The rift between Top Rank promotions chief Bob Arum and UFC president Dana White has been a lengthy one, and it does not look like it will be ending any time soon. Recently, the two men have been trashing each other in separate interviews leading up to this weekend’s fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.
It has all been rooted in Arum’s recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he once again lambasted the upcoming fight.
“LeBron James to me is the best athlete of our time. You put LeBron James in the ring with Anthony Joshua, it’s a joke,” Arum said.
White expectedly took offense and went on to personally attack the 85-year-old promoter.
“You’re going to interview Bob Arum?” White said (via the Los Angeles Times). “This is our hometown paper, and then all the interviews are with Bob Arum. And this guy, this senile … quote comparing LeBron James to Conor? Conor McGregor is a fighter. He can fight. Stuff like that bums me out when I’m reading that.”
It did not take long before Arum to respond, where he hit at the UFC president for his political inclinations.
“That’s really class,” Arum said in a separate interview with the LA Times. “Dana can say whatever he wants, but he hurts his argument by resorting to these comments … it has nothing to do with senility. And it hurts the position he’s trying to take.”
“But what do you expect? You didn’t see me at the Republican National Convention endorsing [President] Trump. That speaks volumes of somebody. I completely stick by my guns.”
According to Arum, his recent statement regarding the August 26th fight was to merely point out the differences between the two fighting disciplines, and should not be taken personally.
“It’s nothing personal or argumentative, but to have somebody fight the top fighter of our era with someone who hasn’t had one professional boxing match — they’re out of their mind,” Arum explained. “If [McGregor] hasn’t trained for years, he’s not going to perform … he’s not a fighter. He’s a combat fighter, not a boxer. It’s a different sport.”
“The MMA guys have to have different movements and stances to guard against a kick or a takedown, it’s not the same stance as a boxer. Boxers stand a different way, and Mayweather is the greatest practitioner of that.”
Mayweather vs. McGregor is scheduled for 12 rounds at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.