Bob Arum
Encyclopedia
Robert "Bob" Arum is the founder and CEO of Top Rank
, a professional boxing
promotion company based in Las Vegas
. He also worked for the US Attorney's Office for the southern district of New York in the tax division.
section of New York, with an Orthodox Jewish background, and is of Jewish descent. He attended Erasmus Hall High School
, New York University
, and Harvard Law School
, where he graduated cum laude. He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice
and had little interest in boxing until 1965. He used his education and business savvy to become a boxing
promoter, notably for Muhammad Ali
, and during the 1980s became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum organized superfights like Marvin Hagler
vs. Roberto Durán
and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns
.
Arum mounted the Hagler-John Mugabi
, Hearns-James Shuler
double header in Las Vegas on April, 1986. After the Hearns-Shuler fight, Shuler, who had lost by knockout
in the first round, showed up at Arum's hotel room to thank him for the opportunity to fight Hearns. Ten days later, Shuler was dead in an unfortunate motorcycle accident.
Arum kept producing big-scale undercards and superfights, including the Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard
bout, the Leonard-Hearns rematch, Evander Holyfield
vs. George Foreman
and many others.
Some of Arum's superstars from the 1990s include former world flyweight champion Michael Carbajal and six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya
and current boxing superstars includes eight-division world champion
Manny Pacquiao
and three-division world champion Erik Morales
. Arum promoted the legendary champion Julio Cesar Chavez
in his late years of boxing.
Arum has concentrated largely on promoting Hispanic fighters in recent years, citing surveys which show boxing is among the most popular sports within the Hispanic community. He has had great success with fighters such as Miguel Cotto
, who has won world titles at 140, 147 and 154 pounds, and Antonio Margarito
, who held a 147-pound WBO belt from 2002-2007.
He has concentrated many of his shows in the Southwestern portion of the U.S., in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations. He's also the promoter of many of the cards on Telefutura, a Spanish language network.
Arum is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
. He is married with a son, daughter, step-son and step-daughter.
In 1994, he was involved with John Daly
for the High Noon in Hong Kong
boxing event. The fights were called off at the last minute when Barry Hearn
withdrew his fighters as no purses were forthcoming. John Daly blamed Arum when he said, "I've tried desperately to convince my partners to keep the faith. I offered them as much security as I could but it was not quite good enough. It seems I was ready to take the shots, but Mr Arum wasn't."
He has been involved in a forty year feud with Don King, who once called him a "rat fink" in 2000 for admitting during a federal trial that he bribed the International Boxing Federation president in order to gain a more favorable rating for one of his fighters. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AuXHMNIrcTue5zEtdzRCk7KUxLYF?slug=ki-081107arumking&prov=yhoo&type=lgns http://www.presstelegram.com/columnists/ci_3619703
He was penalized $125,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in 1995 for a bribe to get one of his fights sanctioned.
In 2003, Arum complained about the judging in the September 13 bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley and suggested there was a vendetta against him from a member of the Nevada State Commission that led to De La Hoya's loss. Arum later apologized for the remark which commission chairman Luther Mack accepted. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3195788.stm
On the first week of January 2004, FBI agents raided Arum's Top Rank office in Las Vegas. Arum was on vacation when his office was raided, and the FBI originally declined to comment on the raid. The media reported that the FBI was investigating allegations that Top Rank was involved in fixing the rematch between De La Hoya and Shane Mosley
, even though De La Hoya lost and Arum was De La Hoya's promoter. The federal agency also announced that it was investigating some of Eric Esch
's fights, as well as the Jorge Páez
-Verdell Smith
fight. The investigation closed in the summer of 2006 with no charges being filed.
