In the early days of Boxing there was heavy Mafia involvement in the sport. Which fighters were hurt most or benifited the most from this?
1930's -1940's Fighters who benefitted - Galento, Simon, Carnera, Nova, etc. Fighters who didn't - Elmer Ray, Turkey Thompson, Lee Q Murray, Lem Franklin, Jimmy Bivens.... This content is protected
Primo Carnera Gus Dorazio Tony Galento Ike Williams Jimmy Carter Don Jordan Billy Fox Bud Gorman Babe Risko Beau Jack Virgil Akins Johnny Saxton Kid Gavilan Carmen Basilio Joe Brown Sonny Liston
Not sure Robinson was hurt, I mean the guy won the world Welter title in his early 20's or so. He was not being held back or anything.
Not sure Robinson was hurt, I mean the guy won the world Welter title in his early 20's or so. He was not being held back or anything.
Took him a while to get the MW shot. I mean what's the real answer to this question? In the years just after WWII all upper rung fighters were effected by this. If you weren't so great, like Graziano, yeah you got more than your share early on, but I don't think it's unsafe to assume that affable Rocky didn't pay some heavy dues for that. If you were a better fighter than him, as I do believe a lot of his contemporaries were, and had too much pride to boot, you were held back. The only fighters that weren't effected were the ones that weren't in that league in the first place, especially on the East Coast. I knew a fighter who was offered 50k to go in the tank with Graziano and turned it down. This was in the late 40's. Fifty grand in the late 40's! That was a helluva lot of money then, at a time when you could buy one or two or three pretty nice houses for that much. What? Like a million or more today?
Took him a while because he was busy cleaning out the welterweights, also I belive Jake was in no rush in fighting Robinson, It was not the mob that held Robinson back.
That's not the way I remember hearing it, but I could be wrong. Maybe someone will ring in and break the tie. Also, Jake by that time was involved with the boys, right? So his not being in any hurry could have been partly due to orders from above.
Muhamad Ali not only had the black muslims, he was very heavily hooked into Angelo's brother Chris Dundee who had strong links to Santo Traficante in Florida and Carlos Marcella in New Orleans. That may be the reason Sonny took 10 + Sonny had to know because he was close to Carbo and the Dundee's did the right thing with the Boys....Funny you never hear this but most inside guys know this
Robinson refused to dive in a fight ,and took a European tour instead,he carried a few fighters,to ensure certain folks got bets paid.
Did Louis' Manager have connections? Is that how Louis got his shot? or from public pressure? What about Marciano? Was there ever Mafia pressure put on him?
