Arum, Top Rank celebrate 45 years in biz

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum celebrated his 45th anniversary of promoting fights this week. He has had quite a career, warts and all. Sure, there have been some negatives along the way, which I won't rehash here, but there is no denying that Arum is a great promoter who has put on some of the biggest and best fights in boxing history. At one time or another, Arum has promoted virtually every star of consequence during his career, including Muhammad Ali (27 of his fights!), George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"Forty-five years is a good start," said Arum, 79, who had just returned from the Philippines, where he checked in on Pacquiao during his training in preparation for his May 7 Showtime PPV fight against Shane Mosley. "It's been a lot of fun, and working with a great champion like Manny keeps me young."

Arum has showed no signs of slowing down as Top Rank continues to promote show after show on a multitude of platforms, including pay-per-view, HBO, Showtime, ESPN2 and Fox Sports Net/Fox Deportes.

I've covered countless Top Rank events, and one of the things Arum does incredibly well, which has allowed the company to flourish, is that he let's his top-notch staff -- executives (Todd duBoef and Carl Moretti), matchmakers (Bruce Trampler and Brad "Abdul" Goodman), public relations team (Lee Samuels and Ricardo Jimenez), and all the employees who make the engine go -- do their jobs without a lot of micromanaging.

According to Top Rank's records, the company has thus far promoted 1,759 fight cards (an average of 39 per year). The first show Arum ever promoted was on March 29, 1966. It was headlined by Ali's 15-round decision win against George Chuvalo to retain the heavyweight championship in Toronto. It was the first fight Arum had ever seen in person.

"We've done over 500 world title bouts and Top Rank has promoted in 40 states, 200 American cities and more than 60 cities outside the United States," Arum said. "Our company has ambitious plans for what we consider a very bright future in the sport of boxing." Happy anniversary.

• Whatever your opinion is of the Pacquiao-Mosley fight (and I have certainly voiced my displeasure), I give Top Rank credit for putting together one of the better pay-per-view undercards in a while. The Humberto Soto-Urbano Antillon lightweight title bout is a rematch of the 2010 ESPN.com fight of the year. I can't wait for the sequel. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.'s junior featherweight title defense against Jorge Arce has all the makings of an action fight, for however long it lasts -- not to mention that it's a classic Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry fight. And we will also see the return of former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik after a year out of the ring. That's a really good show. By the way, I'm sure I speak for most boxing fans when I say I'm really glad to see Pavlik return to action after all of his well-documented problems outside the ring.

• I am looking forward to the start of Showtime's "Fight Camp 360°: Pacquiao vs. Mosley" on Saturday. The first episode of the four-part series of the build-up to their fight debuts on CBS (Showtime's sister network) at noon ET, just before CBS's coverage of the Final Four. I still don't love the fight, but I dig "Fight Camp" and I love that CBS is involved.

• The representatives for heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and titleholder David Haye were in New York last week to talk to HBO and Showtime executives about a deal for their summer fight. Although Klitschko manager Bernd Boente has expressed a desire for the bout to go to Showtime because of the way HBO dissed the Klitschko brothers not long ago, I have a feeling the fight will wind up on HBO.

• Top Rank says it did more than 200,000 buys on Showtime PPV for Miguel Cotto's junior middleweight title defense against Ricardo Mayorga on March 12. That's a darn good number and shows just how popular Cotto is, no matter who he fights.

• If (when?) the Juan Manuel Lopez-Yuriorkis Gamboa fight happens, is there any possible way it won't be explosive?

• Who's faster? Gamboa or the Road Runner?

• Denis Lebedev versus Roy Jones Jr. One question: Why?

• Will one of the networks please put Tavoris Cloud on? The guy puts on a great show in an all-action fight against Glen Johnson on HBO last summer, wins the fight and now he can't seem to get arrested. What gives?

• So Mayweather likes to tweet photos of his winning tickets from basketball bets at Las Vegas sports books. Gee, I wonder why he never tweets photos of all his losing tickets?

• Erislandy Lara's performance in a draw last week against Carlos Molina on "Friday Night Fights" was beyond disappointing. If ever a guy lost by getting a draw, it was Lara. And if ever a guy won for drawing, it was Molina.

• Even before they went at it during this week's press tour, I was looking forward to the Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins rematch.

• I like the idea of the proposed Lucian Bute-Mikkel Kessler fight that Showtime is pursuing. It's the best fight that can be made at 168 pounds outside of the Super Six.

• I'll be at the Andre Berto-Victor Ortiz fight on April 16, which I'm looking forward to. Part of the reason is because I'm pumped to see welterweight prospect Thomas Dulorme, who fights on the undercard, live for the second time.

• Paging Elio Rojas.

• Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's mandatory challenger is Ryan Rhodes. If it happens, that's a real fight.

• Just doesn't seem like the whole Juan Manuel Marquez-Golden Boy Promotions relationship is going to end well.

• Gotta give big props to Alex "Yanksalex" Dombroff, promoter Lou DiBella's right-hand man, for the 4 a.m. ride in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago and for his impeccable New York restaurant selection the following week.

• DVD pick of the week: Nothing like a big upset to shake things up, right? Well that's what happened in this shocker 11 years ago Friday -- April 1, 2000 -- in Berlin. That's where Chris Byrd (filling in on two weeks' notice after Razor Ruddock dropped out) went to challenge Vitali Klitschko for his heavyweight belt. Klitschko, with a massive size advantage, was an enormous favorite and was well on his way to victory. But Byrd -- small, quick and tenacious -- began to come on in the middle rounds before Klitschko suddenly quit on his stool after the 10th round in an all-time shocker. We came to find out later that Klitschko had suffered a torn rotator cuff and was in severe pain. It turned out to be the biggest win of Byrd's career and a loss that Klitschko was vilified for because of the perception that he had no heart -- until he disproved that notion in dramatic fashion in his loss to Lennox Lewis three years later.

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Par louboutin03 le vendredi 01 avril 2011

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