This month, Prime Rank CEO Bob Arum celebrated his 94th birthday. The New Yorker has been selling fights for nearly 60 years, and what he doesn’t find out about boxing wouldn’t be price printing.
The Harvard-educated former lawyer has labored with a few of the sport’s best fighters, from Muhammad Ali to Floyd Mayweather, and has promoted a lot of boxing’s most iconic bouts, together with the three-round warfare between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns in 1985.
A few of these names have been referenced in an interview with Sky Sports activities, the place Arum was requested a collection of quick-fire questions. One in every of them was which fighter he considers the “most underrated.” His reply?
“Miguel Cotto.”
The Puerto Rican body-puncher joined Prime Rank after his exit from the 2000 Olympics, the place he misplaced his opening bout to Mukhammadkodir Abdullaev — a defeat he avenged within the skilled ranks 5 years later.
Cotto and Arum labored collectively for 11 years, throughout which Cotto received world titles in three weight courses and headlined Madison Sq. Backyard on a number of events. He went on to assert a belt in a fourth division in 2014.
Cotto retired in 2017 and was inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame 5 years later. His finest wins got here in opposition to Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Sergio Martinez. His front-foot model and ferocious physique assaults made him a agency crowd favorite, notably in New York.
