Bob Arum, who turns 92 next month, says he will never retire.
The veteran promoter, and the head and co-founder of Top Rank, is too busy looking forward to think about quitting his day job.
In a wide-ranging interview on the Boxing Life Stories podcast, Arum said his son-in-law Todd Duboef headed up much of the day-to-day operations of Top Rank but that Arum would not be stepping away because he still enjoys it so much.
“I realise people like to hear me talk about the past, because people are fascinated with the history of the sport,” said Arum. “But for me, the enjoyment that I have is to talk about current events, what’s happening now and what’s going to be happening in the near future.”
Asked whether Arum reflected with pride on his career and his contributions to the sport, the Hall of Famer added: “I don’t know if pride is the word.”
However, Arum is widely-appreciated by boxing fans as the man who has worked with so many of the sport’s leading stars, including Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Tyson Fury and Manny Pacquiao.
“When I go to events now, and I go to practically all of the Top Rank events, hundreds of people are coming up to me calling me an icon, and saying how they remember the fact that I’ve been with this sport at the highest level for so many years and it’s something that really doesn’t affect me because when you’re doing something continuously over a period of years, you don’t look back and say, ‘Hey, look at the great things I did in the past’. You look forward and say, ‘Look what I’m going to be doing in the future’.”
It is Arum’s unwillingness to dwell on the past that means retirement could not be further from his mind. Arum was born in Brooklyn in 1931 and the 91-year-old celebrates his birthday on December 8. His motivation is to look forward, and not to reflect.
“That’s another reason I won’t ever retire,” Arum stated. “It’s because I don’t want to be one of these people that’s look back and talks about my accomplishments in the past. I would rather talk about what I’m doing today and tomorrow.”
