Bob Arum

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum

For more than six decades, Arum has been at the front of elite boxing and at the ripe age of 89, he is showing little signs of showing down with Fury, Lopez, Crawford and Lomachenko in his stable.

Bob Arum is a promoter who is the founder and CEO of Top Rank Boxing based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Hall of Famer currently promotes British heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

The 88-year-old grew up in New York and began his professional career as a lawyer after studying at Erasmus Hall High School. Arum did not have a particular interest in boxing until a chance meeting between ex-Cleveland Browns star Jim Brown led to an introduction to Muhammad Ali.

Arum admits himself that it was "The Greatest" who taught him all he knew about boxing and helped become a world-class boxing promoter.

Soon after their productive meeting, Arum was made vice president and secretary of Ali's promotional company Main Bout. This was used to host Ali's fights during the latter stages of his career.

He was joined by Mike Malitz - the son of legendary Lester M. Malitz - as a fellow vice president and had a 20 percent stake in the company.

As Ali's career in the sport winded down, Arum oversaw a rebrand of Main Bout Promotions and was later renamed as Top Rank under Arum's leadership. It was not the first time Arum had been involved in an Ali fight though.

In the 1980s, Arum's promoting credentials came into prominence. It was also the beginning of a huge rivalry with fellow American promoter Don King. For over four decades, the pair were seen as the biggest promoters in the world.

Foreman Ali

Together, they have co-promoted some of the biggest fights of all-time, including "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler vs Roberto Duran and Hagler vs Thomas Hearns.

They continued promoting the "Fabulous 4 Rivalry" by adding two massive Sugar Ray Leonard fights against Hagler and Hearns towards the end of the decade before finishing with a monumental heavyweight clash between Evander Holyfield and George Foreman.

Over the years Arum has continued to promote some of the biggest fighters in the sport.

In 1999, his services to the sport were recognised as he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In July 2017, Top Rank entered a new broadcasting partnership with ESPN. This started with distributing the WBO welterweight championship fight between Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn.

It was later announced that both parties had agreed a multi-year partnership to stream on all ESPN services, including ESPN+ before getting extended in August 2018 to run until 2025.

He has since promoted mega-events including the biggest selling heavyweight pay-per-view since Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson in Deontay Wilder vs Fury 2 in 2020.

Bob Arum fighters

The first fighter Arum worked with was arguably the greatest fighter to have ever lived in Ali - formerly known as Cassius Clay. The first world title fight they worked together on was Ali's 1966 clash with George Chuvalo.

Arum would promote 27 cards headlined by Ali - the most of any fighter he has worked with since entering the promoting scene. His collaboration with Ali helped expose him to greater opportunities in the sport with him having a big input in delivering some of the greatest fights from one of the most iconic rivalries between the Fab Four.

The most famous showdown being a controversial result between Leonard and Hagler for the middleweight world championship. His influence in the sport started to develop further with the signing of Hearns and Foreman to his stable.

They headlined plenty of memorable cards for Arum over the years as they grew to become two of the biggest attractions in world boxing.

Moving into the 1990s, Arum's stable continued to expand as he represented future six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya and Mexican legend Erik Morales.

But perhaps the most successful signing to fall under the tutelage of Arum was Filipino icon Pacquiao.

Pacquiao

During his career, Pacquiao has won 12 world championships, became the first to win five lineal titles and is the only eight-division champion in boxing. He is considered to be one of the greatest boxers of all-time.

In the 2000s, the calibre of names associated with Top Rank continued to be eye-catching. Arum worked with Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez Sr during the later years of his career and also promoted Floyd Mayweather during the years he called himself "Pretty Boy" before later buying out his contract in order to join Showtime and Al Haymon.

Rebranding himself as "Money", Mayweather went on to become one of the most polarising figures in the whole sport. He sold 24 million PPV buys over the course of his career. These figures have managed to surpass the likes of Tyson, Lewis, De La Hoya and Pacquiao.

As time has gone on, Arum has taken a little bit more of a back seat compared to previous decades, although he is still involved in some of the biggest fights today. The two biggest examples are Pound for Pound superstars Terence Crawford, 'Hi-Tech' Lomachenko and Fury - a two-heavyweight champion and reigning WBC titlist.

