European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Grand puppeteer of boxing b by Steve Wilstein United press International of arum the most powerful Man in boxing is a Plain looking 46-year-old attorney from new i York with thick glasses and a crooked  is the grand puppeteer of boxing. As chairman of top rank inc., he manipulates the flow of More than $20 million a year and the careers of eight champions. Except for the Large smelly cigars arum smokes he always looks like an alien in the boxing world. Fight promoters Are supposed to be just a step away from Carnie barkers fat and loud or lean and Slick. They Are not often graduates cum laude of Harvard Law school and former stars of the . Attorney s office. Arum does t have any Harvard gloss about him but he does seem a misfit. Yet when Muhammad Ali tries to regain the world heavyweight championship from Leon Spinks on Friday in the Louisiana super dome arum will be sitting at ring Side puffing contentedly on a Cigar. Ali Spinks ii is one of four title fights on the card and no matter who wins any of the bouts arum s company will tuck away nearly $2 million and still hold exclusive promotional control of the champions arum controls All four champs and no one fights for the title unless he signs up with arum. Even Ali signed an option for three More title defences Worth at least $12 million if he beats Spinks and keeps fighting. Spinks is already committed to arum for five More fights. It s like a game but it s a Tough Tough business arum says. If anyone in boxing knows How to play the game especially where it concerns tax angles it s Bob arum. In a recent series of interviews arum explained exactly How he hustled to set up the Ali Spinks rematch including his sidestepping of the world boxing Council s order for a Spinks Norton fight his secret negotiations with Abc while lbs still held an option on the fight the scramble for a site his manipulation of the press and the signing of Ali and Spinks. Would be promoters should take note. Right after the fight in Las vegas i went Back to Leon s dressing room arum said recalling the night last feb. 15 when Spinks upset Ali to gain the title in Only his eighth pro fight. They were screaming Yelling hollering praying. Then i went into Ali s dressing room. It was almost like mourning Guys like Drew Brown crying. Herbert Muhammad looked stunned. Ali was the Only Guy who really was in control of himself but he looked like a ghost. Veronica Ali s wife was there holding his hand. Ali was sitting on a Stool his face puffed up. I came in and the first thing he said was Well at least my Friend meaning me controls the title and now i can get a shot to win it Back and i said Ali anything you want i m Gonna do " arum seems to especially enjoy his Cigar As he tells that Story. It shows his Power the great Ali needed a favor from arum. From that moment on arum began to set up the rematch. The world boxing Council was grumbling that they wanted Spinks to fight Ken Norton. My first preference was for Norton to go away and to have the Ali fight in May and the Norton fight in september. Second prefer ence to Calm everybody was to have the Norton fight in May and the Ali fight in september on the theory that Norton presented no Challenge to Spinks. Then Leon said he was t going to fight until septem Ber because he wanted his rib Cage to heal. If he fought Norton first Ali would t get the shot until february a whole year later. It was t fair to Ali. And y know the Bottom line is that Ali s my Friend and i Ain t Gonna Hurt him. So we bit the Bullet determined to let the wac do what they wanted but there was no Way we were Gonna make Ali wait until  on March 4, Ali appeared on the lbs National network. Arum and lbs officials promoted the show with a great Deal of mystery As if Ali were going to announce his retirement. Arum said he had no idea what Ali was going today. In fact arum had already talked to Ali about stating his Case for a rematch on television. Ali told me How he was Gonna Lay out the pitch arum said. We were really getting castigated in the papers and we could t get our Side of the Story out. We figured the Best Guy to turn the tables was Ali so we let him carry the  Public sentiment which had been leaning toward Norton seemed to change toward a after the show but on March 16 the wac went ahead and withdrew recognition of Spinks title Only one month after he won it and gave the championship to Norton. Norton then lost the title in june to Larry Holmes. Determined to set up Ali Spinks ii arum began play ing the angles. We were talking about purses of approximately $11 million if the fight went foreign arum said. Of that $11 million we were Gonna have to pay $6 million in Cash and the fighters would have gotten another $5 million in Cash from the foreign government which they would have used to pay the taxes to the foreign government. It s like ring around the Rosey Money. If they pay the tax to the foreign country when they come Back to the . They Don t have to pay any taxes. It s a gimmick. If it was Domestic they knew it would be less. They d be whacking up about $8 million before  arum then tried to work out a Deal with a South african group called Southern suns hotel in a purportedly Independent african nation Bohu Tosca a. But Adverse reaction by the Black Community quickly knocked out that idea. Meanwhile new Orleans had come in and we shifted Down there arum said. They were the Only serious bidders. Iran was interested but they had internal prob lems. The Philippines never really got it together  arum was already talking