‘It’s like the Premier League against Women’s Football’ – Bob Arum not worried about Taylor-Serrano Stevenson-Valdez TV clash
Bob Arum has no issue with promoting Shakur Stevenson versus Oscar Valdez on the same night as the historic Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano clash, as no one ‘pays attention to women’s fights’.
Matchroom confirmed on Thursday evening, that they will promote the biggest female fight of all time, at Madison Square Garden on April 30.
It’s the same date Top Rank and Arum plan to promote, a yet to be agreed or announced, 130lbs unification fight between Stevenson and Valdez.
Considering Taylor defends her Undisputed status in New York and Top Rank plan to go to Las Vegas there shouldn’t be any competition in terms of ticket selling.
However, there could be a fight for viewing eyeballs between streaming platform DAZN and American network ESPN. If that is the case, Arum is confident the fight he puts on will win out, claiming the interest in what appears an eagerly anticipated Taylor – Serrano clash isn’t as strong.
“As good a fight as that is, I mean, come on! For whatever reason people don’t particularly pay attention to the women’s fights. ESPN made the schedule and they couldn’t care less. I don’t want to denigrate fights and I don’t want to be accused of being anti-women in sports but I’m telling you this is like the Premier League against Women’s Football,” Arum said in an interview with IFL TV.
Jake Paul claps back at Bob Arum for his comments about women’s boxing 👀
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) January 30, 2022
Thoughts? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/MudG5ONCwE
It’s a statement that has already caused controversy and prompted a lot of criticism but it could be that’s the reaction the 90-year-old promoter was going for.
Noise surrounding a possible clash of fights allows the Top Rank boss to attach his fight to the furor around the Taylor-Serrano mega meeting.
In truth fans around the world should be able to watch both. Eddie Hearn, who is adamant the Undisputed lightweight fight is going to blow any Spring fight out of the water in terms of interest, said he would talk to Top Rank about ensuring the fights don’t happen at the same time.
The DAZN aligned promoter also told Irish press last week that he is looking to do Taylor-Serrano that bit earlier than the norm for American fights, as he wants to ensure it’s on at as reasonable an hour as possible in Ireland.
