World Boxing Hall of Fame Honors Bob Arum
Lifetime Acheivement Award for Famous Promoter
Nov 11, 2008
This Saturday, November 15, at the LAX Marriott in Los Angeles, CA will host new inductees, Lennox Lewis, Pernell Whitaker, Greg Haugen and others for their work in the ring, as well as promoter, Bob Arum, for getting them there in the first place.
Bob Arum Honored by Hall of Fame
Arum, who was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1931, will receive the Everett L. Sanders Award for his outstanding contributions to the sport of boxing. Fighters that Arum, Chairman of Top Rank Inc., is associated with include: Muhammad Ali, George Foreman Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, and many others, including 75 fighters on his current roster.
A Harvard Law graduate, Arum worked for the Kennedy administration in the Justice Department from 1962-1965. It was in '65 that football great Jim Brown introduced Arum to Muhammad Ali, and to boxing.
Instrumental in boxing's shift to Las Vegas as the major hub of the sport, Arum promoted the first major fight at a casino, the first Ali/Leon Spinks fight, at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1978. Top Rank moved its offices to Las Vegas in in 1986.
Along with light heavyweight, Marvin Johnson and lightweight, Greg Haugen, the WBHOF enshrines Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker and Lennox Lewis this Saturday.
Pernell Whitaker Considered Among the Greatest Ever
Whitaker, 40-4-1 (17), is considered by many ringside experts to be one of the finest boxers in the history of the lightweight division, if not the whole of boxing. Blessed with reflexes and a ring IQ most fighters can only dream of, Sweet Pea held titles in the lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, and jr. middleweight divisions.
A gold medal winner at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Whitaker was honored by The Ring magazine in 1989 as "Fighter of the Year" and again in 2002 as the tenth greatest fighter of the last 80 years.
Lennox Lewis Dominated the Heavyweight Division
Lewis, 42-3-2 (32), was the heavyweight who ultimately ushered in the modern era of extremely tall heavyweights. Never before had a 6'5" heavyweight been able to consistently dominate the ring or hold a world title as long as Lewis had. His physical talent, guided by legendary trainer, Emmanuel Steward, set the blueprint for what many boxing experts see as the future of the heavyweight division.
The British native, by way of Canada, dominated the heavyweights and, like Larry Holmes before him, gathers more respect by the day as pundits look back on his excellent career.
The WBHOF, based in California is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and honoring boxing and its history.
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