Bob Arum explains his ‘NoTrump’ Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley undercard

It’s part of a boxing promotion and it grabs eyeballs, so you start with the idea that veteran boxing promoter Bob Arum’s “NoTrump” undercard for the April 9 Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight in Las Vegas is a cute gimmick.

Wrong, says Arum, a proud liberal who wants to use the stage of an HBO pay-per-view forum to expose what Arum says is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s wrong-sighted build-a-wall, anti-immigration platform.

Arum and Trump were formerly work associates, with Arum staging “numerous” ESPN fights at Trump properties. But the fight promoter, who during 50 years in the business has helped guide the paths of many greats from Muhammad Ali to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao, said he’s repulsed by Trump’s philosophy.

“My position on immigration and Hispanics is diametrically opposed to his,” Arum said. “What he is doing is preaching hate. So I’m standing up for my Hispanic neighbors and all the Hispanic kids who fight for me. I mean, somebody has to stand up to this crap.”

Before Coachella Valley’s Bradley defends his World Boxing Organization welterweight belt against former eight-division champion Pacquiao at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, unbeaten Gilberto Ramirez (33-0, 24 knockouts) of Mazatlan will fight for the WBO super-middleweight belt of German champion Arthur Abraham.

Then, former Mexico Olympian Oscar Valdez (19-0, 16 KOs), the top-ranked WBO featherweight contender who resides in Lake Elsinore and trains each weekday in Carson, will fight Russia’s Evgeny Gradovich. And super-lightweight Jose Ramirez of Avenal, Calif., will meet Manny Perez.

Arum said he views fighters such as Gilberto Ramirez, Valdez and Jose Ramirez as shining lights of what immigration means to the U.S. – people coming here, driven to create a better life through strong work ethic.

Jose Ramirez is a huge draw to the working-class crowds in Fresno, which earned him the promotion to Las Vegas on HBO.

“They’re good, hard-working, dedicated people,” Arum said of his fighters.

Although Trump is a big boxing fan – he sat ringside at Madison Square Garden in October to watch unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin stop Canada’s David Lemieux – Arum said the Republican front-runner is not invited to the April 9 card.

“These people deserve legalization and they can’t be demonized as rapists when they’re not,” Arum said.

Arum, who previously worked in the U.S. Justice Department when Robert F. Kennedy was Attorney General, supports Hillary Clinton for president. He previously was helped by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to coordinate a personal meeting between Pacquiao and President Obama.

“[Trump’s] a salesman and an opportunist,” Arum said. “He may be preaching hate because it’s what he believes, or he may be doing it – even worse – because it’ll get him the votes of bigoted people who scorn Hispanics.”

Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire.

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