More than 53 years after his first visit, boxing promoter Bob Arum is headed to Havana, Cuba. But Arum's trip to Havana on Thursday is for a vastly different reason than his first trip, in 1957.
Arum and a group of dignitaries, including Jim Rogers, the former chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, are flying to Havana to deliver humanitarian aid to a small Jewish community that still exists on the impoverished island nation. The group needed State Department approval to make the trip, since American citizens are prohibited by law from traveling to Cuba.
Arum said the group will deliver medical supplies. His first trip, though, was a vacation. Fidel Castro did not assume power until 1959 and Americans were able to travel to Cuba. Arum was just out of Harvard Law School and looking for a good time.
"In 1957, I was a very young, very crazy and very wild guy," Arum, 78, said. "Things have changed a great deal from then and now. I saw things there that would make what I'd subsequently see in Las Vegas seem incredibly tame by comparison."
Boxing manager Luis DeCubas, a Cuban-American with many close contacts on the island, has alerted some in the boxing community there of Arum's impending visit. Boxing is a highly popular sport in Cuba and its amateur program is, arguably, the best in the world.
Arum said he isn't certain if the Cuban people are aware of him, but said he'd be happy to meet with anyone in the boxing community who would be interested in speaking.
"It would be a fascinating experience and if any of them want to talk to me, of course, I'd be delighted to meet them and hear what they have to say,"
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