In 2007, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who Arum promoted from 1996–2006, accused him of both underpaying and undermarketing him while exploting his talents and manipulating officials. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AuXHMNIrcTue5zEtdzRCk7KUxLYF?slug=ki-081107arumking&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
In 2007, UFC president Dana White
accused him of "sucking the life out of the sport (boxing) and not putting anything back in." Amongst White's criticisms were that Arum had created a weak undercard for the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight in 2007 saying Arum did not promote the show correctly. "He promoted that show completely the wrong way, because he worried about the money as opposed to trying to secure the future", White said. "He should have stacked that card. He should have had Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins and (Marco Antonio) Barrera and Winky Wright on there and used it to show that boxing is back". Arum responded by saying that MMA fighters need to examine the revenues being generated and ask why the UFC wasn't paying them more. White made these comments not realizing that Arum did not promote the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout, and was not involved in any way with the fight. His only connection was being he former promoter of both fighters. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-notebook032507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns http://boxing.typepad.com/kevin_on_boxing/2007/02/roach_scorches_.html?c6408128
Arum also filed a lawsuit HBO for overstepping its boundaries in the sport by becoming a defacto promoter while trying to intentionally eliminate him as a promoter. Arum complained that HBO dropped Floyd Mayweather Jr. from his exclusive deal after he insisted his fighter have a tougher bout than the network wanted. The suit was settled out of court but Arum continued to criticize HBO by saying "Instead of working with promoters, like they have done in the past, they have become promoters themselves. They make the fights just like promoters and pay fighters", Arum said. "It's their money and they can do what they want, but Don King doesn't have to go along with it and neither do I. King and I can get along without HBO or Showtime...The problem HBO Sports got into is they became defenders of the status quo. They held you back because they had control."
In 2009, Arum defended Antonio Margarito
when he lost his boxing license in the US state of California on charges of illegal hand wraps, implied it was racially motivated and stated that Top Rank would not come back to the state of California until the issue was rectified.
In late-2009, Arum called UFC fans "skinhead white guys". Bas Rutten
accused him of racism for this remark. Arum also stated that MMA fighters are "guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground." Earlier in the year, Arum described UFC President Dana White
as "nuts" and "a little too much of a loose cannon" for White's use of a gay slur in reference to an MMA reporter.
Top Rank
Top Rank may refer to:*Top Rank, Las Vegas based boxing promotion company formed in 1973* Top Rank Records, 1950s subsidiary record label of the Rank Organisation, British company which ran from 1937 to 1996...
, a professional boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
promotion company based in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
. He also worked for the US Attorney's Office for the southern district of New York in the tax division.
Biography
Arum grew up in the Crown HeightsCrown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending two miles east-west.Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill....
section of New York, with an Orthodox Jewish background, and is of Jewish descent. He attended Erasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, where he graduated cum laude. He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and had little interest in boxing until 1965. He used his education and business savvy to become a boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
promoter, notably for Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, and during the 1980s became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum organized superfights like Marvin Hagler
Marvin Hagler
Marvelous Marvin Hagler , is a former professional boxer who was undisputed world middleweight champion between 1980 and 1987. Hagler holds the distinction of having the highest KO% of all middleweight champions at 78%...
vs. Roberto Durán
Roberto Durán
Roberto Durán Samaniego is a retired professional boxer from Panama, widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. A versatile brawler in the ring, he was nicknamed "Manos de Piedra" during his career....
and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns
The War (boxing)
The War, also known as Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns or Hagler-Hearns, was a world middleweight championship boxing match between Undisputed Champion Marvin Hagler and challenger Thomas Hearns, who was himself the world's junior middleweight champion...
.
Arum mounted the Hagler-John Mugabi
John Mugabi
John "The Beast" Mugabi is a former boxer and world Jr. Middleweight champion. A world traveller, Mugabi was a part of an early 1980s Jr...
, Hearns-James Shuler
James Shuler
James Shuler was a U.S. Olympic and professional boxer from Philadelphia known as "Black Gold."-Amateur career:Shuler was the 1979 and 1980 National Golden Gloves Light Middleweight Champion....
double header in Las Vegas on April, 1986. After the Hearns-Shuler fight, Shuler, who had lost by knockout
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
in the first round, showed up at Arum's hotel room to thank him for the opportunity to fight Hearns. Ten days later, Shuler was dead in an unfortunate motorcycle accident.
Arum kept producing big-scale undercards and superfights, including the Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles...
bout, the Leonard-Hearns rematch, Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname "The Real Deal"...
vs. George Foreman
George Foreman
George Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...
and many others.
