BLUE NUNN : Fighter’s Manager Alleges They Are Owed $350,000; Promoter Denies Debt

The cause of the breakup of middleweight boxing champion Michael Nunn’s promotional arrangement with Bob Arum apparently was not Nunn’s much-criticized performance against Iran Barkley Monday night, but $350,000 allegedly owed by Arum to Nunn.

Nunn’s manager, Dan Goossen, said Thursday that they split from Arum because the promoter had not paid Nunn that amount as a penalty for being unable to provide Roberto Duran as an opponent.

Nunn, the International Boxing Federation champion, who won a split decision over Barkley in Reno, was roundly criticized for his style by Arum after that fight, and the next day Arum said he would not promote Nunn’s fights again.

Arum denies owing money to Nunn, saying the amount in question was paid Nunn as part of his purse for his bout against Sumbu Kalambay March 25.

Barkley and Roberto Duran fought in Atlantic City last February for Barkley’s World Boxing Council middleweight championship. Arum and Goossen said that there was an agreement that if Arum was unable to match Nunn with the Barkley-Duran winner, Arum was obligated to make a payment to Nunn.

But Duran upset Barkley. Then, instead of next signing to fight Nunn, was signed by Arum for a fight with Sugar Ray Leonard Dec. 7.

Said Goossen: “We had a contractual agreement with Arum that if he could not provide Nunn with the winner of Barkley-Duran, then Arum would make a payment to Nunn.

“The payment was never made. Arum is in breach of contract.”

Arum said: “I don’t owe Nunn anything. I included what Nunn would have made for a Duran fight in his purse for the Kalambay fight.

“I was obligated to provide the winner of Barkley-Duran, but I couldn’t. There were penalties in the contract. So I stepped up to the plate and paid him the same amount of money for fighting Kalambay ($1,000,030) that he’d have earned against Duran.”

Arum said that he and Goossen also had a dispute over what Arum called Goossen’s criticisms of the Leonard-Duran fight.

“(The breakup) was an accumulation of a lot of things, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was Dan’s constant trashing of Leonard-Duran, when he knew I am promoting that fight,” Arum said.

“I begged him to stop, but he wouldn’t. Mike Trainer (Leonard’s manager) was going crazy.”

Besides criticizing Nunn on style points Monday night, Arum also knocked him as a gate attraction. Goossen and Arum blame one another, however, for the selection of Reno’s 11,000-seat Lawlor Events Center as the Nunn-Barkley venue. Paid attendance there was 5,900.

“I wanted Nunn-Barkley in an 8,000-seat arena at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, but Dan insisted on Reno,” Arum said. “Reno was a terrible mistake. Now, they bring nothing to the table when they sit down with Manny Steward (Thomas Hearns’ manager) and negotiate for a Hearns fight. There’s no money in that fight.

“I had my whole staff at Nunn-Barkley, and we barely broke even. The only reason we did was because we made between $250,000 and $300,000 in foreign sales, and we needed every bit of it.”

Goossen, however, said that Reno had been Arum’s choice.

Arum said that Nunn will never be a superstar.

“Nunn will win fights, but he’ll never be an attraction,” he said. “This game is not just winning, but winning with style, with panache. Nunn doesn’t do that.

“He’s still an excellent fighter. But if you ask me if he will ever become the kind of draw that a Ray Leonard or a Thomas Hearns or a Roberto Duran were, I’d have to say no.”

Goossen said he told his fighter before the Barkley fight that Ten Goose Boxing, Goossen’s firm, and Arum were parting company.

“Arum told some of his staff people about our problems, so I sat down with Mike a week before the fight and told him all about it,” Goossen said.

“I didn’t want to bother him with it before a tough fight, but I didn’t want him getting it from the media, either.”

Goossen said his Ten Goose Boxing Club, which promotes boxing shows at the Country Club in Reseda, will now promote Nunn’s bouts, too.