Boxing promoter Bob Arum criticized fans of mixed martial arts as being “skinhead white guys” and the athletes like “homosexuals” rolling around on the ground. Arum, 77, made these remarks in an interview with Fanhouse (video below). Said Arum:
For me, and people like me, [MMA] is not something they ever care to see. They’ve watched it. It’s horrible. Guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground. It is not a sport that shows great, great talent.
Deadspin did a transcription of the interview and found this nugget criticizing MMA fans:
Our audience in boxing is ethnic. Hispanic, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and the hardcore boxing fan who can’t watch … like me … can’t watch UFC. UFC are a bunch of skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys.
Arum is just an old racist and homophobic SOB whose time has passed by. MMA is growing by leaps and bounds with young fight fans, while boxing struggles to remain relevant. He can do little else but insult its athletes and the people who watch it.
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Interestingly I just got up to Part 113 of the German soap with two main characters Christian and Ollie who are gay. Christian is a boxer. Another boxer Axel – who Christian knocked out in an earlier match – beat up Olli in revenge.
After Olli later suffers an aneurysm due to his injuries and is in the hospital undergoing an operation Christian goes out to wreak revenge on Axel.
When Olli’s cousin talks him out of it, he instead goes to his old club to confront the other members – by now including Axel – with information and details of how Olli was injured and why they should be ashamed of not rating on Axel – who had boasted to all of them about how he had bashed Olli.
That little lecture is one you will probably never hear in the real world so I’m linking the video of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F3Pp84Yxdw&NR=1
Soap opera acting and plots normally leave me pretty cold. And so did this one, even through that little lecture.
But when Christian later goes to Olli’s bedside and tells him for the first time that he loves him, I have to admit that’s when I nearly lost it.
And I think that’s the problem with most boxers. Not that they haven’t heard a dramatic soliloquy about doing right by others regardless of race, color, orientation etc.
It’s that they have never believed that someone really unequivocally loves them – with no pre-conditions and without a fight.
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 4:34 PM
Boxing and MMA really have different aesthetics. Both are brutal, but boxing is more subtle and less multi-dimensional. That’s the reason it’s losing its audience. The beauty and excitement of MMA is that a fight can move in so many different directions. It could be a slug fest between two strikers and then suddenly end on a jujitsu hold. To me, it’s more grounded in the real world. Boxing, on the other hand, is more circumscribed by parameters limiting what moves a fighter can and can’t make. More chess-like, but with blood and concussions. Same thing with other forms of martial arts. A master at karate is beautiful to watch, but he or she can be taken down by someone who’s fighting a different kind of fight. The best MMA fighters are the ones who have mastered a range of fighting styles and can switch styles to match the needs of the fight.
Comparing boxing and MMA is like comparing the decathlon and the shot put. Or, more accurately, football and running. Running is part of football, but football involves so much more. A 100 meter sprint may be an exciting competition, but more people would probably pay to watch the Steelers than Usain Bolt.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Well, hold on. Isn’t everybody here always going on about how “homoerotic” MMA is? How it looks like some of these guys are having sex when they roll around on the floor? So… this old guy says essentially the same thing (in a much less artful way, of course, because he’s a 77-year-old straight guy) and he’s a homophobe? Stop. And yes, a lot of these guys *do* look like “skinheads”, so calling Arum “racist” (when he’s actually calling MMA fans racist, or at least less culturally diverse than boxing fans) makes no sense.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 12:23 PM
I watched the clip Sportinlife provided the link to and yes it was pretty sweet moment. Typical soap but sweet just the same. Also the German soap actors are pretty f’in hunky
My dad was a boxer and taught us kids so I’ll always have a soft spot for boxing but have watched MMA fights and like it. These guys are much better atheletes and tecnically/tacticly much better fighters. Yup it is homo erotic and by it’s popularity I think the straights don’t have much of a problem w/that or don’t pick up on it.
Unfortunately change in some areas of our society come one funeral at a time and this old douche bag Arum falls into this category. Sour grapes too.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 11:35 PM
I guess boxing doesnt have any black fans
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Bob Arum was part of one of the biggest blunders by the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans.
Back in the 90s Arum was part of a group trying to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and move the team to New Orleans. The NBA was still in its heyday and they let the cat out the bag too soon. They told the Times-Picayune that it was a done deal.
The next day the Times-Picayune ran a huge banner headlines saying “Got ‘Em” over a page sized photo of the Minnesota Timberwolves jersey. The deal fell through and they were all left with egg on their faces.
on Sep 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 AM
What a racist idiot he is! Tons of people watch MMA and has made it into a billion dollar industry.
on Sep 16th, 2010 at 1:40 PM
Ah most boxers are just jealous because MMA has taken their spot. The sport of MMA makes more money than boxing does now. MMA isn’t even new, just look at the sport of Pankration, and see how close they are. In fact MMA has brought that sport back to life over in Greece, and now they are considering putting it back into the Olympic games, because of the popularity of MMA, which I think is awesome.
I do MMA, been doing it for awhile. I’m not gay or a skinhead.
on Feb 4th, 2011 at 9:22 PM
I think its fucking hot i just wished they did it naked like back in the greek days or roman days they are hot so are gladiators and romans they all have a long history of having gay relations but still being men and having familys and winning wars so they have a fuck buddy by their side who fucking cares i wouldnt mind watching or participating
on Feb 6th, 2011 at 4:04 PM
So he says MMA is gay. And? Why is that a slur? Like Mike said, guys on Outsports say it all of the time. And if we think it’s a bad thing to be gay, then what are we conceding to? Also, has anyone ever heard of SHARPS (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice)? Neo-Nazis co-opted a look made popular by working class white Brits who bonded with working class Jamaicans. MMA = Brazilian jujitsu = comes from Brazil, which has the highest population of people of African descent outside Nigeria.
on Nov 16th, 2011 at 3:07 PM
Why don’t the MMA men just get it on instead of bashing each other’s brains out? Much more erotic than suppressed homoerotic sadism.