As Boxing Withers Away, Arum Isn't Too Far Behind

I met Bob Arum for breakfast and sat down across from a guy who has withered away to almost nothing.

I wasn't surprised. If you're making your living hyping boxing these days, what's there to promote?

To begin with, the sport is barbaric and appealing only when the public can identify the names of the guys who are going to beat each other up, and most of those guys have retired or now sell grills.

I remember, though, when Arum was famous, beginning his career working for the great attorney Louis Nizer, tagging along with Bobby Kennedy and then promoting Muhammad Ali, dining with Howard Cosell and moving on to make millions for Oscar De La Hoya.

Now he's the ringmaster for rotating freak shows, beginning in Staples Center on Saturday night with a tribute to old pugs such as Julio Cesar Chavez before going on to Las Vegas in July to capitalize on a year-old movie, "Million Dollar Baby," for a fight involving two women.

It's no wonder he doesn't know where his next meal is coming from

"I've been trying to lose weight," he protested, and I nodded as if I believed him, because I know how difficult it can be for some proud men to admit how down on their luck they might be.

"I hired a nutritionist, dropping from 217 to 183 and I feel great," he said. "I've lost some weight, but I haven't lost it! I have a plan for boxing, and I'm as excited as ever about pursuing it."

I remember the good old days when Arum, 73, said he would never promote another women's fight, but now he's got a plan, he said, and fingers crossed that Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah will take notice. How the mighty have fallen.

"I know what it was like when I used to go into a restaurant, and what it's like now," he said. "It's like, 'Who is this guy? I've never heard of him.'

"I'm desperate to bring in women to the sport of boxing. I need people. I need people who speak English, as well as all the people who speak Spanish. We had a great fight in Vegas in March [Manny Pacquiao versus Erik Morales] and except for the Hispanic audience and Philippine supporters, it wasn't written up in the newspaper any differently than an ordinary baseball game."

Pacquiao and Morales ranks right up there with Devil Rays and Tigers as far as I'm concerned too, but I worry no one else will care either, and Arum will go the way of hockey and just disappear.