Columnist Dean Juipe: Arum still ticked, King still free

Dean Juipe

Friday, Oct. 6, 2000 | noon

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

He laughed about not being able to attend today's weigh-in nor stand in the ring Saturday night, as if those were inconveniences anyhow.

But Bob Arum doesn't laugh when addressing the more serious repercussions he has faced since accepting a settlement with the Nevada State Athletic Commission pertaining to his testimony last summer in the federal government's case against the International Boxing Federation. Arum paid $125,000 to the NSAC and "voluntarily" distributed another $75,000 to six youth-sports organizations within the state to settle with the commission, which accused him of bringing disrespect to the sport.

It also put him on probation and barred him from such formalities as weigh-ins, like the one today with Paulie Ayala and Johnny Tapia at the MGM Grand, and from appearing in the ring, as he would normally have done both before and after the Ayala vs. Tapia fight in the hotel's Grand Garden Arena.

While Arum accepted the terms of his settlement with the NSAC at the time, he later recoiled when the government failed to prove the bulk of its case against the IBF and he continues to recoil at what he feels is preferential treatment given to his archrival, Don King.

King, who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the IBF trial in spite of being a major beneficiary of the organization's machinations, has yet to be called on the carpet by the NSAC and maybe never will.

"That's the worst part of the whole deal," Arum said Thursday. "They singled me out even though I volunteered my information to the feds, and they're going to bring in two other guys (promoters Cedric Kushner and Dino Duva) who later made admissions in court, yet the one man who didn't cooperate with the government gets off scot-free.

"At the least they should call him in and make him deny his involvement or hear him refuse to answer on the grounds that he feels he's protected."

But King may yet be summoned by the NSAC, its executive director, Marc Ratner, said.

"We're going in order of how they appeared in court," he said. "We did Mr. Arum first because he testified first. Cedric is next, then Duva. King's name is certainly out there but he didn't declare his guilt in court, so it puts us in a difficult spot."

Kushner was to have responded to the NSAC's formal complaint against him next week, but he has asked for and received a 20-day extension. In all likelihood he will pay a token fine to the NSAC, as will Duva when his time comes.

It grates on Arum, and many others, that King can sit on the sideline and laugh at his colleagues' troubles, particularly with the State of New Jersey now entering the fray and scheduling a Nov. 1 meeting in which it may ban Arum, Kushner and Duva from promoting boxing in its state.

The cruel irony of the situation -- that King was the "most guilty" of the promoters yet he has faced the fewest restraints -- isn't lost on Arum, who recently threatened to move out of Nevada because of it, although he has since reconsidered.

The ill will these IBF-related issues have caused in this state would be lessened or maybe even eliminated if King were to pick up on this compromise solution: Match Arum's $75,000 donation to youth sports.

Come on, Don. It's the right thing to do.