BY NICK GIONGCO
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HALL of Fame promoter Bob Arum considers Manny Pacquiao and Sugar Ray Leonard as the fighters with the greatest handspeeds in the history of boxing.
In a video chat with World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman, who is in Mexico, and Arum and Top Rank vice-president Carl Moretti in Las Vegas, the 80-year-old Arum didn’t mince words in telling about his choices.
“Pacquiao’s handspeed I thought is exceptional,” said Arum, adding that Leonard’s also was “tremendous.”
Pacquiao is boxing’s only eight-division world champion while Leonard, whose round-robin with Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran was legendary in the 1980s, won five titles in as many weight classes.
The more-than-an-hour long conversation centered on Arum’s groundbreaking shows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this week and well into July and the rest of 2020.
Top Rank’s behind-closed-doors events will be the first to take place in the US since the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Arum is hopeful that his company will sustain the momentum well into next year when it aims to stage bigger fights with a live audience in attendance.
The first few cards taking place this month and July won’t have media but only essential personnel and will be shown live on TV.
In the coming months, Filipino fighters Jerwin Ancajas and John Riel Casimero are being targeted to be included assuming there are no major roadblocks along the way.
