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Robert "Bob" Arum (born December 8, 1931 in New York City) is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. He also worked for the US Attorneys Office for the southern district of New York, in the Tax division.
Arum grew up in a Jewish family in New York. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, New York University, and Harvard Law School. He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice and had little interest in boxing until 1965.[1] He used his education and business savvy to become a boxing promoter, and during the 1980s became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum put together superfights like Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Durán and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns.
A particularly touching moment happened when 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 seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and three-division world champion Erik Morales.
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 and 147 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.
[edit]Controversies
While working as a boxing promoter, Arum had been involved in many feuds and controversies.
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."[2]
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. [1] [2]
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 Sept. 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 DeLa Hoya's loss. Arum later apologized for the remark which commission chairman Luther Mack accepted. [3]
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 Paez-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. [4]
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 DeLa 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 the more. [5] [6]
Arum has been accused of being a racist by Robert Lee, the former president of the International Boxing Federation. Lee said of Arum "I pin the racism charge on him because he once told me: `We will let the Blacks and the Latinos fight in the ring and we will count the money on the outside'." [7]
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 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."
In 2009, Arum defended Antonio Margarito when he lost his boxing license in the US state of California on charges of illegal handwraps [3], implied it was racially motivated and stated that Top Rank would not come back to the state of California until the issue was rectified [4].
In late-2009, Arum called UFC fans "skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who are (sic) also look like skinhead white guys." Bas Rutten accused him of racism for this remark ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-4R5UR_qeM&feature=related He also stated that MMA fighters are "guys rolling around like ****sexuals on the ground." [5] 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.[6]
After failing to promote a Kelly Pavlik at Youngstown State University, Arum blamed the local college for the botched name and marketing job of the Pavlik Espino fight. Pavlik had continually ducked Paul Williams and lost local support. Arum however blamed the school who went out of their way to host the fight as the reason why, and took no responsibility for the botched marketing job. The Kelly Pavlik fight was the first fight with a world championship title on the line to fail to sell out in the Mahoning Valley.
Arum grew up in a Jewish family in New York. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, New York University, and Harvard Law School. He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice and had little interest in boxing until 1965.[1] He used his education and business savvy to become a boxing promoter, and during the 1980s became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum put together superfights like Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Durán and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns.
A particularly touching moment happened when 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 seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and three-division world champion Erik Morales.
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 and 147 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.
[edit]Controversies
While working as a boxing promoter, Arum had been involved in many feuds and controversies.
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."[2]
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. [1] [2]
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 Sept. 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 DeLa Hoya's loss. Arum later apologized for the remark which commission chairman Luther Mack accepted. [3]
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 Paez-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. [4]
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 DeLa 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 the more. [5] [6]
Arum has been accused of being a racist by Robert Lee, the former president of the International Boxing Federation. Lee said of Arum "I pin the racism charge on him because he once told me: `We will let the Blacks and the Latinos fight in the ring and we will count the money on the outside'." [7]
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 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."
In 2009, Arum defended Antonio Margarito when he lost his boxing license in the US state of California on charges of illegal handwraps [3], implied it was racially motivated and stated that Top Rank would not come back to the state of California until the issue was rectified [4].
In late-2009, Arum called UFC fans "skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who are (sic) also look like skinhead white guys." Bas Rutten accused him of racism for this remark ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-4R5UR_qeM&feature=related He also stated that MMA fighters are "guys rolling around like ****sexuals on the ground." [5] 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.[6]
After failing to promote a Kelly Pavlik at Youngstown State University, Arum blamed the local college for the botched name and marketing job of the Pavlik Espino fight. Pavlik had continually ducked Paul Williams and lost local support. Arum however blamed the school who went out of their way to host the fight as the reason why, and took no responsibility for the botched marketing job. The Kelly Pavlik fight was the first fight with a world championship title on the line to fail to sell out in the Mahoning Valley.
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