Bob Arum: MMA Is Nothing But Skinheads, Homosexuals

If boxing wants to win the war against MMA, you know what it needs more of? Grumpy old white guys willing to provide insulting, homophobic, possibly racist rants about its rival audience. Take it away, Bob Arum!

Just to explain what we're dealing with here, the 77-year-old boxing promoter held a press conference at Yankee Stadium today to announce a fight that's taking place in Las Vegas. So that gives you some insight into his living in the past mentality. Arum wants to bring fights back to the Bronx—but not if they involve Floyd Mayweather, who Arum thinks is not entertaining because he fights "scared." So that's a good start.

Then his one-on-one interview with Fanhouse's Ariel Helwani got really uncomfortable, when Helwani asked Arum about UFC and if its head-to-head matchup with the Mayweather-Marquez fight would hurt either pay-per-view haul.

For me, I look at the UFC audience and the boxing audience as being two different audiences entirely. 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.

Naturally, Helwani (a white guy!) took offense and tried to point out his feelings on the matter—but Arum helpfully set him straight.

And you don't have any tattoos. Ninety percent of the people in the audience wear tattoos. I don't care. That's up to them. But those aren't people that would have any interest, at any time, in boxing.

For me, and people like me, it 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.

And he says that like it's a bad thing! Arum went on to further explain how MMA is "garbarge and junk" and if you have any interest in it at all, you're probably garbage too. Oh, and UFC lies about their revenue figures. (But they're great businessmen! Some of his best friends are MMA promoters!) But Bob Arum's generation—and the Mexicans!—aren't buying it.

You should really watch the whole thing, because when it comes to angry old man rants, they just don't make them like this anymore.

Bob Arum Blasts Floyd Mayweather, MMA [Fanhouse]

Send an email to Dashiell Bennett, the author of this post, at dashiell@deadspin.com.

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