Bob Arum has promoted or worked with some of the best heavyweights in the history of boxing.
The veteran promoter, who is still going strong at the age of 93, first entered the sport by helming the world title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Chuvalo in 1966. He went on to work with George Foreman and Mike Tyson, and, more recently, Tyson Fury.
Of all the big men he promoted, Arum had no trouble in naming the best. Speaking to Reuters, he gave top spot to Ali.
“I think when you talk about Muhammad Ali, as great an athlete, as great a boxer as he was – he was the greatest boxer of all time – he means so much more to the United States and the world.
“You have to understand, in the period up to the mid-1967, when he was unable to fight, Ali was the greatest fighter in the history of the world, certainly by far the greatest heavyweight. No heavyweight ever could move the way he could, no heavyweight could throw punches from different angles like he could.”
It is not an uncommon sentiment, with Ali commonly regarded as the greatest after a heavyweight campaign that changed the landscape of the division.
With big wins over the likes of Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and Foreman, the enigma from Louisville, Kentucky was as influential out of the ring as he was in. During his prime years, as Arum mentioned, he was stripped of his boxing license and faced potential jail time after refusing to be drafted into the US military for the Vietnam War.
Ali remains the most well known name in the sport’s history, and had the skillset to back up such an honour.
