Columnist Dean Juipe: Arum mum despite rival on hot seat

PERHAPS HE has been undergoing sensitivity training.

That would explain it.

Otherwise, what's there to think except boxing promoter Bob Arum either has something to hide or that he has become an old softy at the age of 66? How else to rationalize his landmark decision Tuesday to respond with only a polite "no comment" when asked about colleague Don King's ongoing criminal fraud trial in New York?

Arum with no comment? That's a first.

Outspoken and opinionated, Arum has never passed up a chance to throw in his two-cents' worth on any and all topics, large or small. Ordinarily, his views are perceptive, witty and right to the point.

He can be cutting and he can be cruel. But he's always willing to be quoted.

Except this time.

This time he sees nothing to be gained by offering so much as a token evaluation of what King is up against in New York. Is acquittal in King's future? Imprisonment? A hefty fine?

Arum, a Harvard law school graduate, is taking no chances. While he has stood center stage and belittled King in the past more times than could ever be counted, he's staying clear of this one.

Whatever insight he may have, he's keeping to himself.

It could be an omen of sorts. Or it could be that Arum feels he's too close to the periphery of the case and that discretion requires him to take a pass on making a public stand.

Arum's connection to the trial is through the federal government's star witness, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez. Arum has promoted a few of Chavez's fights and he has him in with Oscar De La Hoya Sept. 18 in Las Vegas, even though Chavez has almost no chance to win.

But Chavez will take home a check that night that he'll turn into a few million pesos when he gets back to Mexico. An extremely cynical view: Arum is using Chavez and paying him well, not only to attract fans to a fight with De La Hoya but -- wink, wink -- to testify on the government's behalf against King.

Chavez used to fight for King and he's the central figure in the promoter's trial because King maintains he paid Chavez $350,000 in unreturnable training fees for a 1991 fight in Las Vegas with Harold Brazier that never came off. King then filed a claim with an insurer, Lloyd's of London, for reimbursement of those expenses.

The feds maintain King reworked Chavez's contract for the fight after the postponement, and that Chavez's expenses were no more than $80,000. In a 1995 trial on the same charges, King -- aided perhaps by Chavez failing to recall many of the specifics -- got off when the jury deadlocked.

But in the current trial Chavez has been far more emphatic on the stand, stating not only did he not receive $350,000 but that he didn't recognize the portion of the contract that pertained to training expenses. King's attorney then attempted to befuddle the fighter -- and it worked to some extent.

The naturally curious might wonder what Arum has to say of his long-time rival and fellow Las Vegan, what with the government on the attack.

Maybe his silence speaks for itself, although precisely what it says remains open to interpretation.

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