QUEBEC | The newspaper sat down with legendary promoter Bob Arum to talk about Saturday's gala and boxing in Quebec, but the conversation took a different turn.
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As you would expect, the man who just turned 92 and has been in the boxing world for almost 60 years had a lot of stories to tell.
But the fight that resulted in a fight between Mohamed Ali and George Chuvalo in Toronto in March 1966 is quite tasty, especially when you know that it was the first fight in which the professional lawyer was the instigator.
It features several well-known names from the world of sports and politics and deserves to be told from the start.
disobedience
“I had to arrange a fight between Ali and Ernie Terrell and it had to take place in Chicago. Ali was founded there and Terrell came from there. That's when the Army announced that Ali was finally cleared to go to Vietnam, which he didn't want to do, and he said it openly while he was training in Florida, and it went viral.”
Suddenly the revered heavyweight was unwanted and no one wanted him anymore.
“The mayor of Chicago [à l’époque], Richard J. Daley, convinced the Illinois Athletic Commission to kick us out of town. So I had to find a new city, but every city in the United States said no.”
To Montreal
At this moment the story takes a detour to Montreal with a similar outcome.
“Out of desperation, I went to Canada and signed a contract to present the fight at the old Montreal Forum, but Mayor Jean Drapeau vetoed it because he had received threats from the American Legion, which would withdraw from Expo 67 “, he explains to Arum.
This is where the Maple Leafs come into the story.
“I had no choice when I received a call from a complete stranger, Harold Ballard, co-owner of the Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens.
“I took a plane and when I got to Toronto I realized something was wrong because his partner, Conn Smythe, wanted nothing to do with having this rebel in his building.
“Within a week, Ballard raised the money necessary to buy out Smythe's stock, which ended up being quite a deal for him. And that's when Terrell said he was pulling out of the fight because his scholarship could be amputated due to threats from the American Legion.
Ultimately, it was George Chuvalo who fought Ali, and the fight against Terrell took place in 1967 at the Houston Astrodome.
“I’ve had some difficult promotions over the years, but none as difficult as my first,” Arum says with a laugh.