Arum first endorses Pacquiao for president in 2008

By Alex P. Vidal

“Remember, it is not about voting for the perfect candidate-there is no such thing. Presidents are human.” —Michelle Obama

THE exact date when Top Rank CEO Bob Arum first endorsed Sen. Manny Pacquiao to run for Philippine president was on December 4, 2008, during our press conference at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was also in that press conference when then Ilocos Gov. Chavit Singson “gate-crashed” in the presidential table and was reprimanded by Arum.

“I don’t care who he is,” Arum quickly replied when someone told him the person who just arrived and sat directly in the long table’s furthermost right was a governor from the Philippines.

That incident exposed Singson as someone who had been wanting to always tag along with the Team Pacquiao even if he had no official business being there whatsoever.

“Pacquiao will be the next Philippine president. I will be there (in the Philippines) to help campaign for him,” Arum declared, saying his basis was the then No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world’s popularity in his native land.

Two days later on December 6, 2008, Pacquiao sent to permanent retirement the aging Oscar De La Hoya via 8^th round technical knockout (TKO), when the American former Olympic gold medalist decided not to continue with the brawl before the start of the 9^th round in a 12-round duel dubbed “The Dream Match.”

 

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Four years later on June 9, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino also in Las Vegas after Pacquiao lost a controversial 12-round split decision to Timothy Bradley for WBO welterweight title billed as “Perfect Storm”, I asked Arum during our “live” post-fight press conference if he was still interested to support Pacquiao’s purported presidential bid.

Arum, who was not in good mood, went ballistic: “I don’t care about your politics in the Philippines.”

Other sports journalists who asked questions thereafter also got the same cold-shoulder treatment.

He was so upset with the verdict and insisted Pacquiao “had been robbed”; he was fuming mad even before the start of the rowdy press conference, which was highlighted by the hilarious entry of wheelchair-bound Bradley.

News about Pacquiao’s presidential ambition resurfaced recently when Arum, in an undated video, claimed: “(He) told me, once again, I did a Zoom telephone call with him, ‘Bob, I’m gonna run in 2022, and when I win, I want you there at my inauguration.”

 

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Pacquiao, 41, however, denied he talked to Arum about his next political plans other than the proposed “super fight” between himself and WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford.

“Nag-usap kami about Crawford, pero hindi naman namin pinag-usapan ‘yung politics,” Pacquiao was quoted as saying by ABS-CBN.

It was possible that Pacquiao had mentioned to Arum his presidential plans, but the senator from Mindanao was only probably ashamed to admit it, at least not yet.

President Rodrigo Duterte predicted in a speech during Pacquiao’s 40^th birthday on December 17, 2018 that the former eight-division world boxing champion “would someday also become president.”

Most pundits, however, believe President Duterte will most likely endorse his own daughter, Sara, the mayor of Davao City, not Pacquiao, for president in 2022.

Blood, of course, is thicker than water.

With recent developments in Philippine politics, observers think Mr. Duterte will prefer his former assistant, Sen. Bong Go, than the former boxing champion, in the event daughter Sara will not run for the highest position of the land.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)