Robert “Bob” Arum is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. He has also worked for the US Attorney’s Office for the southern district of New York in the tax division.
Arum organized super fights like Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Durán and Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns.
Arum mounted the Hagler-John Mugabi, Hearns-James Shuler double header 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. Ten days later, Shuler was dead in an unfortunate motorcycle accident.
Arum kept producing big-scale undercards and super fights, including the Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard bout, the Leonard-Hearns rematch, Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman, and many others.
Some of Arum’s superstars from the 1990s include former world flyweight champion Michael Carbajal and six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya and current boxing superstars, which includes eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and three-division world champion Erik Morales. Arum promoted the legendary champion Julio Cesar Chavez in his late years of boxing.
Manny Pacquiao is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world champion, in which he has won ten world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He is also the second highest paid athlete in the world.
He was named “Fighter of the Decade” for the 2000s decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO). He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA “Fighter of the Year,” winning the award in 2006, 2008 and 2009, and the Best Fighter ESPY Award in 2009 and 2011.
Pacquiao met Juan Manuel Márquez on December 8, 2012, for a fourth time, in a non-title bout at welterweight. Pacquiao was knocked out with one second left in the sixth round by a right to the jaw, giving Marquez the KO win.
Pacquiao is scheduled for a non-title bout at welterweight on November 23, 2013, at the Venetian Macao Resort & Hotel in Macau of the special administrative regions in China against The Ring ranked #6 Junior Welterweight Brandon Ríos. This will be Pacquiao’s first fight to be held in China.
Vitali Klitschko is a Ukrainian professional boxer and the reigning WBC heavyweight champion. He is leader of the political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and since December 15, 2012, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. He previously held the WBO and WBC titles. Klitschko is the first professional boxing world champion to hold a PhD degree.
Both Vitali and his brother are avid chess players. Vitali is a friend of former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and the two have played, with Kramnik always winning. Vitali has commented that “Chess is similar to boxing. You need to develop a strategy, and you need to think two or three steps ahead about what your opponent is doing. You have to be smart. But what’s the difference between chess and boxing? In chess, nobody is an expert, but everybody plays. In boxing, everybody is an expert, but nobody fights.”
