Gibbons Is Fired by Arum

Sean Gibbons, a Top Rank matchmaker and one of the figures being investigated in an ongoing boxing probe by the FBI and the New York Police Department, has been fired by Top Rank President Bob Arum, according to a source.

Gibbons, who worked under Top Rank’s primary matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, could not be reached for comment.

Gibbons asked two heavyweights to deliberately lose fights, according to a 1999 Miami Herald story, a charge Gibbons rebutted. Andre Smiley told the newspaper Gibbons offered him bonuses to fall down in matches. Mike Smith told the Oklahoma Department of Labor that Gibbons often asked him to throw fights. Gibbons labeled those charges “a complete lie.”

FBI agents raided Arum’s Las Vegas office last week, seizing computers, medical records, fight tapes, contracts and other financial documents.

Employees at Top Rank are operating under the assumption their offices are still bugged.

Among the items removed from Arum’s office in the raid was a file on the Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley super-welterweight title fight, held in September at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. A law-enforcement source said late last week that Top Rank, not the De La Hoya-Mosley fight, was the focus of the investigation.

The FBI has not interviewed any of the key figures in that fight, and it has not spoken with members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Investigators are looking into allegations of fixed fights, tampering with weight scales and the forging of medical documents by Top Rank officials or individuals associated with that organization.