And at 92, Arum is still not slowing down much. He spoke to AA via phone last week about an ambitious schedule that has him traveling the world for five fights in six weeks. (It was initially set to be six in six, but the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol fight was postponed from June 1 to a later date Friday thanks to Beterbiev’s injury.)

That schedule includes undisputed junior bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue defending his crown against Luis Nery in Tokyo (live on ESPN+ Monday morning, card starting at 4 a.m. ET, main event set for 7:15 a.m. ET). After that, Arum will travel to Perth, Australia to see Vasiliy Lomachenko facing George Kambosos Jr. for the vacant IBF lightweight title on May 11 (ESPN and ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET card start).

From there, Arum will head to Saudi Arabia to watch WBC heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury fight WBA/WBO/IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh on May 18 (ESPN+ PPV, noon ET card start). After that, he’ll travel to England to see Josh Taylor face Jack Catterall in a junior welterweight title rematch in Leeds on May 25 (ESPN+, 2 p.m. ET card start).

And following the postponement of the Beterbiev-Bivol fight, Arum’s tour will now conclude with Puerto Rican star Xander Zayas taking on Patrick Teixeira. That fight will take place on June 8 at Madison Square Garden in New York City (ESPN, 11 p.m. ET card start) on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade.

That’s quite the travel schedule for anyone. And it’s certainly much more intensive than the travel schedules of most 92-year-olds. But Arum said he’s not concerned about it, with his travel experience helping significantly.

‘I don’t think it bothers me. At least, if you let it bother you, it gets you down. Then you say, ‘Oh my God, all the travel.’  But, you know, pretty much because I’ve traveled so much, I know in effect what you call the tricks. I know who should meet you at the various airports, I know the car services to take you when you leave.

“So in other words, it’s not like if I was some neophyte. I pretty well have travelled so much that I’m aware of the logistics. On  long trips and so forth, I make it easy on myself, on the airline, on the flights, on the hour that you’re flying. I’m able to sleep on the plane. So, again, I don’t look at it as being a particular burden.”

Arum said the international schedule here shows off how popular boxing remains globally. He said while the focus has shifted in the U.S. during his career thanks to the rise of other pro sports leagues, the sport is still massive on the international scale.

“It just shows you how huge boxing is around the world. And while the interest has certainly diminished somewhat in the United States, because, you know, for years, when I was promoting fights in the last century, the pro sports were not preeminent. The NBA was not as popular as it is now, NFL was not as popular, boxing was probably next to baseball, at least in those days, as the most popular sport in the United States.

“Well, that that’s not the case anymore, because the other sports have increased in popularity. Boxing is still popular in the US. But in places like Japan and Australia and other places in the world…in England, boxing is at least the number-two popular sport, and that’s certainly true in Japan too.”
Josh Taylor (R) faces off against José Ramírez (with Top Rank’s Bob Arum looking on) ahead of a May 22, 2021 fight in Las Vegas. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)
And Arum said that appeals to the travel for him on trips like these.

“I enjoy going to those places for fights because the excitement and the popularity of the sport is greater there proportionally than it is in the United States.”

As for the individual contests here, Arum said all of those fights and fighters have their own selling points. And that makes it impossible for him to pick a favorite:

“One of my favorite, if not my favorite fighter, in the world is this Japanese kid, Inoue, “The Monster.” He’s such a lovely, lovely kid. But in the ring, he’s like a destroyer. I mean, I’ve never seen a kid that size with the power that he has.

“He doesn’t win the fights by boxing, he just knocks his opponents out, he boxes well and then he knocks them out. And I’ve seen him as he went up the scale from super featherweight to bantamweight, and now he’s 122 lbs, junior featherweight, he retains his power and he knocks people out. So that’s a favorite.

“I also am intrigued because I’ve spent so much time with Fury, Tyson Fury, he’s a real character, I know the family now. they’re interesting people, and so I’m glad to see him get this opportunity to become undisputed. So I couldn’t conceive of missing that fight.

“So there’s no one favorite that I have. All of these guys have different reasons to appeal to me based on their personality, how they fight, where they come from.”

He said he thinks there’s merit to the different broadcasting setups, too.

“The Inoue fight will be on ESPN+. It’s a crazy hour in the day because but again, if it’s on ESPN+ and you can’t get up early enough in the morning to watch the fight, it stays on ESPN+ for at least a day, maybe more. So you can watch this guy in action. He’s fighting a tough Mexican, who’s considered a villain in Japan.

“And then it’s always a treat to see Lomachenko and that’ll be on prime time on ESPN Sunday in Australia, but Saturday night in the United States. Lomachenko is always a must see guy, and that’ll be on ESPN. And then Tyson Fury and Usyk, a 50-50 fight I think now, and that’ll be on pay-per-view on ESPN+ and other outlets.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JUNE 26: Vasiliy Lomachenko (L) and Bob Arum (R) celebrate the victory as he defeats Masayoshi Nakatani at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas on June 26, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)
“And then we go to Leeds to see the Taylor fight, that’ll be on ESPN in the United States. …And finally, we’re going to hit the United States again, and I’ll be in New York for to see this incredible junior middle weight Xander Zayas, who will be fighting in Madison Square Garden on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – AUGUST 11: Xander Zayas (L) and Bob Arum (R) pose before the Teofimo Lopez vs Pedro Campa press conference at Resorts World Las Vegas on August 11, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)
Arum said another selling point with this tour is that only one of these fights will be a pay-per-view exclusive.

“There’s a lot of great, great stuff for people to watch. And of all of that, there’s only one pay-per-view, the Fury-Usyk fight.”

Arum said his personal promotional responsibilities are less than they were when he was younger, but he still feels he can do a lot to boost fights. And he still wants to, considering how much he still loves the sport.

“I enjoy the fights. I enjoy the fighters. And at my age, I’m not fooling myself, I can’t really be as active as I was before, but I can still be plenty active.”

He said it’s also interesting for him to see new generations of fighters from different parts of the world, but with them still recalling fighters he previously worked with.

“While the characters are different and the divisions’ popularity, the divisions change, the fighters are, well, you know, the same. They’re still fighters.

“Sometimes you get a tremendous number of Hispanic fighters to come to the floor. You get African-American fighters. Now, you get loads and loads of foreign fighters from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Poland. All of that I find very, very interesting, to get to know these kids and get to know what their aspirations are. And it’s not the same old, same old. It’s different. I find it fascinating. And to the extent I can, I contribute to their success.”