November 10, 2005

By Karl Freitag

Instead of hosting the final press conference for the Klitschko-Rahman heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas, promoter Bob Arum was addressing scribes on an international teleconference describing how the promotion imploded in the final week. Arum revealed that Vitali told him that he's hanging up his gloves because he believes "his body is betraying him." The Top Rank skipper added pragmatically, "I've been in this business for forty years and these things happen, they're unfortunate but you just have to pick up the pieces and go on. We have a big fight coming up in January with Morales and Pacquiao and we're looking forward to that promotion." Arum had pulled out all the stops in promoting and advertising Klitschko-Rahman (including a 13-city press tour), but stated much of that expense will be covered by insurance. Finally he said the experience won't keep him from pursuing future heavyweight fights.

On how he found out Vitali planned to retire.

Last night, Vitali called me at my house in Las Vegas at approximately 7 PM. Tom Loeffler, the head of K2, had given me a heads up and had asked me if Vitali could call me and I said absolutely and we had about a half hour telephone conversation and Vitali apprised me of his plan but asked me that I say nothing about them so that he could make the announcement himself on the next day which was Wednesday.

On Vitali's retirement:

I counseled him that he shouldn't retire. That he should vacate the title and leave it in Limbo just in case something should happen. He said, 'No,' that he wanted to retire because he was 34, his body was betraying him, with the back injury, with the thigh injury and he loved the sport of boxing but didn't want to put up with these betrayals with his own body. It may very well be that with his height, that the body is more prone to injuries. So he said that he was retiring and he would look for other productive things that he would do with his life and I wish him luck because I think that he's a fascinating guy and I enjoyed the time that I spent around him. I think he's a very unusual person.

On his personal disappointment:

I'm disappointed, the whole staff at Top Rank is disappointed but again these things happen. We have to be big boys about it. The one thing that to me is ludicrous by some statements made by King's lawyer which are just inappropriate. What the hell is he thinking of? Making statements like that. The last guy wanted to see this fight not happen, even more than me is Vitali Klitschko, I mean these things happen. I'm a big boy, if I were a new promoter, inexperienced promoter, I would take it a lot harder, but I've been in this business so long, I've had postponements, I've had cancellations... When it happens it's like a blow in the pit of the stomach but you get over it. Thank God at my age I've got my health, I've got a great family, I've got a great business. Don't cry for me Argentina.

On the financial hit of the cancellation of a fight of this magnitude:

We were insured of course, but you never get everything back with insurance. But, I've been through this before, this is not a unique experience. These things happen, so obviously there's a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of work and that was to Vitali's credit. One thing he kept reiterating in this phone call we had last night was how sorry he was, how he knew how hard we all worked and did things to make the promotion a success. Obviously there was no promotion. But again, money is money, you lose some money and hopefully you make it up in the next promotion.

On promoting future heavyweight fights:

If the right heavyweight fight came along I would certainly be prepared to promote it. But I'm not in the heavyweight business, I'm in the boxing business. If there's an entertaining fight that I would love to promote, absolutely, whether it's in the heavyweight division or any other division.