HE TURNED Muhammad Ali and Manny Pacquiao into sporting icons and now US promoter Bob Arum says Jeff Horn can become one of the biggest names in world sport if he beats Manny Pacquiao at Suncorp Stadium in two weeks.
Arum, 85, is a Harvard-trained lawyer who has an estimated wealth of more than $400 million ? despite claiming President Donald Trump once ripped him off.
He says Horn can become an international sporting icon if he turns back the Filipino fireball in their World Boxing Organisation welterweight title fight on July 2.
?Jeff is the underdog but boxing history is full of upsets,?? Arum says.
?Can you imagine the worldwide media Jeff will get if he beats Pacquiao?
Arum, who worked as a lawyer for President John F. Kennedy?s administration in the early 1960s, has promoted some of the biggest names in boxing including Ali, Pacquiao, Joe Frazier, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and more recently Floyd Mayweather.
The Horn-Pacquiao fight is his second foray into Brisbane boxing. In 1989 he was one of the promoters behind a world title defence by Aussie Jeff ?Hitman?? Harding against Englishman Tom Collins at the new Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
Arum says his first involvement with boxing came while working for President Kennedy?s brother Robert Kennedy at the US Justice Department when he investigated the shady tax dealings involved in a 1961 world title fight.
To this day, Arum believes JFK was assassinated by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald on the orders of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
?Everyone had such great respect for President Kennedy,?? Arum says. ?He was very, very inspiring, just a great leader.??
Arum says Donald Trump is no JFK. He claims Mr Trump swindled him out of millions when they were involved in promoting a 1991 world heavyweight title fight between Evander Holyfield and challenger George Foreman.
?He?s a bad, bad guy,?? Arum said during Mr Trump?s presidential campaign last year, adding that his appeal to voters was based on racism and fear.
Arum says when it came to promoting fights, Ali was the greatest teacher in the world. ?Ali was the most courageous person I have ever seen,? Arum said.
?He gave up his livelihood for his beliefs.
?In the 1960s, Ali was not a popular guy … but when people saw he was a man of conviction and principles, that he was willing to sacrifice everything, he gained tremendous respect around the world.?
