11.09 - Although most non-boxing fans know who Don King is, most will be hard pressed to tell you who Bob Arum is. Inside fight circles though, the non-spiky haired Arum has quietly stolen King’s thunder over the past year and a half. Let’s examine this a little closer. In this time span, Kings been leveled with a multi-million dollar lawsuit by Mike Tyson (100 million to be exact). Trinidad’s official contract expired. He picked up boxings version of the Enron Corporation in Bernard Hopkins-yes, so much talent, but yet so many cracks in the façade. He lost Holyfield. Although everyone knows Holyfield is damaged goods, he can still pack a house anytime his names on the marquee. And to further insult to injury, he lost in court to his long-time rival Bob Arum when a judge decided that Julio Cesar Chavez’ signature was forged on Kings "official" contract.

His only saving grace, minus the inept John Ruiz, was signing a fighter out of Nicaragua by the name of Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga. Were it not for Mayorga, King would be in a much larger decline. Rumors have also circulated that there are financial problems as well. East Side Boxing will not confirm those rumors but he was recently said to have owed Hasim Rahman money since his fight with Holyfield.

In the meantime, Arum has been regularly clogging the Spanish airwaves with his up and coming talent on Telefutura every Friday night. He’s promotes Erik Morales, Oscar DelaHoya, Miguel Cotto, Anthony Thompson, Paulie Ayala, Jesus Chavez and a host of other top up flight (Latin) talent.

East Side Boxing recently caught up with legendary Ring Promoter Bob Arum at the Jesus Chavez fight in Austin Texas. Although a good part of this interview was spent talking about Chavez’ future, read what Bob Arum had to say about the Lightweight Division, the proposed fight between the winner of Morales-Espadas, and his thoughts about Miguel Cotto and another middleweight fighter he’s very excited about. Enjoy.

East Side Boxing: There’s speculation and talk about Chavez fighting the winner of Morales and Espadas. How true is that?

Bob Arum: That’s not only talk, that’s going to happen! There’s no question in my mind that’s going to happen! It’s a fight people want to see and it’s a competitive fight and you see what’s happened? Everything is moving to the 130 lb division. You have so many great match-ups. You have Carlos Hernandez who’s fighting Stevie Forbes on the 4^th. You have Freitas who has two titles, who showed last week that he’s sort of vulnerable. He isn’t Superman. So all of these guys figure in the mix so I think there’s going to be some really great fights in the next year or so in the 130 lb Division.

East Side Boxing: Is there any talk of Chavez coming back and defending his title here (Austin, Texas)?

Bob Arum: Yeah, because Morales is fighting in October. The HBO date is not available for that fight until March so yeah; I’m going to have him fight in November-December here. He’ll do a title defense and that will get him to the Morales-Espada winner.

East Side Boxing: What did you think of the crowd on hand tonight?

Bob Arum: The crowd was sensational! We did an unbelievable gate! More than a quarter of a million dollars with really (relatively) by Las Vegas standards moderate tickets prices. The crowd was enthusiastic and a performance like this only builds. In other words, the next time he fights, we could either do it in a bigger place or do it here and we know we’ve got the fans that will fill the arena.

East Side Boxing: How pleased were you with Chavez considering his past to present and what he had to go through to get to this title match?

Bob Arum: It’s a great, great story that boxing was able to do this. The guy was deported from a country where he could hardly speak the language and all the people who were involved in getting him back to this country and getting a pardon from the Governor of Illinois, and going through all that crap with the Immigration and Naturalization is a really, really a uniquely American story. It really is. And to have a great (not ending) for this first movie (with him winning the Championship) is really wonderful. I really think it’s wonderful. I really think it’s wonderful. I think with all the people involved…and he had a lot of help here with the legal issues. I saw a documentary that was terrific (about his struggles)! So all the people that helped, and boxing people and non-boxing people ought to be congratulated. It’s really a great American story. It really is. I mean there’s a lot of bullshit in showbiz, but this is not bullshit! This is a really good story that warms the heart.

