Bob Arum's Garden Party: From Ali to Zou, his career blossomed at boxing mecca

Forty six years ago, Bob Arum, a 38-year-old government lawyer turned boxing promoter, put on his first show at Madison Square Garden.

The main event for that Dec. 7, 1970 card: Muhammad Ali vs. Oscar Bonavena, a tough, hard-punching Argentine who, sadly, would be shot to death six years later outside a Nevada brothel at the age of 33.

This was Ali's second fight back from his 3½-year exile from the sport for refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army. Though Ali knocked Bonavena down three times in the 15 ^th round, which at the time was an automatic stoppage, Bonavena gave him a scare with a powerful left hand in the ninth, the round Ali had predicted a knockout.

For Arum, it was the first of many promotions at the boxing mecca. There would be 25 more in the coming years, and on Saturday, Arum will bring Show No. 27 to the iconic arena at 7 ^th Ave. and 33rd St. in Manhattan.

And this one has the most internationally diverse lineup of fighters Arum has brought to the venerable building. The main event has Vasyl Lomachenko from Ukraine taking on Rocky Martinez from Puerto Rico, while the presumed next Puerto Rican superstar, Felix Verdejo, puts his unbeaten record on the line against Juan Jose Martinez of Mexico in the co-feature (HBO, 10 p.m. ET). This card will be contested in the Theater at MSG, not in the main arena. Also in the lineup: Two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming of China. According to Arum, it will be the first time in boxing history that two double Olympic gold medalists, Lomachenko and Zou, are fighting on the same card in the USA.

Arum, now 84 and a Hall of Famer, promoted two more Ali fights there, the first against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on Sept. 20, 1972, and the last one on Jan. 28, 1974, against Joe Frazier, the rematch of their "Fight of the Century" at the Garden three years earlier, won by Frazier (Ali's first loss).

Thanks to Howard Cosell, Arum said, the second fight, though not nearly as good as the first - Frazier was coming off a KO by George Foreman, and Ali had his jaw broken and lost to Ken Norton a year earlier - did better financially than the first.

"They each were seen, and quite correctly, as not the same fighters who engaged in March 1971 in the Garden," Arum said in an interview. "But it created a lot of attention, when each of them, with their brothers in attendance (Tom Frazier and Rahman Ali) during a made-for-TV interview with Cosell, all got into a spat, rolling around on the floor and everything, and (Howard) Cosell had the cameras going. That went viral around the world, and it turned out to make the second fight, as far as closed-circuit revenue, even bigger than the first."

Arum said ABC producer Dennis Lewin apparently intentionally put the fighters together, instead of having Cosell in the middle of the two. "And that's when they got into it, Ali and Frazier rolling around on the floor fighting, and the brothers fighting, too," Arum said. "Clearly spontaneous, and captured by the cameras."

Muhammad Ali throws a punch at Joe Frazier, right, in the 12th round at Madison Square Garden in 1974. (AP Photo)

Ali loved New York and especially loved fighting in the Garden.

"He loved to fight there, he loved New York, he loved the attention he got in New York," Arum said. "New York was a tremendously sophisticated city for boxing. They had a plethora of newspapers, every one had as boxing writer, so it was the place to fight."

Arum's most memorable fight at the Garden was the 1983 title bout between young, undefeated super welterweight champion Davey Moore and former champion Roberto Duran, one of the many superstars from that era that were handled by Top Rank.

"Without any question or reservation, that was the most exciting, best fight I promoted in the Garden," Arum said. "The audience was nuts, it was a great fight. Duran had been suffering under the stigma of the "no mas" fight (with Sugar Ray Leonard), but pulled out it - he was a big underdog - gave the performance of his life and redeemed his name and helped make his career, which led to fights with (Marvin) Hagler, (Tommy) Hearns, Leonard again. He won the middleweight title from Iran Barkley down the road in one of the greats fights of all time, so it resurrected Duran's career."

Duran destroyed Moore that night, but could his career have ended if he had lost? "Not could have," Arum said, "it was over."

Moore met an unfortunate end five years later when his own vehicle ran over him in his driveway as he tried to stop it from rolling, killing him at age 28.

Arum, meanwhile went on to promote Hall of Famers Oscar De La Hoya, Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini and many others at the Garden.

Sergio Martinez goes down after a punch from Miguel Cotto in the first round of WBC World Middleweight fight at Madison Square Garden in 2014. Photo by Noah K. Murray-Paste BN Sports)

He made Miguel Cotto one of the most popular boxers ever to fight there, staging eight Cotto victories there. Cotto's only loss at MSG came against Austin Trout in December 2012, but that was his only fight there that was not promoted by Arum.

"We early on recognized that with his popularity in Puerto Rico, we should bring him to the Garden at least once or twice a year, because of the Puerto Rican population there," Arum said.

"That's a similar reason why we're bringing Saturday's fight there, primarily because of Verdejo. We want to make Felix Verdejo the next Miguel Cotto."