Notebook: Arum on the brilliance of Ken Burns' PBS documentary on Muhammad Ali
Fury-Usyk?; Rivas gets new foe; Mayer unification fight official
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who promoted 27 Muhammad Ali fights and was an integral figure in his career, paid filmmaker Ken Burns the ultimate compliment as he finished watching the recently aired and critically acclaimed PBS documentary that Burns executive produced on the late, great former heavyweight champion.
“It was a fitting tribute to Muhammad Ali and at the end I was in tears,” Arum told Fight Freaks Unite after viewing the four-part, eight-hour documentary Muhammad Ali. “Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. It really brought out the personality and how this guy really mesmerized the world. It was brilliant and it did justice to the legacy of Ali.”
There have been countless documentaries made about Ali, various aspects of his life and certain fights, but the Burns project covers it all from his childhood until his death in 2016 and in great detail, and includes interviews with family members, media members and many others who brought perspective to his life and times inside and outside of the ring.
I’ve watched numerous Ali documentaries and this one, by far, is the best. I wished it was eight hours longer.
Arum, who sat for an interview for the film and appears often throughout it, said he believes it will stand the test of time as the definitive film on Ali’s life and legacy.
“Phenomenal. It will be for the next 50 years at least be considered a classic and will be replayed over and over again,” Arum said. “Ken Burns is a genius. He knows how to do documentaries, as he’s shown. He’s probably our greatest documentarian.”
Burns has made in-depth documentaries on many subjects, including baseball, jazz, the Civil War, the Vietnam War and boxing legend Jack Johnson, among others, before making the film on Ali with collaborators Sarah Burns (his daughter) and her husband David McMahon.
They did a masterful job — something Arum and I completely agree on.
Arum got his start in the boxing business in 1966 when the first fight he promoted was Ali’s heavyweight title defense against George Chuvalo in March 1966 in Toronto, so he was there for most of Ali’s biggest fights. He also said he made available for free much of the fight footage that is so ample in the film. As a collector of fights, with many Ali bouts, much of the footage is the most pristine and rich as I have ever seen.
The documentary doesn’t pull any punches either. It fairly addresses Ali’s mistreatment of rival Joe Frazier, the hatred many had for him when he refused to be inducted into the Army during the Vietnam War due to his religious beliefs and his physical decline in the later part of his career and life.
“The thing that I thought was brilliant was when they had Ali talking after the (third) Frazier fight you knew something was wrong,” Arum said. “He wasn’t sounding like the old Ali after the third one.”
The film also dealt with Ali’s notorious womanizing, including in frank interviews with two of his former wives.
“He had a very big libido,” Arum said. “Ali felt at that point he wasn’t doing anything wrong and I remember one fight where I had all these women sitting in his suite and gave him numbers and he fucked every one of them.”
Arum had a few minor quibbles.
“They made a couple of errors and so forth but nothing really crucial, but I thought it was absolutely brilliant,” Arum said. “They had (incorrect) when Top Rank was founded. They implied it was (for) the (Jerry) Quarry fight but I had nothing to do with that. Totally minor mistake.
“I think they could’ve done a little bit better, instead of just throwing it in, on the third Ali-(Ken) Norton fight at Yankee Stadium (in 1976) because of the riot that was going on outside and also that’s when we all realized how much the Frazier (third fight in Manila) had taken out of Ali.”
Arum remains close to the Ali family, even signing his 21-year-old grandson, middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, and turning him pro with fanfare in August.
Ali Walsh was close to his grandfather but said he has not been able to bring himself to watch the film just yet.
“It’s an emotional thing for me, so I haven’t watched it yet,” Ali Walsh said. “At some point, I may check it out. I’ve heard it’s an incredible piece of work.”
It is exactly that.
If you missed its original airing, all four parts of the documentary are available to stream for free on the PBS website here: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/muhammad-ali/. It is also available on DVD/Blu Ray: https://shop.pbs.org/WD5942.html
Arum on possible Fury-Usyk clash
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who passed on signing Oleksandr Usyk coming off his 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medal showing, said he has ample respect for the new unified heavyweight titleholder but does not believe he would have chance against lineal and WBC champion Tyson Fury, whom Arum co-promotes.
Arum also gave his view of the likely Joshua-Usyk rematch and his level of interest is in making Fury-Usyk should Fury defeat Deontay Wilder next week and should Usyk beat Joshua again. Arum also detailed why he declined to sign Usyk after his gold medal performance. I wrote about it all for World Boxing News. Please read that story here: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2021/10/02/bob-arum-signing-usyk-fury/
New Rivas opponent
Oscar Rivas has a new opponent to face in the first WBC bridgerweight title bout. He will fight replacement foe Ryan Rozicki on Oct. 22 (ESPN+) at L’Olympia de Montreal in Montreal, promoter Yvon Michel announced.
Rivas (27-1, 19 KOs), 34, a Colombia native fighting out of Montreal, was due to face fellow former heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings for the vacant belt in a division the WBC created between cruiserweight and heavyweight with a weight limit of 224 pounds.
However, Philadelphia’s Jennings (24-4, 14 KOs), who got knocked out by Rivas in the 12th round of a heavyweight fight in January 2019, dropped out of the fight in recent days because he declined to get vaccinated for Covid-19 and also refused to follow Canada’s rules of admission for non-vaccinated travelers, which include a two-week quarantine, even though the rules were in the contract, according to Michel. The fight had already been postponed from June 18 in Montreal due to the pandemic.
Rozicki (13-0, 13 KOs), 26, of Nova Scotia, Canada, is a huge step down in competition from Jennings. Rozicki has never faced anybody of note and never been in a scheduled 12-rounder.
