Transcripts of the 1999 Induction Speeches

Bob Arum
I’d like to thank the hall for this great honor. I’ve never been here before and I didn’t know what I was missing. This is wonderful, the community support, the way the hall is organized, and so I’m absolutely delighted to be inducted into the hall of fame. That being said, as I’ve said before, I don’t believe that I’m deserving of this award. But I wouldn’t want to leave it on a negative note on this joyous occasion. Sometimes people get an award and then what they do subsequently justifies the award they previously received. I hope that’ll be the case in my situation. I came into boxing almost 35 years ago and I have seen that boxing is linked with electronics. Because when I first started, there were no satellites, you had to fly over a tape of an Ali fight to England so they could see it the next day. The closed circuit, some of you old enough would remember, was only in black and white and only somebody with the greatest eyes in the world could tell which fighter was which. And everything changed. We got international satellites so we could send pictures all over the world. We got color television. The closed circuit improved. We had satellite technology that allowed cable systems to show pictures all around the country. And that led to pay per view television. But if you think those changes were dramatic over the last 35 years, you ain’t seen nothing yet. In the next five years, your television sets and your computers will be the same so that billions of people around the world can watch an athletic event at the same time. And what’s more, your choices will not be five channels, or 10 channels or 100 channels, but as many as a million or more channels. These changes are not in the distant past, they are coming in the new millennium.

And boxing has to prepare itself for this new landscape and for this new opportunity. And boxing has to reestablish itself as the major sport it truly is. And today I offer a few suggestions of how we could do this. Number 1. There is a feeling that boxers are exploited by managers, by promoters. There is a perception of that. And too often that perception is a reality. And we have to let the people know that we won’t tolerate this anymore in boxing. And as a first step, all of us in boxing, have to lobby the Senate of the United States and the House of Representatives to pass the Muhammad Ali Boxing Bill which will go along way to prevent these abuses. Secondly, if we’re going to compete on a global basis with other sports and other events, we have to ask congress for permission, privately, to set up a commission in this country, which would run boxing, regulate access to the internet, which would create enormous pools of money for the people in boxing. It requires, because of antitrust considerations, the approval of congress. But it would be funded completely by people in the boxing business. And thirdly, I believe that boxing must take care of its own. The past fighters. The current fighters. And the future fighters. We need a pension fund in boxing. We need a fund to take care of the older fighters who were not able to put away their earnings so that they need help. We don’t want the fighters to go to the community for help. We in boxing must create a fund to help those fighters. Now people say, where is the money going to come from. I’m telling you, take step one, take step two, we’ll be swimming in money in boxing and we can devote a large part of that money to do what we must do -- take care of our own. Thank you very much for hearing me out. And maybe someday I will really be worthy of this honor you’ve given me today. Thank you.

Bobby Goodman, on behalf of his father, Murray Goodman:
On behalf of my father, who is with us today, and my family, the Goodman family, we want to thank the Hall of Fame and all the great inductees and all these great champions up here who have given us so many thrills. Look at these guys, I think Oscar [De La Hoya] is a lightweight now sitting out in that sun. It’s just marvelous to see the way the community rallies around the sport. We come here every year to pay homage to the sport we love. It’s just a wonderful thing to see all the love that is pouring out here for a sport we all love. Thank you very much.

Khaosai Galaxy (with interpreter):
Ladies and gentleman, I’m so proud to be here to receive the greatest honor in my life -- induction for the Hall of Fame in 1999. It’s the first time in my life to feel such a feeling. It was a surprise and a dream to me. And this is a great honor for a family, especially the Galaxy family. And Mr. Niriwat, who was the promoter and manager of my boxing career. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Ed Brophy to make all the things happen. His staff did a marvelous weekend for us. We’d like to express thanks to everybody. The great men here [on the dais]. I’m proud and thank you very much.

Mickey Duff:
Thank you very much ladies and gentleman. It is really an honor to be here. You know something amazing happened to me yesterday. I don’t know whether you are all aware, but one of the things they do with the inductees when you get here they put your hand in cement, or whatever it is, and they make an impression of your fist, which later goes on display. And as I sat there with my fist in this so-called cement, it suddenly dawned on me, I boxed for four years as an amateur, six and a half years as a professional, had 69 fights, and this was the first time my fist had made any real impression. Joking aside, it’s wonderful to be here. It’s something that I’ll never forget. There are other people far more capable of expressing what we really feel but I think you all know what we really feel and I thank you very much for having me. Bye.

Eusebio Pedroza (with interpreter):
Good afternoon to all present. Today is a grand day for me, to see so many beautiful people here today. I’d like to give thanks to the Boxing Hall of Fame to have chosen me in this grand event. But in today’s day, I would just like God to preserve each and every one of these grand legends of boxing which is here, for giving so much motivation to the world. And today, we give them praise. This day today is very grand because not only does Eusebio Pedroza enter the Boxing Hall of Fame, but also the whole country of Panama and all of Latin America. Thank you very much.

Jimmy Bivins:
Thank you. Thank you all for cheering like that for me. I never figured that I would ever get a chance to be up in front of people like this. Boxing is a good sport for those who have to get in and persevere and just do their best. I hope that, and here everybody was talking that I was a bum, you know. But this bum came to be somebody. One of my best experiences was the time I fought Joe Louis. He said he was going to knock me out in four rounds. And at that time we didn’t call him Joe, we’d call him Big Red. I said Big Red, you know what, you gotta hit me first. At about the fourth round, Big Red had told me in advance he was going to knock me out in four rounds, after the fourth round, I said Big Red, I’m still here. Thank you.

Irving Rudd:
Thank you for the nice greeting and ovation, which I would not be able to hear if it weren’t for the two hearing aids. This way, I get to hear everything, some of which I don’t like. But one thing it does, it bring out, for instance, my old boss. Bob Arum really treated me well, especially this weekend. Saw to it that I ate well, drank, enjoyed my dessert and did everything but the job I’m supposed to do, get publicity for his fighters. I guess that’s long enough. I’m gonna throw in the towel they gave me.