Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Bob Arum testified Don King forged a contract with Julio Cesar Chavez and underpaid him.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Boxing promoter Bob Arum testified Tuesday that he believed rival Don King forged a contract with Julio Cesar Chavez, and underpaid him before Arum signed the fighter for two matches in 1998.
King is seeking at least $14 million in damages for losing 1 1/2 years of profits on Chavez. King testified that Arum should have known the fighter was lying about his agreements with him.
Chavez "was under a traumatic type of feeling because he knew he had done wrong by submitting to temptations," King said.
A 1996 lawsuit by Chavez claimed King paid him only $300,000 on a promised $1.25 million purse.
"This indicates a course of conduct on King's part of stiffing Chavez on purses," Arum testified when he was called by King's attorney. "I believed it to be true."
Last contract with King
In early 1998, Arum said Chavez, his lawyer Bob Dailey and his business agent told him that the fighter's last contract with King was signed in 1996. Arum believed it would expire in June 1998.
After King sued, he offered a January 1997 contract with Chavez as proof of a contract extension.
"Mr. Dailey assured me that this agreement did not exist, that it was a forgery," said Arum, head of Las Vegas-based Top Rank Inc. He repeated the forgery allegation in later testimony.
Arum, a Harvard-trained attorney who no longer practices law, said he later concluded the 1997 contract wasn't valid under Florida law because that conclusion was reached by a lawyer for King.
The jury is going to have to sort out a series of contracts dating to 1987 to decide King's claim that Arum stole Chavez from him. King and Arum interpret the contracts and their expiration dates differently.
Circuit Judge Leroy Moe indicated he may not allow King to ask the jury to consider damage to his reputation when setting damages.
King claimed $14 million to $16 million in lost profits on Chavez while Arum promoted him for fights in June and September 1998. King said he paid Chavez $50 million in purses in 15 years.
With the jury out of the courtroom, Arum's lawyers said King's reputation was hurt more seriously six weeks before Chavez initiated the lawsuits.
Tyson sued King
That's when Mike Tyson sued King, claiming King cheated the heavyweight fighter out of hundred of millions of dollars.
Chavez lost the second fight to Oscar De La Hoya, who was in Arum's stable. Chavez's career declined from five or six bouts a year in the early 1990s to one each in 2000 and 2001.
Chavez re-signed with King after the Arum-promoted bouts, but King has promoted only one of Chavez's last six fights. King's claim against Chavez is still pending.
Arum's attorneys plan to present videotaped testimony from Chavez. The trial may finish this week.