“To continue to fully support promoters of WBC events during the still ongoing world pandemic, and to help Groupe Yvon Michel to hold the event as scheduled, the WBC has agreed to sanction the WBC World Bridgerweight Title bout between Oscar Rivas and the No. 18 WBC-ranked cruiserweight boxer Ryan Rozicki,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said in a statement. “Ryan is willing and able to satisfy all the governmental and commission-established safety requirements the ongoing pandemic has imposed upon promoters and fighters.”
Mayer unification official
Top Rank has made WBO women’s junior lightweight titlist Mikaela Mayer’s title unification fight with IBF counterpart Maiva Hamadouche official for Nov. 5 in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card (11 p.m. ET) at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Also formally announced was the 10-round co-feature between rising middleweight contender Janibek Alimkhanuly and former titlist Hassan N’Dam.
“Mikaela Mayer is quickly becoming the face of female boxing, and it’s fitting that she's part of the first Top Rank on ESPN female world championship main event,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “From the moment she won her world title, she asked for unification fights and the biggest challenges. Hamadouche certainly fits that criteria, and she’s not coming from France to give up her title without one heck of a fight.”
Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs), 30, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from of Los Angeles, will be making her second title defense since winning the vacant belt last October.
“This is the big fight I have wanted and the fight that I’ve been working so hard for,” Mayer said. “My prior fights were all important because I needed those wins to get me in this position. But this is the fight that will rocket my career or set me way back, and I have no intention of going back. The stakes are high, but I’ve worked hard, and I am fully prepared to capitalize on this opportunity to become a unified world champion.”
Hamadouche (22-1, 18 KOs), 31, of France, will be making her seventh defense.
“I will arrive with my belt and leave with hers,” Hamadouche said. “My promise is to give Mikaela Mayer a war. She better start preparing to mourn the loss of her title.”
Alimkhanuly (10-0, 6 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Kazakhstan, who lives in Oxnard, California, will be facing his second consecutive former WBA middleweight titlist. On June 26, he stopped Robert Brant in the eighth round of a one-sided fight. N’Dam (38-5, 21 KOs), 37, of France, is coming off an eight-round decision win following two losses in a row, a third-round knockout challenging Callum Smith for his super middleweight world title and a lopsided decision to Fedor Chudinov.
In a preliminary bout announced, which will also stream on ESPN+ before the main card, featherweight Adam Lopez (15-3, 6 KOs), 25, of Glendale, California, will face Adan Ochoa (12-2, 5 KOs), 23, of Downey, California, in an eight-rounder. Lopez is aiming to bounce back from a 10-round majority decision loss to former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe in June.
Quick hits
After Boxxer’s first card of its new Sky Sports deal in the United Kingdom on Saturday, it announced its second card for Nov. 20 at the SEE Wembley in London, the same site as Saturday’s show. The main event will pit former British cruiserweight champion Richard Riakporhe (12-0, 8 KOs), 31, against Olanrewaju Durodola (36-8, 33 KOs), 40, of Nigeria, who has won two fights in a row since a seventh-round knockout loss to Ilunga Makabu for the WBC cruiserweight belt in December. On Saturday’s card, Riakporhe dropped Krzysztof Twardowski in the eighth round and won a lopsided decision. Boxxer’s card on Saturday went on despite the Chris Eubank Jr.-Anatoli Muratov main event being canceled on fight day when the British Boxing Board of Control raised unspecified concerns over late replacement Muratov’s pre-fight medicals.
David Avanesyan (28-3-1, 16 KOs), 33, a Russia native fighting out of England, retained the European welterweight title for the fourth time with a second-round knockout of Liam Taylor (23-2-1, 11 KOs), 30, of England, ending his 13-fight unbeaten streak, on Saturday at the SEE Wembley in London. The fight was initially the co-feature but elevated to main event status when the Eubank- Muratov main event was canceled hours before the show. Avanesyan, who sent Shane Mosley into retirement in 2016 in his biggest win, dropped Taylor in the first round and was punishing him in the second round, prompting referee Mark Lyson to stop it at 2 minutes, 18 seconds.
Show and tell
In the 1980s there were numerous boxing magazines. One of the many long-defunct publications was called “Fight Beat,” which came out every other month. Over the course of six issues in 1983 and 1984 the inside back cover was printed with four “cards” meant to be cut out, even though they were made of just regular magazine paper with the backs being whatever add was on the back cover. Still, they were cool and featured many of the biggest stars of the era, including Hall of Famers and what have to be considered several rookie cards because there were so few actual boxing cards produced in the 1980s. I was able to find four of the complete issues with the card page intact in nice condition pretty easily. Then it took some time to find the fifth. And then years to find the sixth, which is very clearly nowhere near as plentiful for whatever reason as the others. I had only previously seen a photo of the card sheet from the issue I was missing once. Finally, I recently located the issue I needed for the complete set with the card sheet in supreme condition. Here is that glorious sheet, at long last, with “cards” of Alberto Davila and three Hall of Famers: Marvin Hagler, Donald Curry and Aaron Pryor.
The rest of the 24-card set: Ray Mancini, Edwin Rosario, Davey Moore, Don King, Alexis Arguello, Wilfred Benitez, Hector Camacho, Jorge Lujan, Pipino Cuevas, Roberto Duran, Saoul Mamby, Eleoncio Mercedes, Freddy Castillo, Jaime Garza, Larry Holmes, Sean O’Grady, Tim Witherspoon, Gerrie Coetzee, Muhammad Ali and Gerry Cooney.
Arum/Ali photo: Muhammad Ali documentary screen shot
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