Bob Arum Not Attending Fury vs. Whyte As He Recovers From Mild COVID-19 Symptoms

It’s been an interesting month for boxing outside of the ring, with news breaking from the U. S Department of Treasury that they placed sanctions on the notorious Kinahan Organized Crime Group. It’s fight week for Tyson Fury vs. Dillian Whyte, and hours ago, Bob Arum tweeted that he will not be attending the fight due to “recovering from mild COVID-19 symptoms”.

It is no secret that Tyson Fury has expressed his dealings with Daniel Kinahan publicly. Secretly, many were wondering if the fight was even going to happen this Saturday because of it. The ninety-year-old Arum made a statement last week on social media that he wouldn’t be doing business with Probellum and that he would be cutting ties with MTK Global.

I’m not questioning the validity of his illness, but even if he was healthy enough to fly, I don’t think it would be in his, Top Rank & ESPN’s best interest to be at that event. I don’t think the Brooklyn-bred Arum will miss making the trip as this is the last fight for Fury on the Top Rank co-promotion deal. With Fury hinting at retirement (which I think he doesn’t do just yet), Bob has to be thinking about the future and what he currently has in-house. Young heavyweight prospect Jared “Big Baby” Anderson comes to mind, and it’ll be his time to get the TR/ESPN muscle behind him to the fullest.

The whole promotion leading up to this fight has been weird, from Whyte not showing up to the initial press conference to Eddie Hearn trying to figure out if he would be able to get a seat for the fight. With that being said, let’s hope Bob Arum gets better, but I’m sure that he will be just fine watching the heavyweight title fight from the comfort of his home while focusing on his super featherweight unification that occurs the week after.

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