HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 09 Dec 2011
We first met Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in 1975 when he was in the Philippines for the greatest heavyweight championship fight of all-time, the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier ?Thrilla in Manila.?
Arum and Don King were the most unlikely partners in bringing the fight to Manila at the importuning of President Marcos, with the money to back up the bid and the charm of the lovely First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos to help seal the deal.
Together with then Games and Amusements Board chairman Louie Tabuena, the agreement was signed at the Philippine Embassy in Washington and that began Arum?s first real contact and indeed his fascination with the Philippines.
In Manila, Arum was somehow overshadowed by the giant figure of the flamboyant King and to some extent Ali?s manager Herbert Muhammad. But he cultivated friendships with his charm and certainly impressed Ms. Marcos and her coterie of friends with his manners.
We served as liaison officer of Ali during the ?Thrilla in Manila? and for the first time since, met Arum when in Las Vegas for the first fight between Manny Pacquiao and Arum?s prized possession at that time Erik ?El Terrible? Morales. Arum remembered, which gave us an insight into the measure of the man.
He spoke highly of the Philippines and the wonderful time he had on two separate visits to Manila and complemented Ms. Marcos for being a truly gracious host.
Astute promoter that he was, Arum sensed Pacquiao would be a future superstar and soon enough saw Murad Muhammad ousted as Pacquiao?s promoter although quite a few others contributed to the whispering campaign against Murad that resulted in Pacquiao turning against him and signing up with Shelly Finkel.
That relationship ran out at the end of a two-year contract and from then on its been Arum calling the shots, with the consent of Manny of course, and to a lesser extent trainer Freddie Roach, the latest inductee into the Hall of Fame.
No matter what people may think of Bob Arum, including those who make nasty comments, the undeniable fact is that without him at the negotiating table and Freddie Roach in the gym, Manny Pacquiao almost certainly would not have risen to the pinnacle of success he now enjoys not just as a fighter but as a crossover superstar and a big-time product endorser.
Credit must surely go to Arum. While his renowned matchmaker Bruce Trampler, another Hall of Fame inductee, picked the right opponents that Pacquiao destroyed, Arum built an amazingly real rags to riches story around Manny and successfully peddled it to the world. The story is true of course because we ourselves saw Manny up-close and very personal when he was a genuine poor boy on the streets of General Santos City. But it was the engaging manner in which Arum told and re-told the story of Pacquiao that gripped his audiences, many of them hard-nosed journalists.
Even at the age of 80, Arum often flies to the Philippines to see Manny train, to attend his birthday and to trek with him on the campaign trail which he did during the last elections when he confidently predicted that Pacquiao would win a congressional seat despite having lost the first time around.
Whether he is telling you a story ? and he?s a great raconteur ? or even spinning one, Bob Arum is simply someone whom you listen to with a measure of awe.
As a promoter he is a businessman, and that?s a given in boxing. But you cannot ever take away the fact that he has been good to -and good for- Manny Pacquiao. He has in a sense edified him and made him a national and international sports hero in an era of many great sports achievers.
Bob Arum has turned 80 but his measured gait, the lucidity with which he thinks and articulates his thoughts and his down-to-earth manner set him apart as a quintessential promoter and one of a kind whom millions of Filipinos embrace for what he has done for Manny Pacquiao and through him the Philippines itself. Happy Birthday Bob.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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