Promoter Arum hit with $125K sanction

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

Appearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission today in a disciplinary hearing that could have resulted in the loss of his boxing promoter's license, Bob Arum was, instead, fined $125,000 and placed on six months' probation.

The hearing was the result of Arum's admission that he had paid $100,000 to the International Boxing Federation to have a George Foreman vs. Axel Schulz April 22, 1995, fight in Las Vegas sanctioned as a title fight by the IBF. The payment was made, in essence, to move Schulz into the top 10 of the IBF ratings.

Arum made the admission in a sworn deposition during the federal government's racketeering case against the IBF and its long-time president, Robert W. Lee.

Arum attempted to justify the payment by saying he was being extorted by Lee.

Yet the payment was a violation of Nevada Revised Statute 467.110, which says "the commission may suspend or revoke the license of, otherwise discipline, or take any combination of such actions against any contestant, ring official, or other participant who in the judgment of the commission is guilty of an act or conduct that is detrimental to a contest or exhibition of unarmed combat."

Lee and others related to the IBF are accused of taking $338,000 in bribes to manipulate ratings. That trial is still ongoing.

The maximum fine the NSAC could legally have imposed was $250,000.

Foreman, promoted by Arum's Las Vegas-based Top Rank Boxing Inc., won the 1995 fight with Schulz by unanimous decision.

The settlement agreement was negotiated by Arum's lawyers, NSAC executive director Marc Ratner and the state attorney general's office. In it, Arum admits to using poor judgment when he made the payment to Lee.

Arum also has agreed to open the Top Rank books to the NSAC, share all communications with sanctioning bodies and provide evidence on payments of any sanctioning fees during the six-month probationary period.