At 78 and after losing a son, Arum shows no signs of slowing down. Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, Saturday’s opponents, are both his fighters. The 78-year-old man traveled to the Pacific Northwest last month to bury his son. Days later, boxing promoter Bob Arum was back at work, beating a typhoon to the Philippines to visit his sport’s superstar, Manny Pacquiao.
On Monday, Arum was airborne again, traveling to Dallas for his latest promotion: Saturday night’s Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito junior-middleweight title fight at Cowboys Stadium.
Arum, long ago an attorney for Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department, is in his 44th year as a boxing promoter. It’s a career that has taken him from Muhammad Ali to Marvin Hagler, George Foreman, Oscar De La Hoya and Pacquiao. With Pacquiao in his stable, Arum shows no signs of slowing down.
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“A lot of people who seek retirement are bored at what they’re doing. When I’m doing these big promotions, it’s never same ol’, same ol’,” Arum said.
Arum doesn’t have time to be feeble or worry about his age, so he returns to the number-crunching he has known for years, his mind racing to overcome any flaws in his business plan.
For Saturday’s fights, Arum’s Top Rank boxing promotions owes guaranteed purses of $18 million to Pacquiao, plus $3 million for Margarito and $2 million for t
