By Ronnie Nathanielsz

 

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum celebrated his 76th birthday last Saturday and you simply have to marvel at the man’s energy and deep involvement in the sport of boxing when many people his age have long retired.

 

Arum, with the money he has made out of boxing as one of its most dominating promoters and certainly one of the most astute, could very well retire and live the rest of his hopefully many years in a totally relaxing environment. But that wouldn’t be him. While he personally wishes to shun the limelight and let it focus on the fighters and the sport, his passion for boxing invariably brings him to center stage. 

 

Indeed if and when he does step aside from the sport of boxing the world will miss him and the sport will be orphaned in a very real way.

 

Bob Arum and ourselves have had some little differences in the past but they have been more issues of perception than anything else. Some of those differences were not caused by either of us but rather by whispering sycophants who surrounded him and couldn’t stand us telling it like it is.

 

But every time we call, Bob Arum never fails to answer and is always most accommodating which is so unlike an individual who is sometimes perceived as being at odds with us which, we hasten to add, isn’t our sentiment at all. For sure we have had a couple of verbal jousts but that’s because he is a smart Harvard lawyer who graduated cum laude in 1956. While we have nothing like the education he has had or the credentials he carries, we are not averse to engaging men like him in enlightening discussions because the nuances of the business of boxing is an enthralling subject.

 

Our confidence to some extent comes from an affordable but decent education anchored on the British system that my late beloved father gave us and mentored in a sense by him in our youth and in our later years by our eminent lawyer friend Rudy Salud who has, through the years, taught us how to probe and to strengthen the fiber of an inquiring mind while maintaining our integrity.

 

We first men Bob Arum in 1975 when he was in Manila for the famed “Thrilla in Manila” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier  and then again the following year when he was back to enjoy the hospitality of President and Mrs. Marcos.

 

When we met Arum In Las Vegas  prior to the first fight in an epic trilogy between Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao and Arum’s prized fighter at that time, Erik “El Terrible” Morales, he remembered the wonderful times he had in the Philippines and in fact referred to the graciousness of Mrs. Imelda Marcos which, in the eyes of many guests, borders on the legendary.

 

While we certainly are admirers of Oscar De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions and how they look after their fighters and strive to protect the integrity of boxing,  we cannot help but in all sincerity give Arum credit for what he has done especially for Pacquiao  and in a sense through him opened the doors for other talented young Filipino fighters to gain opportunities and recognition in the lucrative American boxing scene.

 

At the same time, despite everything that has been written or said about him we have an obligation in the interest of truth to give much of the credit for introducing Pacquiao to the world to promoter Murad Muhammad whom we will always regard as a friend despite what others may think.

 

During the painful era when Muhammad Ali was stripped of his right to fight for his refusal to honor the draft during the Vietnam war Arum was among those who helped in the legal battle to have him acquitted which enabled the world to enjoy the incredible talent in the ring of one of the greatest fighters of all-time and to be riveted by the charisma, the intellectual brilliance and the profound human dimensions of this remarkable athlete.

 

If only for what he did for Ali and Pacquiao and what he has done for the sport of boxing in a lifetime of commitment, we salute Bob Arum and express our gratitude. As we join boxing fans in wishing him all the very best we pray that he will continue to serve the sport which is close to the hearts of millions of Filipinos for years to come.