ARUM: PROMOTER PAR EXCELLENCE AND QUINTESSENTIAL HUMAN BEING
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 11 May 2010
We?ve always enjoyed visiting places in the Visayas and Mindanao because there are many areas that still remain unspoiled and where the peoples simplicity and warmth are something special.
The few days we spent in General Santos City in the graceful ambiance of the Family Country Hotel and Convention Center of our longtime friend and gentleman-sportsman Rey Golingan whose passion for boxing hasn?t waned and whose friendship with Manny Pacquiao is still as firm as ever based primarily on Rey?s honesty in assessing situations and telling it like it is, were days worth remembering. That?s because it was spent in the company of men ? and one lady ? who represented pre-eminent sports journalists of our time whose perception reflected in their writings are marked by consummate class both in substance and in style.
The lady, Nancy Gay of AOL Fanhouse, who embraced the smiling young faces and sparkling eyes of young kids who attended a Pacquiao political rally in Kiamba and wished she could take some of them home to the US with her and the distinguished former sports editor and now columnist Billy Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times added to the value of our visit as did the ever-present Michael Marley whose bigness belies a gentleness within. In many ways we learned from them and were ennobled by sharing time with them because it?s not always that we get to be with sports writers and columnists who are icons of their era in their craft.
And then there was Bob Arum, the astute Top Rank promoter who is unquestionably a cut above the rest in boxing, steeped as he is in the sport for decades, and from which he has obviously drawn the best and the worst of experiences in a business that at times could be as mean as hell.
As a raconteur Arum has no challenger worthy of being in the same ring with him. He tells stories with a flair and an impish smile that can, at the best of times, bewitch his audience and whose laughter rings with the sense of joy of recalling incidents to men and women he enjoys being with. We sensed, right away, that Arum was more than comfortable in the company of the journalists who had come to chronicle the extraordinary saga of the world?s pound-for-pound king.
They marveled at the fact that Manny was fighting in an arena unfamiliar and relatively unchartered for him but was passionately determined to help the poor people of Sarangani break away from the age-old bondage of poverty which Pacquiao had unshackled himself from to virtually conquer the Filipino nation and the world. Whether he succeeds or not is another story. But his foray into the oftentimes sordid political arena is a story that has to be told with the kind of insights that would set it apart from an ordinary political piece with people like Nancy Gay, Bill Dwyre and Michael Marley as well as the Times of London Asia Bureau chief bound to do justice to the unfolding story.
Arum at 78 never ceases to amaze us with his willingness to travel from Las Vegas all the way to General Santos City and then to take a 90 minute ride to Kiamba to be with Manny and to show him how much he really and sincerely cares for what Manny does or seeks to achieve. Sure, Arum makes a substantial amount from the ring exploits of Pacquiao but that doesn?t mean he needs to take such long trips at his age to be with his prized possession and to strive to guide him and to do what Arum believes is best for him. Therein lies the genuineness of the man which Manny reciprocates with his loyalty and respect.
Sometimes Arum sheds the mantle of a top boxing promoter and speaks from the heart. We recall his telling us ?Manny?s desire to help the poor so he can, in his own way make their lives better, is more important to me than a left hook or a right cross or anything like that? was a powerful message.
Arum reinforced the overwhelming admiration for him among Filipinos for guiding Pacquiao?s career just as they admire and are grateful for what trainer Freddie Roach has done when he told us that even if Manny decides not to fight again ?he?s had a great career and it?s a real honor for me to have been associated with him.?
That is clearly the measure of the man ...Bob Arum, promoter par excellence and quintessential human being.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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