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That soon turned into a career- making love affair with boxing, which further solidified his career. He became the youngest promoter in the boxing realm when he was still only 19. Living in an attic apartment in Summit, New Jersey, barely scraping by, he hung around a gym in Plainfield, learning the ropes and signing a few fighters here and there. Roberts soon realized he was in over his head. He sought money-raising advice from his friends Roy Greenman and Arnie Budin, who suggested a limited partnership, wherein people would each invest $2,500. Through brazen relentlessness, Roberts raised $25,000. “I started asking my friends’ parents, and basically anyone in the world, if they had $2,500. I felt like the moll,” he laughs. Then Tommy “The Hit Man” Hearns came to town with his legendary trainer, Emanuel Steward, to do an exhibition with Muhammad Ali. “I went up to Steward and told him, ‘I’m an expert at endorsements. I control Madison Avenue.’ Meanwhile, I never did an endorsement deal in my whole life." But Emanuel bought into it, and Roberts wound up with an exclusive with Hearns.
With a superstar like Hearns in tow, Roberts quickly pounced on another revenue stream: the closed circuit fight. Roberts was able to meet someone in mega-promoter Bob Arum’s entourage, and decided to partner with him. “I got a location, sold out the HearnsLeonard fight and made a couple hundred thousand dollars,” Roberts recounts. “When I started getting territorial rights for the whole of Jersey, that’s when I started making serious money.” And although the partner would eventually stab Roberts in the back, Roberts kept his cool, along with the partnership, which allowed him to get in better with Arum.
In 1987, Arum offered Roberts the mother lode. “Bob said, ‘OK, kid you’re ready, let’s go after the U.S. Olympic boxers together. I’ll be the promoter; you’ll manage it,” Roberts says. After that success, in 1988, Roberts formed the Triple Threat Enterprises boxing team by signing three of the Olympians: heavyweight gold medalist Ray “Merciless” Mercer, junior welterweight Charles “The Natural” Murray, and light heavyweight Al “Ice” Cole. “It was historic,” Roberts crows. “No one had taken three names and marketed them into a brand before.” This led Roberts to his next “light bulb moment.” “I didn’t know anything about buying stock, but I knew companies would take themselves public and sell themselves to a massive amount of people,” Roberts says. Based on the popularity of his fights, Roberts knew he was onto something.
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