MGM Resorts International Chairman and CEO Jim Murren may be about to break off his longstanding relationship with boxing promoter Bob Arum. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Murren excoriated the promoter in a company newsletter, telling employees, “Your company will not associate with abusive individuals.”
Earlier this month, before the Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight at the MGM Grand, Arum became angry after seeing signs at the hotel promoting a May 3 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana. He said the Venetian “wouldn’t make a mistake like that” and added, “That’s why one company makes a billion dollars a quarter and the other is hustling to pay its debt.”
Arum, CEO of Top Rank boxing, went on to encourage Filipinos “to boycott the MGM forever.”
“I don’t approve of bullying by children,” Murren scolded, “and I won’t tolerate it by adults in our workplace. An attack on any of our 62,000 men and women of the MGM army is an attack on all of us. Actions have reactions, and this reaction is that your company will not associate with abusive individuals.”
ESPN describes the 82-year-old Arum as “Brooklyn-born and Harvard Law-educated,” with “a tan and a permanent Mona Lisa smile, knowing he is almost always the sharpest guy in the room.”
Arum may not miss Las Vegas. He’s now concentrating his efforts on Macau. “Oscar de la Hoya said?he’s not very smart?that I was going to China because I couldn’t compete in the U.S. anymore,” Arum told ESPN. “Well, that’s ridiculous. I went because of the market. It’s that good.”
ESPN reported that the gaming mecca has a potential pay-per-view audience of 1 billion.
