Arum Talking About a $24-Million Fight

Bob Arum told assembled media representatives Thursday that if ever there was a fight that did not need promotion, it was this.

In fact, over the course of 12 days, he planned to tell 21 different assemblies of media representatives just that on a campaign publicity tour requiring two corporate jets, four limos and an outlay of about $250,000. Hype is the last thing on Arum’s mind these days.

“So, uh, Bob, if that’s so, if this fight needs no hype, uh, then, why are we here?” asked a reporter at the Los Angeles stop.

“Good question,” Arum said.

Actually, Arum, co-promoter with Caesars Palace of the April 15 fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns, has a good answer. And it’s not the one you think.

There is a reason for this tour, featuring both fighters at each of the 21 stops. Hype isn’t the biggest of them, although a promoter would be a fool to discount it.

“This tour is too far out in front of the fight,” said Arum, meaning he isn’t counting on it to inspire interest among fight fans. “The real reason we’re doing this is to gather support from the closed-circuit exhibitors. Closed-circuit TV is the bet we’re making on this fight.”

In other words, this tour is a sales pitch aimed almost entirely at the folks who might be interested in franchising it locally. It has little to do with you or me. The people Arum wants to inflame on this tour are the closed-circuit promoters.

Arum, perhaps alone among his colleagues, does not consider closed-circuit TV as a communications dinosaur. You do remember closed-circuit TV. It was before cable, before you could pay $15 and have the fight piped right into your living room. Arum believes that, with a single technological advancement, closed-circuit can be restored as the preferred medium for the one or two monster fights that come along every five years.

Arum believes that closed-circuit TV became unfashionable and unprofitable only because there weren’t enough locations. No more than, say, 500 could be provided because that was the number of long lines the telephone company made available. But now with satellite communications, the number of outlets can be doubled, Arum said.

So, by limiting this fight largely to closed-circuit locations Arum anticipates bringing in nearly all the money in the world. All he has to do is get enough interested sponsors in the closed-circuit industry. Hence this tour.

Arum said: “If I promote this normally, I’m out, and out with a profit. But by doing this, we want to really ring the cash register.”

If Arum does get his 1,200 or so exhibitors, his promotion stands to bring in as much as $24 million, $3 million more than the previous record-holder, Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney.

If that happens, not only Arum will get rich. Hagler, who is defending his middleweight title in this fight, is guaranteed $5.7 million. Hearns, the World Boxing Council’s super-welterweight champion, is assured of $5.3 million. But as soon as the promotion goes over $14 million, Hagler gets 45% of each additional dollar and Hearns gets 35%. Arum gets the remaining 20%. That means Hagler could get another $4.5 million and Hearns as much as $3.5 million extra.

That explains at least one thing, their cooperation on this tour. “They’d go to 40 cities if I asked them to,” Arum said.

Add Tour: The fighters are traveling in some comfort, on private jets and in limos. However, attention is being paid to make sure the comfort is equal. So, for example, the fighters alternate planes. The Caesars Gulfstream has a Pac-Man game that gives it some advantage over Top Rank’s Gulfstream. Hagler had the early use of Pac-Man and also an air-to-ground phone, which he uses frequently to check with the wife and kids back home.

After seven cities in three days there had been no major foul-ups. According to Bob Halloran of Caesars Palace, the only scare occurred in Detroit when the limos peeled away from Cobo Arena to the airport. Halloran looked back and saw Hearns’ limo depart from the pack. Hearns had directed the driver to a McDonald’s drive-through. He wanted a hamburger.

Boxing Notes Here are some postponements and cancellations: Former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, attempting a comeback in Detroit after a 22-month layoff, has rescheduled the fight for Feb. 21. One of his teeth is infected. World Boxing Assn. junior middleweight champion Mike McCallum pulled out of a fight with former champion Davey Moore, saying he was sick. Former WBA super welterweight champion Aaron Pryor injured himself while training in Los Angeles and pulled out of an International Boxing Federation title match with challenger Gary Hinton. That will probably be rescheduled for March 2. Los Angeles’ Joey Olivo has been put off in his quest for the WBA junior flyweight title with champion Francisco Quiroz, and that fight apparently has been switched from Miami to Caracas.

Here’s a fight that will go on today. WBA featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza will make his 19th defense, this one against former WBA bantamweight champion Jorge Lujan. Pedroza, who won his title in 1978, is the champion of tenure among the 41 champions.

Don King, at the Forum Friday, announced two title fights there. WBC super-featherweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez will defend against Ruben Castillo, who will be getting title fight No. 4. WBC featherweight champion Azumah Nelson, who stunned Wilfredo Gomez a month ago, will make his first defense against top-ranked Marcos Villasana. Both fights will be March 21. Villasana normally fights at the Olympic Auditorium, but his defection was smoothed by King’s lending Roger Mayweather to the Olympic for a fight with Mario (Azabache) Martinez.