East Side Boxing: Do you have any ideas as to who that November-December opponent will be?

Bob Arum: No we haven’t discussed that yet.

East Side Boxing: But not the Morales-Espadas winner?

Bob Arum: The Morales-Espadas winner will not fight Chavez until March of next year. And that one we’ll probably do in Vegas because that one will do unbelievable business because there are so many flights now from Southwest (Airlines). Every hour, there’s a flight from Austin to Vegas.

East Side Boxing: Do you have any ideas for any other fighters (in your stable) to fight non-title and title fights in the future in Austin?

Bob Arum: I really haven’t…obviously it’s a great market. So many of these Texas places like San Antonio, El Paso, and Fort Worth are great, great markets. They’re hotbeds for boxing. But yeah, Austin is really terrific. The only problem (which is not a problem) is the Long Horns look like they may contend for the National Championship and that’s going to take a lot of interest away from boxing (smiles/laughs)!

East Side Boxing: Your niche has been the Latin market as of late when it comes to boxers…

Bob Arum: Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second.

East Side Boxing: In the lighter weights (that is)…

Bob Arum: Everyone looks at what has happened in the last few years and sure we’ve emphasized the Hispanic fighters "why?" because we have all these Telefutura shows but "Ay!" guys like Hagler and Leonard and Hearns, Ali, Foreman, were all my fighters and they weren’t Hispanics!

East Side Boxing: (Smiles)

East Side Boxing: Whom should we look out for in your stable of boxers?

Bob Arum: I think the two guys (that have had a lot of fights) that are coming up (the Real great prospects) are Miguel Cotto from Puerto Rico and Anthony Thompson from Philadelphia who we just saw who stopped this guy in the 5^th round tonight. Terrific, terrific prospect Thompson. Then we have this kid from Phoenix that we just signed. Jesus Gonzalez who’s a Middleweight. He was the best fighter in the Amateurs but they abolished his weight class.

East Side Boxing: Really?

Bob Arum: Yeah, now you go from 150 to 168! They’re crazy!!! So he can’t make 152, and he can’t go down. He could probably make 154 and to go to 168 and fight those guys is CRAZY! So he turned Pro. His second fight is going to be on the Oscar-Mosley card on the 13^th.

East Side Boxing: Miguel Cotto made his Professional debut here in Austin. Are there any plans on bringing him back?

Bob Arum: Did he really?!

East Side Boxing: Yes, when Chavez fought Tom Johnson.

Bob Arum: Yeah, well Cotto is going to be a major, major star so yeah-why not?! We did his last fight in Puerto Rico June 28^th. We sold it out and we did over 11,000 people. So he’s really hot.

East Side Boxing: Any chance that when you sell out a venue like this (Austin Covention Center) that you look at a larger venue?

Bob Arum: Yeah, last time Jesus fought here for us, he fought at the University Arena (where they play basketball).

East Side Boxing: That was sold out as well right?

Bob Arum: No, but we did 9,000.

East Side Boxing: Any closing comments, anything that you’d like to tell the fight fans?

Bob Arum: No, just we’re very, very thrilled and we’re happy with the town. We’re happy with Jesus’ performance and we’re going to have a good time here.

East Side Boxing: You’ve got the DelaHoya fight coming up too.

Bob Arum: And the DelaHoya fight…

East Side Boxing: A lot of exciting things right?

Bob Arum: A lot of exciting things but I’m going to get killed because there’s no more tickets! They’re all sold out! I’m not hiding any tickets! We get twenty calls a day! The ringside tickets on the floor are going for $15,000 a seat! I can’t stop it…

East Side Boxing: Wow! It’s going to be a great show!

Bob Arum: …I can’t stop them; I can’t stop them (smiles).

East Side Boxing: Thanks a lot Bob.

Bob Arum: You’re welcome.

Carlos "Stiff-jab" Kalinchuk
www.EastSideBoxing.com