From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert "Bob" Arum (born December 8, 1931 in New York City) is a Harvard-educated lawyer who helped the White House during President John F. Kennedy's time there. He also worked for the US Attorneys Office for the southern district of New York, in the Tax division.

Arum used his education and business savvy to become a boxing promoter, and during the 1980s became a driving force behind the sport, rivalling Don King. Arum put together superfights like Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Duran 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 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 2 fight, Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman and many others.

Some of Arum's superstars from the 1990s include former world Flyweight champion Michael Carbajal and current boxing superstars includes 5 time world champion Oscar de la Hoya, 3 time division champion Erik Morales and reigning International Super Featherweight defending champion Manny Pacquiao.

Arum has concentrated largely on promoting Hispanic fighters in recent years, citing surveys which show boxing is among the most popular sports with Hispanics. 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 holds a 147-pound belt.

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.

• In 2000 he was convicted by the Nevada boxing commission to a 125.000$ fine for bribing the IBF

(to rank Axel Schulz against Foreman)

• 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. Although this seemed odd considering De La Hoya lost and Arum was De La Hoya's promoter. Also De La Hoya has the bigger name, and if anything the match should have been fixed in De La Hoya's favor to set up the second rematch. 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.

Arum is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.

• Arum is convicted
• His company