Promoter Arum has Quartey lined up for fight

An offer for lunch with Bob Arum was too much to resist.

But what was he up to? To vent? To steal a little thunder from rival promoter Don King, who's in town promoting a pair of shows at the Las Vegas Hilton? Was there a hidden agenda?

Turns out he did have an item of news value but he also just wanted to talk. And regardless of the topics, everything -- including his opinions on King, Mike Tyson and Roberto Duran -- was on the record.

The breaking nugget had Arum bursting at the seams.

"He's flying here right now and by Friday afternoon we may have the official announcement," Arum said Thursday, referring to Ike Quartey traveling to Las Vegas to sign to fight Oscar De La Hoya. The Arum-promoted bout will be held Nov. 21 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Arum, who handles De La Hoya, has been under fire for not lining up better fights for his star. Quartey, 34-0-1 and the World Boxing Association welterweight champion until being stripped of the title last week due to his failure to defend, vs. De La Hoya qualifies as a major attraction.

De La Hoya, 28-0, is the World Boxing Council champion at 147 pounds.

"There's no legal impediment to making the deal with Quartey," Arum said, adding that he'll meet today with the fighter and his attorney to iron out the details. But the key points are already resolved and Quartey has agreed to the fight and a $4.6 million purse.

The tricky part is that Quartey has multiple contractual obligations and, in effect, has at least two other promoters owning a piece of him.

"My goal is to do this with the acquiescence of everyone involved," Arum said. "I think it's going to be done and everyone will be satisfied, although I don't know and don't want to know how the $4.6 million will be disbursed."

An earlier fight that Quartey had agreed to, against International Boxing Federation champion Felix Trinidad, has fallen through and is no longer an obstacle toward matching him with De La Hoya.

"Quartey has been freed by a judge from any obligation to fight Trinidad," Arum said. "The contract Quartey signed with Trinidad states Trinidad has to be free of Don King by Aug. 31, and Trinidad isn't getting out of his contract with King that easy."

Outlining his future plans for De La Hoya, who will face Julio Cesar Chavez at the T&M Sept. 18, Arum has a February date for a fight on HBO in which the opponent "will probably be Oba Carr, or maybe Frankie Randall, in Mexico." In May of 1999, he's looking to pair De La Hoya with Trinidad in Las Vegas.

"I think Trinidad is a two-round fight," he said. "I really believe De La Hoya is that phenomenal."

As for Quartey, Arum said "I wouldn't make the fight if I was overly concerned (De La Hoya might lose). The only thing that bothers me is that Quartey will get up to 160 (pounds) after weighing in (at 147), while Oscar might gain about seven pounds.

"I'll never say this again because I have to sell the fight, but I wouldn't make any welterweight out there less than a 10-to-1 underdog against Oscar."

Art Manteris of the Las Vegas Hilton said he would open De La Hoya as a minus 250 favorite against Quartey.

De La Hoya will be paid $9 million for the fight.

Arum said De La Hoya would move up to 154 pounds in September of 1999, opening the way for fights with possible opponents like Yory Boy Campas, Terry Norris, Keith Mullings, Raul Marquez and David Reid.

As for Chavez this September, Arum is leery because De La Hoya is promising a quick knockout.

"You ever seen Chavez knocked out?" he asked, knowing it hasn't happened in 105 fights. "I just went and saw Chavez (in training camp in Colorado) and he looks good. The scar tissue (around his eyes and on his forehead) is all removed and if he doesn't get cut against Oscar, seriously, no one can tell me that's a one- or two-round fight.

"The trouble as I see it is Oscar going for the knockout. It's like a guy going up to the plate trying to hit a home run. You only screw yourself up."

He also said Chavez has his U.S. tax problems resolved and that King's claim that he still has ties to the fighter was settled in Arum's favor in a Florida court two weeks ago.

"He didn't stop talking for an hour," Arum said of King on the witness stand. "In this order, he called me a racist, a crook, a thief and a serial tortuous interferer of contracts.

"But the judge ruled in our favor. King had a case, but it wasn't enough."

What about King, anyway? How is it that he's constantly in court, constantly fighting legal battles?

"It's because no promoter takes the percentage (from his fighters) that he does," Arum said. "He's always going to run into this discontent and it's all of his own making."

Is Arum the least bit sympathetic?

"No, not at all," he replied.

King does have Duran fighting tonight at the Hilton and the Panamanian is a fighter who was once with Arum. He said Duran made at least $10 million fighting guys like Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler in Arum-promoted fights, and that Duran has probably made at least $30 million in his professional career.

Nonetheless, Duran is broke.

"Duran is destitute and no matter how much he's being paid (to fight WBA middleweight champ William Joppy), he'll be destitute again," Arum said. "What a guy Duran is. I really feel sorry for him because he's not fighting like Crazy George (Foreman) is just to keep his name out there so he can sell more grills (in TV ads), but because he needs the money.

"That $10 million that he got through me? It took less than a year for him to spend every single cent of it, and that includes $3 million that the Panama government was holding in a trust for his family.

"I went to his home in Panama once and there were 50 people there, all drinking Dom Perignon.

"Duran is generous to a fault. He's the only fighter I've come across in 32 years in boxing who I had to fight for a check."

Arum, 66, has never promoted Tyson but acknowledges the former heavyweight champ is a gold mine.

"He's the biggest pay-per-view attraction of all time and it has nothing to do anymore with wins and losses," Arum said. "His life is in a fish bowl. He could get the s--- kicked out of him for the next 10 fights and he'd still draw 10 million (pay per view) viewers."

Arum said he would vote to reinstate Tyson if he were on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which will rule on the matter Sept. 19. Tyson's license was revoked July 9, 1997, by the NSAC.

Handling the clean-cut De La Hoya is an easier task and Arum is pleased the fight with Quartey is falling into place. At the very least it will quiet the East Coast press that has been clamoring for the Golden Boy to face more competitive opponents than the recent Patrick Charpentier.

"Quartey is the fight Oscar wants," Arum said, a sense of peacefulness surrounding him amid the noontime hubbub of Freddie G's restaurant.

archive