By Edward Chaykovsky
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum recently reflected on his 50 years in boxing while speaking with Sports Nation.
He discussed his memories of the sport and several of the big names, and fights, that he's promoted over the years.
One subject in particular that Arum touched on was his promotional job with former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Arum's company promoted most of Chavez's career. He parted ways with them in 2014 and signed on with manager/adviser Al Haymon. Since then Chavez has struggled with making weight, suffered injuries which have attributed to long layoffs and he's also been knocked out after a failed move to jump up two divisions to light heavyweights.
Chavez was set to face WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack. He withdrew after suffering a heel injury in camp, but also admitted to being over 190-pounds when he started training. Jack is now fighting Lucian Bute on April 23rd. Chavez has been inactive since last July's ten round decision win over Marcos Reyes.
"That to me is one of my biggest disappointments promoting boxing. I am an admirer like most people of his father, Julio Cesar Chavez, and I promoted a number of his fights. I feel that he is a great person and a great fighter. His son had all the tools and all the skills and started fighting for us when he was 17 years old, but he didn't have the dedication that was required to be a great fighter. So if you don't have that dedication, you slop and you don't prepare properly and his career really went downhill," Arum said.