My favorite Bert Cooper fight not mentioned is against Richie Melito. It wasn't a war or anything (far from it). But the story behind it was good. Melito's team had built up his record with a series of fixed fights. Then they manuevered Melito onto USA's Tuesday Night Fights against Bert Cooper, who apparently they brought in to fix as well. But the FBI showed up in Bert Cooper's dressing room before the broadcast went live across the United States and told Cooper they knew he'd been brought in to take a dive and if he went along with it, they'd charge him with fixing a sporting contest. Cooper was spooked, so he went and out destroyed Melito in one round. What always cracks me up is the look on Melito's face when he realizes Cooper is coming to take him apart and not just fall down. His eyes practically bulge out of his head with fear. But the Melitos didn't learn their lesson and continued to schedule "divers." Thomas Williams, the father of the light heavyweight contender who fought Adonis Stevenson, went to prison for being involved in a series of fixed fights. Here's one article from that time: New York Post By Jack Newfield THE FBI is probing allegations that Queens heavyweight “White Hope” Richie Melito has been involved in fixed fights, The Post has learned. The most recent bout under investigation was an Evander Holyfield-John Ruiz undercard in Las Vegas earlier this month. FBI agents visited Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, last week to question him about Melito’s fight with Thomas Williams. Sources told The Post the feds have Williams on audio tape admitting he was paid to take a dive against Melito. South Carolina boxer Shelby Gross told FBI investigators he was offered $8,000 to lose to Melito last year but pulled out of the fight – too proud to take a dive. “I accepted the fight at first,” said Gross, who told The Post about his interview with the FBI. Gross said the offer came from Bobby Mitchell, a South Carolina-based matchmaker who works closely with Don King and who has supplied more than half of Melito’s most recent ring victims. “Bobby offered me $8,000 to fight Melito, and at first I said, ‘Sure,'” Gross told The Post. “I usually got $600 or $700 a fight, and I knew I could beat Melito. He ain’t nothing but a squirrel.” But Gross’ joy soured when, he said, Mitchell told him, “No, no, no, you can’t win; you gotta take a dive.” “To be honest, it kind of intimidated me,” Gross said. “I accepted the fight at first.” But the next day, armed with a tape recorder, Gross spoke to Mitchell again. This time he asked for $10,000 and, he said, made sure to have Mitchell repeat his demand that Gross throw the fight. “He took me for granted,” Gross said. “I was a little bit slyer than he was.” Gross said he took $2,500 in cash from Mitchell as a down payment on the dive, then used the tape to force Mitchell to release him from a managerial contract. “If he’s got a tape, it’s not of my knowledge,'” Mitchell told The Post. “I don’t know nothing about no fight-rigging, absolutely not.” Another fighter, John Carlo, told The Post he “didn’t try too hard” when he fought Melito in 1997. He hasn’t been interviewed by the FBI. The FBI refused to comment. The Melito-Williams bout was booked shortly after Melito signed an exclusive four-year contract with promoter King. Sources who heard the Williams tape said the boxer admits to his manager, George Peterson, that he is being paid to lose to Melito on the Holyfield-Ruiz undercard. Peterson and Williams, who also have been quizzed by the FBI, did not return repeated calls from The Post. Peterson, a former Washington, D.C., cop, turned the tape over to the Georgia Athletic Commission, which brought it to the FBI, Post sources said. The FBI didn’t tell the Nevada State Athletic Commission what it knew before the fight went off. The Melito-Williams bout was staged in a nearly empty arena four hours before the main event, before the public was allowed in. As a result, not even Melito’s relatives, some of whom paid as much as $600 for their tickets, got to see his first-round KO of Williams. Some say they didn’t miss much. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Don Turner, Holyfield’s trainer, who was in the arena early to work with another fighter on the undercard. “I couldn’t see no punch that [Williams] got hit with. And when they showed the replay on the big screens, you could see the punch missed him.” Turner was contacted by the FBI last week. He said he told agents the same story. “I don’t know whether the guy went in the soup or not,” Turner told The Post. “But I know he could have got up.” Melito’s father and manager, Richard Melito Sr., insisted he and his son were not involved in a fix. “If there was a fix, we weren’t in on it,” he said. “There’s no way I’m going to have my son in a fixed fight.” The Post has uncovered information suggesting several other bouts on Melito’s 25-fight record (24-1, 23 KOs) are suspect. Before Melito’s only loss, to former heavyweight contender Bert Cooper at Madison Square Garden in 1997, rumors swirled that Cooper was going to take a dive. The rumors grew so strong, members of the New York State Athletic Commission warned Cooper that his performance was being monitored and he would not get paid if the fight looked phony. Cooper flattened Melito in the first round. Mitchell calls himself “a matchmaker” for the boxing world. “Promoters hire me to fill one side of their cards,” he said. “They hire me to protect their investments. They’re not calling me because I’m going to get their guys beat – let’s get that right out in the open.” When making matches for Melito, Mitchell said, “The first thing I look for is a weak chin, and someone who’s not training.” John Carlo, one of Mitchell’s heavyweights who was knocked out by Melito in 1997, asked The Post, “What kind of a boxing manager keeps bringing his fighters to lose to Melito?” Carlo, who once knocked out former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks in 30 seconds, was KO’d by Melito in the second round. A tape of the fight obtained by The Post shows Carlo throwing only two serious punches – one at the end of the first round and one at the beginning of the second – before he went to the ropes and was dropped by a left hook. “Let’s just say I didn’t try too hard, OK?” Carlo said when asked if he took a dive. “I don’t want to be the guy ratting [Melito] out.” According to Carlo, “I could get off my couch right now and knock [Melito’s] fat bleeping ass out. Everybody he’s fought [recently] has been a Bobby Mitchell fighter.” Twelve of Melito’s last 15 opponents were supplied or managed by Mitchell. Back in 1995, Melito was involved in a mysterious, comic substitution when an opponent identified as “Russell Perry” on a Westbury Music Fair card turned out to be an impostor. The real Russell Perry was in jail the day of the fight, and to this day Melito’s record shows a first-round KO over “Opponent Unknown.” “We knew that guy wasn’t Russell Perry,” Melito Sr. said. “But the commission insisted it was, so we went through with the fight.” Melito’s father gave The Post a candid assessment of his son’s skills, acknowledging that “careful matchmaking” is necessary to keep Melito Jr.’s career on track. “I know my kid’s got limited skills, but he can punch like hell,” he said. “What we look for in an opponent is a guy who doesn’t have a good punch, can box a little and will give Richie a few rounds. You know what? Guys like that are hard to find.” But it appears the FBI has found a few of them – and it may turn out that they sing better than they dive.
Bert Cooper Fights I made in my channel: Fulilangi: This content is protected Tillman: This content is protected Hipp: This content is protected I heard his fight with Loren Ross was a war, hopefully we get to see the full fight in yt
Thanks, I love a good story and boxing has so many that are unknown in general. More than any other sport.
Don't expect it right away though. I need to get a series of DVDs first which will tap out my boxing DVD funds, so it will probably be two months. And I need to find out the copyright info too, I don't want to get hot with another copyright strike if I upload it.
Bert was a perfect fighter for the time. Back in the 90 s when we had all those characters. What an era that was.
I can't be the only boxing fan who once a year or so just goes Bert Cooper all evening. His fights were just plain fun. His interviews were standup comedy in their own right.
I had to eat crow that day. I had talked up Cooper as a threat to Tyson in the near future. Right after DeWitt alot of people were as well. Bert was a wrecking machine before crack got involved.