His recent partnership with Frank Warren has seen him have a bigger contribution to British fighters with Irish duo Carl Frampton and Michael Conlan.

Major boxing events

The Harvard graduate has promoted some of the best fights to have graced the sport. Alongside King, his first mega-event was co-promoting "Thrilla in Manilla" between Ali and Frazier in the third and final fight between Ali and Joe Frazier. The trilogy series is seen as the most enthralling heavyweight rivalry of all-time.

He later co-promoted the "Brawl in Montreal" between Leonard and Duran in 1980 and was involved in delivering De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad and Mayweather-Zab Judah.

Over the course of his career, he and Top Rank are estimated to have promoted over 11,500 fight cards across all weight classes around the globe. Another Leonard fight he promoted was his controversial draw against "Hitman" Hearns.

One of the most successful stories was Arum's role in helping stage the "Fight of the Century'' between Pacquaio and Mayweather. It had been a fight in the works for the best part of five years with negotiations stalling several times in the process.

Despite an underwhelming finish, it sold 4.6 million PPV buys in America.

It resulted in the fight generating $410million in revenue, surpassing Mayweather's 2013 fight with Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez as the highest-grossing PPV clash in history.

In recent times, he has promoted the most successful heavyweight fight since Lewis-Tyson in Wilder-Fury 1 and the rematch in 2018 and 2020. He also promoted the upset win delivered by Teofimo Lopez against Lomachenko in 2020.

Arum's deal with ESPN

In August 2017, it was announced that Arum's Top Rank agreed to a major partnership with ESPN to broadcast all of their events on their platforms in the USA and Canada. This contract was initially a four-year deal to 2021.

The agreement included 18 main event cards during the first year. The opening fight night of the partnership took place on September 22, 2017, which saw world title defences from Oscar Valdez and Gilberto Ramirez. This deal was extended a year after to coincide with the set-up of ESPN+.

ESPN+ is a live sports streaming service which officially started in April 2018 and with the addition of Disney it is believed the American platform has 8.5 million subscribers.

ESPN is a direct rival to DAZN and is home not only to Top Rank Boxing but also Dana White's UFC. Arum's 2025 deal with ESPN promises boxing fans 54 events a year, including 12 prime time events along with a further 24 international fights.

Through being a member of ESPN +, you are given a discount on future PPV fights on ESPN for boxing events. Arum's biggest profile signing of recent years is Fury.

In early 2019, he signed a multi-fight deal reportedly worth $100million. Warren - who runs Queensberry Promotions on UK broadcaster BT Sport - co-promotes Fury alongside Arum.

Tyson Fury Deontay Wilder victory

Bob Arum's net worth

A successful career as a lawyer followed by promoting some of the biggest names in boxing has seen Arum involved in a lot of big money deals. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Arum is worth an estimated $300million. This includes all of his current assets and shares in Top Rank as the CEO of the company.

One of the most lucrative events Arum promoted was the 1991 clash between colossal heavyweights Holyfield and Foreman. The fight is hailed as one of the best of its time, and in earning around 1.45 million buys, it brought in $80million in revenue.

The champion going in was Holyfield, who was guaranteed approximately $20 million, while the challenger Foreman was guaranteed around $12million. His co-promotion alongside Al Haymon and Mayweather was the latter's bout with Pacquiao - around $600million made in revenue from PPV and the gate.

Personal life

Arum grew up in the Crown Heights section of New York and was raised with Jewish faith. The promoter has been married twice in his life, with his first marriage ending in divorce. Arum had three children with his first spouse.

They had two sons; Richard and John, along with a daughter named Elizabeth. The promoter's eldest son John Arum passed away in 2010 after a horrific hiking accident at the North Cascades National Park, Seattle.

Arum married Lovee Dubeof in 1991, and have remained together to this day. Over their 25-plus year marriage, they haven't had children of their own although Arum is a step father to Todd Duboef - president of Top Rank - and Dena Duboef, who is vice president and looks after the marketing and special events aspect of the business.

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