ON THE ROPES

Promoters Bob Arum and Don King have carried boxing for almost three decades, their never-ending feud providing the sizzle in a sport that might have died without it.

But Thursday’s ruling by Judge Matt Byrne in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, freeing Oscar De La Hoya of his contract with Arum, was a serious blow to the Las Vegas-based promoter.

Is the Arum era ending? Has the promoter, who started with Muhammad Ali, went on to Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns, and did perhaps his finest job with De La Hoya, finally run out of superstars?

“Life goes on,” Arum said softly after learning Thursday of Byrne’s decision, the promoter’s voice devoid of the fire with which he has attacked other crises.

It has been a rough year for Arum. He admitted in last year’s federal racketeering trial of former International Boxing Federation president Bob Lee that he once agreed to make improper payments to sanction a fight. Arum was subsequently fined by the California and Nevada athletic commissions and agreed to several disciplinary restrictions imposed by the Nevada commissioners.

Now, for the first time in memory, Arum is the only major promoter out in the cold without a pay-per-view fighter. Main Events, run by Kathy Duva and Gary Shaw, have Lennox Lewis and Fernando Vargas. King has Felix Trinidad. America Presents has Mike Tyson for at least one more fight. Cedric Kushner has Shane Mosley. Jerry Perenchio now has De La Hoya.

Some inside the sport see Lou DiBella, formerly the man behind HBO’s boxing ventures, as a potential force now that he has signed several 2000 Olympians.

Arum’s Top Rank boxing organization is hardly devoid of talent. He has both fighters in Saturday night’s World Boxing Council super featherweight title fight--champion Floyd Mayweather and challenger Diego Corrales. Arum also has fighters such as World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala and featherweight contender Erik Morales.

Even so, they are not the marquee boxers with whom Arum has so long been identified.

But don’t count him out, says a longtime rival, America Presents President Dan Goossen.

“Never underestimate Bob or Don [King],” Goossen said, “If Bob is down now, I don’t expect him to stay down.

“I don’t worry about Bob or Don and the success they have had. If I did, I wouldn’t have had time to work for my own success. But I know that Bob Arum is like a former champion, who might be going on, say, age 37, but is still able to crank out the victories. I’m telling you, never underestimate him.”

Even King concedes that Arum’s career is not finished.

“As long as they [boxing officials] adhere to a double standard, Arum will exist,” King said. “Until they go by truth, justice and the American way, Arum will prevail.

“He’s in that good-old boys’ club. But he doesn’t discriminate. He screws everybody.

“Stay in boxing? Absolutely. Right now, he’s scheming to get some fighter. He’s Dr. Moriarty and this Sherlock Holmes has been trying to get rid of him for a thousand years.”

King said he could hardly believe that Arum lost in court.

“I was kind of in shock, confused because Arum graduated from Harvard,” King said. “I don’t understand it. Arum dug a ditch and fell in it himself. I don’t know, maybe he was eating cookies when he was supposed to be listening to his law professor.”

Arum agreed on one thing: He is staying in boxing.

“Losing a marquee attraction like De La Hoya is a blow,” he said. “But, like a boxer, I’ve got to husband my resources and come back firing.

“Look at the record. These things have happened to me in the past. Marquee fighters have retired. They don’t last forever.

“My solution has always been to see this as an opportunity. Instead of waiting around, I know I’ve got to build myself a marquee guy, someone who can do big business. If I’ve got two potential guys like I have now in Mayweather and Corrales, I put them in against each, and the winner is the big guy. My guys understand that. When Leonard was out with an eye problem, I still had Marvin Hagler, but he was then a tough sell. So, I launched him against Duran. That’s the way to do it.”

Arum feels confident that, with his fighters and several young Olympians he has signed, Top Rank can return to the top.

“We have a stable of people that will allow us to go ahead for years to come,” Arum said. “Out of this crew, I am confident we can find one or more stars like De La Hoya.”

It might be hard for some to understand why Arum, at age 69 with all the money he will ever need, would even continue the fight.

Boxing certainly wasn’t in his career sights as he grew up in New York. He couldn’t see past his law books.

After graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School, he worked under then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the Justice Department and went on to become a partner in a prestigious law firm.

But while still in the Justice Department, he was sent to secure taxes from the 1962 Floyd Patterson-Sonny Liston heavyweight title fight. Once Arum got a look at the funds generated by that fight, his law days were brief.

“Boxing broadened me,” he said. “I learned things that weren’t in law books.”

Through former football star/actor Jim Brown, Arum met Ali. Arum promoted the 1966 Ali-George Chuvalo fight. It was the first fight Arum ever attended.

“I figured I would spend a couple of years with Ali and then go back to the law,” Arum said. “When Ali went, I would go. At that time, I didn’t even know about all the other weight divisions. I knew nothing about bantamweights or welterweights. The lower weight divisions turned out to be a whole new business.

Thirty-four years later, Arum is still in the boxing business. But now, with stepson Todd DuBoef and matchmaker Bruce Trampler tabbed as his successors, why would Arum himself want to start building up another pay-per-view fighter? Why not just retire and enjoy life?

“Because it’s still fun,” he said. “I can’t say I do as much of the grunt work as I did before. I won’t get on a plane anymore with only a few minutes notice to go to a meeting.

“But I still come in early and work all day. I’m involved. When I hit something like the Oscar situation, it’s inspiring. I am going to have to be innovative and do what I do, which is to make alliances and build up new fighters.”

The alternative, according to Arum, would be disastrous.

“If I said, this is enough and walked away, that would be a sure prescription for getting old,” he said. “I’m doing what I like to do, I’m mentally acute and that’s the way I forget about getting old.”

Besides, Arum said he has to remain in the sport at least as long as King does.

“I’m 69,” Arum said, “King is 69 . . .I think that’s God’s vengeance.”

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* BACK IN THE RING

Oscar De La Hoya plans to fight Arturo Gatti in March, then move to 154 pounds. D7