with television people to line up the main source of Revenue for the fight. Lbs which broadcast the feb. 15 fight had an option on Spinks next fight but arum was dealing mostly with Abc in secret. As soon As i got Back to new York after the fight arum said John Martin of Abc called me and asked what the situation was. I told him about lbs option. John set up a secret meeting at a hotel on March 3 with myself himself my partner Mike Malitz and Roone Arledge then president of Abc sports. We discussed whether there was indeed a possibility for Abc to get the rights. I brought them the contracts with lbs and we re viewed them because they sensed there was total disarray Over at lbs. Lbs president Robert Wussler was then in the process of getting fired. So Abc was working with me All along lbs you Don t even hear from. They Don t know what they re doing. Lbs had a 15-Day option that would Start once the fighters were  knowing that Abc was willing to spend Over $5 million to show the fight arum went to new Orleans on March 22 for a preliminary meeting with a group of businessmen called Louisiana sports inc., who wanted to stage the card in the 80,000-seat Louisiana super dome. We signed the contract and made the announcement Bob arum Boss of top rank inc. Up monday september 11, 1978 doily Magazine Row in new Orleans on april 4," arum said. That Day they gave me a $300,000 letter of credit and they had to come up with $2.7 million within 15 Days after they got the fight ers contracts which they did. Now it was like Okay Man i m ready to sign the fighters. I Haven t got the television Deal but i know that Abc wants it. Maybe lbs will come through but i m not worried i got this Money. Abc in t doing anything. I go to Chicago and sit Down with Ali s lawyer Charles Lomax. We make a couple of changes from an earlier draft but there s no problems. Then i go to her Bert Muhammad s office and Herbert Ali s manager makes a lot of changes the number of free tickets the number of rooms the number of limousines. Ali ended up with 75 ringside tickets when my con tract had 25 and All first class air transportation when my contract had first class and regular. That Herbert meet ing had to have Cost me $30,000 minimum. Herbert s a very Good businessman. I m so used to giving in to him even Here where i did t have to i did. After Herbert and Lomax approved they called up Ali and i went to his Home in Chicago. Ali was in bed. We sat and talked for about 5-10 minutes. He was sort of sleepy. He thanked me very much for what i did and signed the  with Ali s signed contract in his briefcase arum moved on to Detroit to negotiate with Spinks lawyer Edbell. I sat Down with Bell and he started renegotiating cer Tain Points even though i had met with him that week in new York and we had agreed on everything. He wanted More limousines suites instead of rooms they re crazy these people. He saw what Herbert did so he took advantage but he already had a lot. That s where you get chipped away at in these promotions. Finally we got it All resolved and we re waiting for Leon to come in on a plane from Philadelphia. We go out to the Airport and he s not on the plane. We wait for the next plane and he s not on that one. I said the hell with it and went Back to new York and we re in Telephone communication. No one knows where he is and everyone s be ginning to get a Little worried until we find out he s with some lady in North Carolina. We had a press conference set for april Lith and an hour before it was supposed to Start Leon still had t signed the contract. We had a Quick meeting explained the whole thing to him and he finally signed the contract. I gave him a $100,000 Deposit. Now he s signed for close to $4 million Ali s signed for a Little less $3.75 million and the Deal is  lbs now had 15 Days to exercise its option which was equal to the purses of the two fighters $7.75 million. I was expecting lbs to negotiate with me arum said but every time i called up they said they were pricing me a draft of the contract and we agree on a Price of a Little More than $5.3 million subject to the lbs option. On april 27, the option is about to run out and the Deal with Abc is All set. Then lbs Calls me Over and says we want the fight and offers me $100,000 More than Abc a Little less than $5.5 million. Lbs gave me a written proposal but i said Guys no it s not right. I m hanging out there on the limb you Aren t even talking to me and now it s too late i m going with Abc so i left their office and signed the contract with Abc. Abc gave me a Check for $300,000 and a letter of credit for the balance. So i have $5.3 million from Abc $3 million from new Orleans and i have to pay the fighters about $7.75 million. The rest is for the under card and pro  arum said Abc originally thought it would lose Money on the broadcast but now believes it will make a consider Able profit. The 3-hour, 15-minute show will have 23 Commer Cial minutes at an average of Over $300,000 per minute for nearly $7 million. Even with 15 percent of the advertising Money going to and agencies the net work will still come out ahead. Top rank s profit comes almost entirely from the Sale of foreign rights which is expected to approach $2 Mil lion. This fight has set records for foreign sales said arum. It set a record for the highest network Sale in his tory beating the previous High by Well Over $1 million. Ali shavers and Ali Spinks were both $4 million. And this la be the highest live Gate in history at nearly $4 Mil  everybody comes out a Winner and that s the Way i like  the stars and stripes Page 13