FROM ALI TO PACQUIAO, MURAD MUHAMMAD IN HIS OWN WORDS PT. 3: THE PROMOTERS

"Muhammad Ali, in the latter part of his career, things began to happen. King tried to take Ali away from Herbert Muhammad, so Herbert Muhammad told him [the young kid] to go tap on the shoulder of this guy [the Jewish Caucasian] that's walking around. I knew him because he used to stand with his hands behind his back and he used to drop his head as I used to speak to him and then he would lift his head up, speak to me and then put his head back down and keep walking. He did the foreign sales for Don King. He was a lawyer and he did the foreign sales for King. What happened was the young kid went to the Jewish lawyer and they got together and formed a corporation called Top Rank," stated promoter Murad Muhammad as he recalled his early experiences in boxing and how he, Don King and Bob Arum started out in the industry. Don't miss this behind-the-scenes look into the history of the sport as Murad himself tells his story in his own words. From Muhammad Ali to Manny Pacquiao, he has worked alongside some of the biggest names in boxing and you don't want to miss more of his extremely revealing tales. Check it out...

So I'm in boxing with two of the most successful, diabolical minds in the business; that was Arum and King. I knew because I had traveled with Ali. I knew Arum and I knew King. People don't understand and they don't give credit, but there was one man that created the 4 promoters. Herbert Muhammad. He created Don King when he came out of jail looking to sell Ernie Shavers to fight Ali. Ali took a liking to King and said, "Call my manager." King came back and said, "He won't return my calls." Ali said, "He don't return phone calls. You just gotta keep calling." So he finally got Herbert Muhammad and Herbert Muhammad told him to come visit him. He liked his style. He told him [King] to put down his big bag that he carried on his back, because that's the first time he had saw a man carry a bag. He told him, "Put down your big bag and put down your manager's license and get a promoter's license and I'll teach you the business." So Don King said, "They won't give me a license. I'm a felon." Herbert told him to go file for his license and he was going to give him The Greatest of all Time and he told him he was going to become big.

King went and got his license and met a gentleman named Henry Schwartz, a Jewish man who was a technical genius, and Henry Schwartz and Don King went into business. Henry Schwartz owned Video Techniques. You couldn't get Closed Circuit equipment unless you came to Henry Schwartz, who created the closed circuit equipment. Henry Schwartz brought the satellite way back then, in '71 or '72. He paid close to 200 million dollars for a satellite in the sky. Henry Schwartz was a genius. He knew that you needed a black man in the business because Don King could walk the walk and talk the talk. He knew Don King was gifted, so he got behind Don King. So it was Henry Schwartz, Don King and a little man, who the only way people knew him was as the manager of Muhammad Ali and his name was Herbert Muhammad. So I was able to be the security of Ali, but I was loved by Herbert Muhammad. Hebert Muhammad took me in like a son, so Don King used to favor me. He liked all 4 of us and I became closer to Herbert to the point where Herbert used to bring me into all of the meetings. I used to sit and listen to all of the meetings, so Don King was smart. Don King started taking me around to all of the meetings.

One day, Don King got kind of slick and he said a kid who had a deal over in Germany had come to him. What I'm saying here on FightHype.com, most people don't know, but by you making the call to me, I'm going to give you things that nobody has ever written about. What happened was this young man had a big mouth and was kind of like Don King. He decided that he wanted to put a fight in Germany, so Herbert told him to go see Don King. So he did and Don King shunned him off like he do most men and made him look like he was just a little kid in the candy store. So he [the young kid] kept telling Herbert that Don wouldn't listen to him. There was this Caucasian, Jewish Caucasian, walking around Don's office on the 60 something floor in the Rockefeller Plaza building and Don had the Penthouse. This gentleman kept telling Herbert that Don disrespects him. It just so happened that Don was trying to go around Herbert to convince Ali that all he needed was him.

Ali was one of the most loyal boxers that came into this business. There are a few more like him. If you talk about loyal, you have to talk about Michael Spinks, Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Jr. and Larry Holmes. I mean, I can name a lot of fighters that stuck with one promoter instead of jumping from here to there. They just had continuity. Marvin Hagler was another one; Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard. These guys had success because they had long continuity. They were repetitious. You know what you got, but you don't know what you getting. When you start jumping, things happen. What happened was most of the young fighters took a page out of the book of Larry Holmes. He had almost 50 fights and was with one promoter. Michael Spinks never left his promoter.

Muhammad Ali, in the latter part of his career, things began to happen. King tried to take Ali away from Herbert Muhammad, so Herbert Muhammad told him [the young kid] to go tap on the shoulder of this guy [the Jewish Caucasian] that's walking around. I knew him because he used to stand with his hands behind his back and he used to drop his head as I used to speak to him and then he would lift his head up, speak to me and then put his head back down and keep walking. He did the foreign sales for Don King. He was a lawyer and he did the foreign sales for King. What happened was the young kid went to the Jewish lawyer and they got together and formed a corporation called Top Rank. So Herbert decided to leave Don King and go with Bob Arum. That young man was Butch Lewis. Top Rank was formed by Herbert Muhammad, Bob Arum and Butch Lewis.

Bob Arum was afraid to do it because he knew this was a minority sport and Bob Arum don't know how to talk to minorities. He has a problem with it even today. You see how he curses out Mayweather. He calls Mayweather everything but the N word and sometimes, he has slipped up and said the N word. But he doesn't know how to talk to people. He has this understanding about his intellect, being a man that's a friend of a governor, being a man from education and graduating from a prestigious college, being 5th in his class, but he forgot his moral substance. So when he goes off, his moral and spiritual morality just leaves him. He curses out fighters like he does Mayweather, which is uncalled for. He was that kind of man back then, so what happened was he was afraid to come into our sport, but Jim Brown, the great running back, got up under him and told him to go get his license and do what Herbert said. He told him he would be a good promoter and he did that on the strength of another black man, Jim Brown. Jim Brown convinced Arum to come into our sport and he did.

He formed Top Rank and Ali had to go over to Bob Arum, so Bob Arum had access to Muhammad Ali. How do I know that? I used to be in the meetings with Arum and his people. We went all the way over to Germany. I was making deals as a young man and was able to bring money to the promotion and that's how I made my money. I wasn't on Muhammad Ali's payroll and that's why he and Herbert couldn't understand why I never asked for a paycheck. I made my money with King and I made my money with Bob Arum. To make a long story short, now Arum got Ali.

When I set out to become a boxing promoter, Arum was the first one to say that he would finance me. I said, "Thank you, but no thank you. I will do this myself." And I did. I went into the business with sweat, blood and tears and Arum was a friend; he never did anything to bother me. But I knew with the 2 giants [Don King and Bob Arum], you could not come with your hat in your hand or they will crush you. But if you got what they want, you got the best 2 friends that you could ever have. For all of my 1,000 fights that I have produced, I did 5 major fights with King and 5 major fights with Arum. That's my history because I never bothered the two. I came up with the idea that I couldn't compete with them head on, so I had to create something that was different.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The 4 promoters that Muhammad is referring to are himself, Don King, Bob Arum and Butch Lewis.]

BE SURE TO CHECK BACK FOR PART 4 AS MUHAMMAD TALKS MORE ABOUT HIS TIME WITH MUHAMMAD ALI AND HIS EARLY YEARS AS A PROMOTER

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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