Some of Arum's superstars from the 1990s include former world flyweight champion Michael Carbajal and six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar de la Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya is a retired American boxer of Mexican descent. Nicknamed "The Golden Boy", De La Hoya won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games shortly after graduating from Garfield High School. De La Hoya comes from a boxing family. His grandfather Vicente, father Joel Sr., and brother...
and current boxing superstars includes eight-division world champion
Octuple champion
In different sports, a sportsperson who wins eight crowns, titles, medals, belts, or other distinctions is called an octuple champion.-Boxing:In boxing, an octuple champion is a boxer who has won world titles in eight different weight classes....
Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao
Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao, PLH is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world champion; having won six world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the...
and three-division world champion Erik Morales
Erik Morales
Érik Isaac Morales Elvira is a Mexican professional boxer. He is the first Mexican born boxer in history to win a world title in four weight classes and is the current WBC Light Welterweight Champion...
. Arum promoted the legendary champion Julio Cesar Chavez
Julio César Chávez
Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer.He is a six-time world champion in three weight divisions, and for several years he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world...
in his late years of boxing.
Arum has concentrated largely on promoting Hispanic fighters in recent years, citing surveys which show boxing is among the most popular sports within the Hispanic community. He has had great success with fighters such as Miguel Cotto
Miguel Cotto
Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez is a Puerto Rican professional boxer and the reigning WBA light middleweight champion. He is the younger brother of contender Jose Miguel Cotto and cousin of Abner Cotto...
, who has won world titles at 140, 147 and 154 pounds, and Antonio Margarito
Antonio Margarito
Antonio Margarito Montiel is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a former WBA, WBO, & IBF welterweight champion...
, who held a 147-pound WBO belt from 2002-2007.
He has concentrated many of his shows in the Southwestern portion of the U.S., in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations. He's also the promoter of many of the cards on Telefutura, a Spanish language network.
Arum is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
. He is married with a son, daughter, step-son and step-daughter.
Controversies
While working as a boxing promoter, Arum had been involved in many feuds and controversies.In 1994, he was involved with John Daly
John Daly (producer)
John Daly was a British film producer.-Personal life:John Daly was born in South East London, a part of London which was badly bombed and damaged in World War II. He attended a Roman Catholic school. Daly was father to Jenny, Michael, Julian, and Timothy...
for the High Noon in Hong Kong
High Noon in Hong Kong
High Noon in Hong Kong was a World Boxing Organisation sanctioned boxing event, it was to feature 4 fights: a heavyweight title fight between Herbie Hide and Tommy Morrison; Steve Collins versus American Lonnie Beasley for the WBO middleweight title; Billy Schwer would challenge Rafael Ruelas for...
boxing event. The fights were called off at the last minute when Barry Hearn
Barry Hearn
Barry Hearn is an English sporting events promoter, and the founder and chairman of promotions company Matchroom Sport. He is currently the chairman of Leyton Orient F.C., and the Professional Darts Corporation and was also until July 2010 chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker...
withdrew his fighters as no purses were forthcoming. John Daly blamed Arum when he said, "I've tried desperately to convince my partners to keep the faith. I offered them as much security as I could but it was not quite good enough. It seems I was ready to take the shots, but Mr Arum wasn't."
He has been involved in a forty year feud with Don King, who once called him a "rat fink" in 2000 for admitting during a federal trial that he bribed the International Boxing Federation president in order to gain a more favorable rating for one of his fighters. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AuXHMNIrcTue5zEtdzRCk7KUxLYF?slug=ki-081107arumking&prov=yhoo&type=lgns http://www.presstelegram.com/columnists/ci_3619703
He was penalized $125,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in 1995 for a bribe to get one of his fights sanctioned.
