Arum: boxing’s heavy hitter
Promoter talks up state of fight game, reports Duncan Johnstone.
Bob Arum sinks comfortably into the leather sofa in his plush Las Vegas office with the contented smile of a man who has lived the good life.
And he has. The trappings of his endeavours surround him.
Over his right shoulder is a large photo, taken by his eight-year-old son in 1971 of Arum and Muhammad Ali, just after they purchased the land in Pennsylvania that would become the legendary Deer Lake training camp where boxing’s most famous fighter honed his skills.
To his left hangs a Louis Vuitton punching bag, designed by Karl Lagerfield and one of only four in the world.
But it’s the photo that tells his real story. ‘‘To Muhammad, the man who made it possible, all my love, Bob Arum’’ reads the wording on one side. ‘‘To Bob, love Muhammad Ali’’ reads the other.
Love and respect were the basis of an unlikely relationship that saw Arum guide Ali to become the most famous name in world sport.
Arum became Ali’s first promoter, linking with him in 1966 and promoting 26 fights through the heyday of a boxer deservedly dubbed ‘‘The Greatest’’.
They were wondrous times, especially for a young Arum who initially had no interest in the sport and got into it by accident.
He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956 and worked for a Wall Street firm as a tax expert. When John F Kennedy was elected president in 1960 Arum was recruited by the Justice Department.
‘‘I ended up handling a big tax case which was the seizure of funds from the Floyd Patterson–Sonny Liston fight. The promoter of that fight was a scumbag lawyer named Roy Cohn, they were doing some crazy things with the money that was against the law and on that basis we got the order that we could seize the funds. We collected close to US$5 million which at that time was an unheard of sum of money,’’ Arum recalls.
‘‘From there I met people in the boxing business. I’d never seen a fight, I wasn’t interested in boxing.’’
But twists kept him entangled in the game. The television company promoting the WBA heavyweight title fight between George Chuvalo and Ernie Terrell in 1965 was struggling for leverage in the buildup. They came knocking at Arum’s door and, typically thinking outside of the square, he came up with a radical idea.
‘‘At that point in time there had never been an African-American who had been a commentator on any TV programme in the US ever. So I said, ‘let’s get one’. They thought it was a great idea and I got them Jim Brown, the NFL’s greatest running back ever.’’
Brown was endeared by Arum’s charm and capabilities and soon suggested he become a promoter.
Arum scoffed at the idea but quickly had his arm twisted by the well-connected Brown.
‘‘I said I didn’t care about boxing and there’s only one guy that means anything and that’s Cassius Clay. Jim said, ‘I’ll introduce you to him’. Two months later he did . . . I flew to Chicago and we met and I became Ali’s promoter and lawyer.’’
Arum started Top Rank in 1973 and the company remains a powerhouse in the game. The 84-year-old has promoted 2000 fights and his long list of stars include George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao.
He’s done fights all over the world but never in New Zealand. So when Duco Events co-owner Dean Lonergan cheekily cold-called Arum about staging a WBO title fight in Auckland between Kiwi star Joseph Parker and Arum’s Mexican Andy Ruiz, he was intrigued.
He liked the feel of Lonergan and David Higgins, liked the feel of the fight and helped get it through the red tape towards its December 10 reality.
Arum laments the demise of the American heavyweight and says he hasn’t had a decent big man on his books since Foreman. But he senses a renaissance in the heavyweight division now that the Klitschko brothers – ‘‘nice guys but sort of boring fighters’’ – have been supplanted.
‘‘It’s an open division now and the winner of this fight has a real big future. If Parker wins, he’s such a charming kid with a big punch, he could be a major, major star in the world picture. If Andy wins he’s the first Mexican to be a world heavyweight champion, so there’s a lot riding on this fight.’’
But he also sees the WBO – ‘‘the sport’s most prestigious and honest organisation’’ – sanctioning a title fight in New Zealand as a further globalisation of a sport he believes is booming.
‘‘We are on the cusp of boxing really exploding on a global basis. That’s what I like. For so many years it was limited to one country, the United States.
‘‘Someone was in the office the other day with an Indian fighter . . . they want us to do a fight in India. The thing with boxing is it’s a sport that is so easy to understand.’’
Arum has little time for mixed martial arts and the rise of UFC and doesn’t seem threatened by its growing popularity. In fact, he questions that.
‘‘The UFC and MMA has not had a big rise internationally other than Brazil. They struggle in China . . . it’s not a sport that has taken hold around the world,’’ he claims, before adding a political undertone.
‘‘It’s been very popular in the US because we have demonstrated in this country what nationalistic pricks we are by electing Donald Trump. UFC caters for the same sort of white male group . . . that’s a terrible undercurrent.’’
He points to December 10, a historic date in New Zealand sporting history, as being a significant date on the wider calendar and further proof of boxing’s global dominance.
‘‘Look what’s happening . . . we start off in New Zealand with Joseph Parker v Andy Ruiz going for the WBO belt, then the scene shifts to England with Anthony Joshua and Eric Molina fighting for the IBF title, and then it ends in Omaha, Nebraska, with Terence Crawford and John Molina fighting for the super lightweight title.
‘‘To me that sounds like boxing is alive and well.’’
And so is Arum, a true heavyweight of boxing, who rises from his couch, beams a smile like he’s your favourite grandfather and declares: ‘‘Your age is only a number.’’