Bob Arum
Bob Arum
Main page
2299225

Bob Arum

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Bob Arum

Robert Arum (born December 8, 1931) is an American lawyer and boxing promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. Prior to becoming a boxing promoter, Arum was employed as an attorney in the tax division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Arum was born in the borough Brooklyn of New York City. He grew up in the Crown Heights section of New York, with an Orthodox Jewish background.

He attended Erasmus Hall High School, New York University, then Harvard Law School with fellow students recalled as "snooty guys from the prep schools and the eating clubs," where he was graduated cum laude. He worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice during the Kennedy administration, and had little interest in boxing until 1965.

Following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy and his Justice Department service under Robert F. Kennedy; Arum joined Wall Street law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, where he researched Kennedy's assassination for senior partner Louis Nizer, author of the foreword to the Warren Commission Report.

In 1963, as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Arum's work led to the indictment of the president of the Washington Heights Savings and Loan Association, Floyd Cramer, for leading a mortgage tax-evasion scheme. Cramer committed suicide hours after being indicted, at which time Arum recalled, "What kind of person causes another man to take his own life? I was ashamed. I knew then that I wasn't cut out to be a prosecutor". Arum continued to practice civil law until dissolving his office in 1979.

In 1962, Arum was assigned by the Department of Justice to confiscate proceeds from the September 25, 1962 Floyd Patterson vs. Sonny Liston world heavyweight boxing title fight; during which he met closed-circuit television (CCTV) pioneer and former Leo Burnett & Co. vice-president Lester M. Malitz (1907 – July 24, 1965) of Lester M. Malitz Inc. Malitz was the promoter of the 1965 Terrell–Chuvalo bout, during which he retained Arum to represent him. In 1966, subsequent to a suggestion by Jim Brown, whom Arum had secured for Malitz as the fight's announcer, Arum became a boxing promoter. In 2016, Brown recalled that Arum had seen a televised fight in 1965, as "The first fight Arum ever saw was TerrellChuvalo, and he watched that from the television truck." Arum credits Brown with introducing him to Muhammad Ali, and Ali with teaching him how to be a boxing promoter.

Arum became a vice-president and secretary of Ali's promotion company, Main Bout. Mike Malitz, son of Lester, like Arum, owned 20 percent of the company and became its vice-president. Jim Brown owned 10 percent of the company and served as its vice-president in charge of publicity. Referencing his first live fight viewing, Arum was reported as saying that he "had never seen a boxing match before the first fight I did with Ali", referring to the 1966 Muhammad Ali vs. George Chuvalo bout.

During the 1980s, Arum became a driving force behind the sport, rivaling Don King. Arum organized superfights including Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns. Arum mounted the Marvin Hagler vs. John Mugabi, Hearns–James Shuler doubleheader in Las Vegas in 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.[citation needed] ten days after that bout, Shuler died in a motorcycle accident. In 1994, he tried to add basketball to his interests, joining forces with Fred Hofheinz and Louisiana politicians to purchase and relocate the Minnesota Timberwolves to New Orleans, but the deal was rejected.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.