_4.jpg)
Top Rank won’t be under new ownership anytime soon, it appears.
Bob Arum, the nonagenarian head of Top Rank, the respected firm that he founded in 1973, recently indicated that he is not as keen on selling his promotional company as he has been in previous years.
In 2020, Arum revealed that he was looking to hand off Top Rank (or as much as 40%) to a new owner, telling The Athletic that Endeavor, Liberty Global, and DAZN were among interested suitors.
Endeavor is the media company that owns the UFC; Liberty Global is a telecommunications conglomerate that owns Virgin media; and DAZN is the streaming platform whose top content is boxing.
In the end, a sale never materialized—but Arum isn’t exactly complaining. The Hall of Fame promoter recently said his company is doing better than ever and he complimented his core staff, as led by his son-in-law and president Todd duBoef, for its progress. Arum said Top Rank—which currently promotes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, three-division titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko, two-division titlist Shakur Stevenson, and undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney, among others—is worth more than it has ever been in its existence and that its high price point may mean there are relatively few capable buyers on the market.
“Well, we couldn’t get the multiples that we wanted to sell a piece of Top Rank,” Arum said of his efforts to sell his company on the Boxing With Chris Mannix podcast. “And now, thank God, we’re doing so well, thanks to Todd, the young staff that we have. We’ve never been as profitable as we are now.”
“And so to buy a piece of Top Rank is very, very expensive now. And there’s no real incentive for us to sell any part of it because what are we gonna do with the money?”
Arum, who turns 91 in December, said he is no longer driving the ship at his company, preferring to leave day-to-day matters up to his executives. That said, Arum said he has no plans on “retiring” anytime soon.
“Well, no, I don’t deal with the minutiae (of the business),” Arum said. “I’ve really got great people now. We’ve got a bigger staff than we’ve ever had before, thank God we can afford it because we’re doing so well. I don’t really deal in the minutiae.
“They wheel me out when they want me to do an interview or so forth. They consult me about certain fights. Is it hard work? No, it’s not hard work. That’s why when people say to me ‘Why don’t you retire?’, I say, ‘Retire from what?’ I’m really not working.”