In 2003, Arum complained about the judging in the September 13 bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley and suggested there was a vendetta against him from a member of the Nevada State Commission that led to De La Hoya's loss. Arum later apologized for the remark which commission chairman Luther Mack accepted. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3195788.stm
On the first week of January 2004, FBI agents raided Arum's Top Rank office in Las Vegas. Arum was on vacation when his office was raided, and the FBI originally declined to comment on the raid. The media reported that the FBI was investigating allegations that Top Rank was involved in fixing the rematch between De La Hoya and Shane Mosley
Shane Mosley
“Sugar” Shane Mosley is an American professional boxer from Pomona, California who has held world titles in three weight divisions.-Amateur career:Mosley was an amateur standout, capturing various amateur titles, including:...
, even though De La Hoya lost and Arum was De La Hoya's promoter. The federal agency also announced that it was investigating some of Eric Esch
Eric Esch
Eric Scott Esch is an American heavyweight boxer, kick-boxer, professional wrestler, and mixed martial artist commonly referred to as Butterbean....
's fights, as well as the Jorge Páez
Jorge Paez
Jorge Adolfo Febles Páez is a Mexican boxer, actor and circus performer. Páez is the former WBO and IBF Featherweight champion. Paez is nicknamed " El Maromero", in honor of the acts he performs at the circus. Paez has been a circus performer in his northwest Mexico hometown since he was very young...
-Verdell Smith
Verdell Smith
Verdell Smith, a.k.a. Tommy Bowles, a.k.a. Tim Brooks was a professional boxer in the light welterweight division...
fight. The investigation closed in the summer of 2006 with no charges being filed.
In 2007, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who Arum promoted from 1996–2006, accused him of both underpaying and undermarketing him while exploting his talents and manipulating officials. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AuXHMNIrcTue5zEtdzRCk7KUxLYF?slug=ki-081107arumking&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
In 2007, UFC president Dana White
Dana White
Dana White is the current President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship , a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States.- Biography :...
accused him of "sucking the life out of the sport (boxing) and not putting anything back in." Amongst White's criticisms were that Arum had created a weak undercard for the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight in 2007 saying Arum did not promote the show correctly. "He promoted that show completely the wrong way, because he worried about the money as opposed to trying to secure the future", White said. "He should have stacked that card. He should have had Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins and (Marco Antonio) Barrera and Winky Wright on there and used it to show that boxing is back". Arum responded by saying that MMA fighters need to examine the revenues being generated and ask why the UFC wasn't paying them more. White made these comments not realizing that Arum did not promote the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout, and was not involved in any way with the fight. His only connection was being he former promoter of both fighters. http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-notebook032507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns http://boxing.typepad.com/kevin_on_boxing/2007/02/roach_scorches_.html?c6408128
Arum also filed a lawsuit HBO for overstepping its boundaries in the sport by becoming a defacto promoter while trying to intentionally eliminate him as a promoter. Arum complained that HBO dropped Floyd Mayweather Jr. from his exclusive deal after he insisted his fighter have a tougher bout than the network wanted. The suit was settled out of court but Arum continued to criticize HBO by saying "Instead of working with promoters, like they have done in the past, they have become promoters themselves. They make the fights just like promoters and pay fighters", Arum said. "It's their money and they can do what they want, but Don King doesn't have to go along with it and neither do I. King and I can get along without HBO or Showtime...The problem HBO Sports got into is they became defenders of the status quo. They held you back because they had control."
In 2009, Arum defended Antonio Margarito
Antonio Margarito
Antonio Margarito Montiel is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a former WBA, WBO, & IBF welterweight champion...
when he lost his boxing license in the US state of California on charges of illegal hand wraps, implied it was racially motivated and stated that Top Rank would not come back to the state of California until the issue was rectified.
In late-2009, Arum called UFC fans "skinhead white guys". Bas Rutten
Bas Rutten
Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten is a retired Dutch mixed martial artist, Karate and Taekwondo blackbelt, and kickboxer. He was a UFC Heavyweight Champion, a three time King of Pancrase world champion, and finished his career on a 22 fight unbeaten streak...
accused him of racism for this remark. Arum also stated that MMA fighters are "guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground." Earlier in the year, Arum described UFC President Dana White
Dana White
Dana White is the current President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship , a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States.- Biography :...
as "nuts" and "a little too much of a loose cannon" for White's use of a gay slur in reference to an MMA reporter.