Bob Arum promoted Mike Tyson for a short stint in the mid-1980s while the American was starting out as a professional.
However, their relationship didn’t last long as Top Rank were unable to fulfil his management’s demands of finding ‘Iron Mike’ a fight every week.
During the fledgling stages of his boxing career, Tyson was moved extremely fast.
In his first year in the paid ranks, he fought 15 times and won his inaugural world title, the WBC strap against Trevor Berbick, just 20 months after turning over as a professional.
A few of those early bouts were fought under Arum’s Top Rank banner on their weekly ESPN fight cards.
The legendary boxing promoter recalled how Tyson dispatched every opponent they matched him up with inside a round, which proved to be a nightmare for the broadcaster.
“We were doing weekly fight shows on ESPN,” Arum told talkSPORT.com.
“We did those for 15 years, really, essentially developing fighters on those shows.
“Tyson was just starting out and we booked him for a whole series of fights.
“But the problem was he was so intimidating, that he knocked out any opponent that we got him in one round and that wasn’t good for the network that relied on selling commercial time.”
Although Arum was certainly impressed by Tyson, the youngster’s management opted to seek other opportunities rather than sign a long-term deal with Top Rank.
“I think what happened was outside of the ring Tyson misbehaved, and the only way the management could figure out how to keep him out of trouble, was to find him a fight as often as possible,” Arum added.
“And we had all these other fighters that we had put on the programme, and so we couldn’t have Tyson fighting on the show, every week or every other week so his management looked for opportunities elsewhere.”
Instead, Arum’s promotional rival Don King ended up staging many of Tyson’s fights.
King and Tyson endured a turbulent relationship which came to a head in 1998 when the former undisputed heavyweight champion sued his promoter.
Tyson filed a $100million lawsuit against King, alleging the Hall of Famer had defrauded him out of millions during their time working together.
He would go on to receive $14m from King when they settled out of court.
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News Summary:
- Bob Arum explains bizarre reason why he stopped promoting young Mike Tyson
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