FBI Agents Raid Arum’s Office

FBI agents armed with a search warrant raided boxing promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank office in Las Vegas on Tuesday, leaving with computers, medical records, fight tapes, boxer contracts and financial documents as part of an ongoing probe of the sport.

Although a report in the New York Daily News claimed a 20-month investigation has uncovered evidence last September’s Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya super-welterweight title fight was fixed, none of the key figures in that match have been questioned.

Gary Shaw, Mosley’s promoter, said neither he nor Mosley has been approached by investigators. The same is true of De La Hoya as well as Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Arum, vacationing in South Africa, was unavailable for comment.

“There is no validity to those charges,” Ratner said. “There is nothing to my knowledge. There have been no complaints brought to my attention with regard to weigh-ins or medical records. I have no idea what this is about. It makes absolutely no sense.”

Said Shaw, “I think the allegation is preposterous. There is not enough money in the United States of America to get Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya to fix a fight.

“You have what is supposedly a 20-month probe of boxing, and Marc Ratner, the dean of boxing commissioners, is not spoken to? I have no idea what’s going on.

“But I guarantee you this: Shane Mosley would never throw a fight and Oscar De La Hoya wanted to win that fight more than anything. Oscar is Arum’s golden egg. Why would Arum do anything to kill that?”

After Mosley won a close but unanimous decision, it was Arum and De La Hoya who hinted at corruption, but later retracted their claims.

“Neither the basis nor the purpose of the FBI request is known,” Lee Samuels, a Top Rank spokesman, said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with any requests made of us by the FBI and its agents in order to facilitate their job.”

Samuels refused to elaborate on advice of Top Rank attorneys.

There are also allegations other Top Rank fighters were involved in fixes, that scales were tampered with before weigh-ins and that medical documents were forged.

Some of those violations may have taken place in Puerto Rico, according to one source.

The FBI has returned the computers to the Top Rank office but has retained the other items seized.