1992: Michael Franzese testifies regarding fixed fights, Vito Antoufermo, Don King, Duran vs. Moore

If Cooney is implying he took a dive against Holmes that it hilarious. As far as Vito is concerned Briscoe and Hagler both beat him IMO

 

Really ugly stuff.

 

INTERESTING.

and here I thought Duran v Morre was on the up and up

 

So Cooney fought hard for 13 rounds to take a dive vs Holmes?
Moore was a world champion but he had, what?, a dozen fights? And he was fighting Duran? Insider info that he wasn't ready to fight? Who really thought that the result of that fight was surprising?
Franzese is a straight up lame that will say anything to be relevant.
Are mob guys even allowed to walk yards at USPs these days? If they are it is because they buy protection because they are muscle nothing and can't hold their own on their own.

 

He's a liar.

This guy is also all over the internet these days, and he's bringing up none of this stuff.

 

Can't really trust much of anything from these guys. Franzeze makes a lot of money these days with these kind of tell all stories. I do know his dad Sonny was a legit scary dude that was an underboss for the Colombo family. He lived to be a 103 which is extremely rare for anyone let alone a mobster.

Regarding Duran vs Moore, I do think Moore wasn't 100% going into it and he and others likely benefited from knowing that, but Moore fought his guts out and took a horrible beating from Duran. He certainly fought like a champion that night and it's a shame that there are pieces of **** out there that take advantage of fighters like Moore.

 

The mob controlled gambling.

So who were these guys winning bets off of … other Mafia families?

Seems like that wouldn’t be allowed or easily forgiven and lead to major divisions among top Mafiosos.

Someone explain to me how that worked.

 

Looked like a legit beat down to me

 

Cooney didn't "fight hard for 13 rounds". His shot against Larry was an all out assault early and unloading all barrels then and there. Instead he stood back and boxed softly like a giant ostrich studying and jabbing (and surprisingly managed to win a few rounds) and later admitted he put handcuffs on himself by stating "I just wanted to last the distance". Hilarious that anyone could look back on that farce and think Cooney put his full effort forward. I always thought he was overwhelmed emotionally by the prospect of winning and being: a.) stuck with boxing, which he clearly had a love/hate relationship with, and b.) being outed and publicly humiliated as a coke snorting/alcohol abusing "not nice guy". I remember before the Holmes fight he was portrayed in an S.I article as childishly chasing approval from the writer like a young 'un. I absolutely believe people close to the situation informed the PTB that Cooney was a mental midget who was prepping to lose. Holmes may have handpicked his challengers, but he was as mentally sturdy and motivated to perform at his best as any heavyweight in history.

 

the thumb and inadequate conditioning obviously hurt him more than a little

 

I'd like to believe that but didnt he get stopped by Michael Spinks

 

Same deal, wasn't it? Was out front and then suddenly and inexplicably collapsed like s frightened kitten. He beats Spinks and then what? Same situation. Front of the sporting world and headed for a megabucks showdown with Tyson (that nobody was eager to fight) and exposed for all his excesses.

 

Which makes the idea of Cooney throwing a fight more preposterous.

He beats Holmes (or Spinks or Foreman) and he’s lighting cigars with $1000 bills … minimum purses in the tens of millions.

So how much does someone have to pay him to throw a fight … and throw all those future millions away? He’s literally looking at collecting $50-100M and maybe even more over the course of his next few fights if he wins any of those — so you have to pay him that much to tank it.

Now how much does someone have to BET against him to collect enough money to pay him even $10M to throw the fight? And anyone trying to lay a $10M bet is (a) gonna trigger a drastic shift in odds (the bookies/Vegas will want money coming in on Cooney to offset the money being bet on his opponent) and (b) going to raise enough suspicion that they may take it off the board completely.

Go to Vegas and try to place a $20M wager. They aren’t going to take that level of action because losing the bet is too big of a risk for them. Even spreading it around, you’d have to place thousands of bets in thousands of places at much smaller amounts to not set off alarms, and even then that much money coming in on one side collectively is going to raise suspicions.

 

Better wording would be Franzese is implying Cooney implied he'd take a dive.

Sounds to me like he's attention seeking.