

BOB_ARUM: Steal is the wrong word. I think there is an allegation that has been made and could be justified that King rewarded himself from the proceeds of a Tyson fight inordinately.

BOB_ARUM: However, I'm not sure that there was anything wrong about it. I just thought it was unfair.

BOB_ARUM: Did he take advantage of Tyson? Yes. Stealing? No!

Ring_Master: Bob, at what point do you plan on promoting PBF with the same vigor you promote your hispanic fighters. A lot of people in america are upset with the way you have promoted PBF, or your lack of promotion in favor of the hispanics.

BOB_ARUM: I think we did a helluva job promoting him in the Gatti fight and I want that question to be asked after you see how we're going to promote him in the Zab Judah fight and beyond. The promotion of Mayweather-Judah is going to be absolutely fantastic.

BOB_ARUM: It was difficult to promote Floyd the way we wanted to on HBO. Now he's on PPV where real promoters can show their stuff.

BOB_ARUM: We're going to prove to you that we can promote Floyd Mayweather as good or better as any Hispanic fighter we promote.

Titlebelt: Bob, What were the circumstances surrounding your comment Yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth"?  LOL."

BOB_ARUM: I really would like to answer that question so listen

BOB_ARUM: This was many, many years ago. I was promoting a Leonard fight in Syracuse. There was a big snowstorm and nobody could go anywhere so everyone was drinking like mad. There was a question who is the better fighter A or B and I said A

BOB_ARUM: the next day I said B, but everybody was drunk and they asked me why I changed my mind

BOB_ARUM: I said yesterday I was lying and today I'm telling the truth

BOB_ARUM: But everyone was drunk. The lesson I learned was never drink with a boxing writer.

BOB_ARUM: Since that time I have never had a drink with a boxing writer

thehype: Boxingtalk would like to thank Bob Arum for taking time out to chat with us tonight

BOB_ARUM: Thanks for having me. I'd love to do this again!