Rocky Marciano's mob connections

We have to face facts here, the Mob OWN Boxing at that time, they made the fights, control the money and made a lot of money from it, In fact the mob got a cut money wise from everyone from Dempsey to Louis to even Marciano. Even Marciano did not know how much of a cut they took out of his fights, but they did let the results stand as they were.

 

I'll bite.

The first Ted Lowry fight is sometime considered dodgy, because Lowry himself mentioned mob connections and said he thought he won. No footage exists of the fight, but it sounds to me like Lowry just tired out. In any event, a lot of people mention this along with LaStarza 1 as one of the ones that Rocky may actually have lost.

I read the book on Sonny Liston where the author was trying to imply that the Moore fight was fixed. In all fairness, the ref did screw up and give Marciano a standing 8 when he was not supposed...but he was up at 4 and ready to go. Moore, a legend and a champion himself, got a good shot in, but Moore was not winning that with a baseball bat.

I have never heard anyone say LaStarza 1 was fixed, but it was close by the rules of the day. By today's rules, the knockdown would have counted for a point, and the decision would be a lot less assailable.

The connections were there, and there is no denying that.

 

I've done several videos analyzing the first Walcott match, and the Charles fights. Believe me, it can clearly be demonstrated that those guys are not really trying. It's pretend. Their punches had no follow-through, and it was basically a farce. Those are very talented actors, but on those nights, great as they may have been elsewhere, they did not come to the ring to function as fighters.

 

Can you provide us with instances in which Dempsey , Louis, and Marciano kicked back money to the mob? Al Weill, manager of Rocky was affiliated to the IBC and its boss Norris, and behind the scenes Carbo ,but where is the evidence they ever got a cut of Rocky's purses? Marciano may have been the beneficiary of two debatable decisions,against Lowry and Lastarza.as well as being Marciano's manager Weill was the matchmaker for MSG,which was then controlled by the IBC,but I've never read anything about percentages of purses being deducted by the mob.

 

Every fighter from that era had some sort of connection to organized crime.

That was just the cost of doing business back then.

Some fighters had to make difficult choices, while others were protected from that side of the business, owing to their economic value.

In Marciano's case I don't think that there was any need to fix his fights.

He might have got the benefit of a couple of close decisions, but that it not exactly the same thing.

The strategy seems to have been to match him against people that he was almost certain to beat, until it became indispensable to do otherwise.

As for the idea that some of his title fights were fixed, that is highly improbable.

In order to get someone to throw a fight with the heavyweight title on the line, you would have to offer them the State of Texas as the first instalment.

 

In the 50's yes, but Louis and Dempsey were not really of that era.

 

the Truth is, Boxing IS a Business and the most corrupt one at that...

Ducking,
Avoidance
Questionable Decicions
DQ's
Robberies
Fixes
Ring Size demands
Refs 'owned'
Judges
Boards
Ratings
Press

Promoters
Managers
MOB

and of course Owned Fighters.

Every single one of these factors have been brought to account over the years.

EVERYBOBY knows Boxing is bent and even the most honourable people & fighters in the game, at the TOP, have all either benefitted or suffered at the hands of "those"... those who control the racket, whether they, the players & fighters, know it and realize it or not.

Boxing History not only could record another history, in some case it absolutely should!

Oh, and the first half dozen or so listed are easy to control.

 

This is not about fixing fights but setting the fight up and then taking their 5 percent cut from the profits. Norris and others where verry corrupted. Dempsey, Louis, Marciano themselves did not kick back money, but their managers did. It is mention in one or Rocky's bio books that Marciano was not sure how much of a cut the mob took out of his fights. Boxing was nearly 100 percent control by the mob.

 

I am not familiar with mafia procedure in any day or age, but could they not get their way through threats & coercion, if bribery was unfeasible?

 

Threatening a heavyweight champion would be a somewhat hazardous undertaking, because he might simply pick up the phone to the police, and then the FBI woudl be all over it.

It might perhaps be possible if you had something on him, that meant he couldn't go to the authorities.

 

I asked you for examples of this.

Can you give me examples of Dempsey, Louis ,and Marciano's managers kicking back back percentages of their purses to the mob?
I have only read two biographies of Marciano,neither say he gave a percentage of his purses to the mob

.Please post your information that contradicts this?

 

I do not believe that SRR had any connection to the mob. In fact, his refusal resulted in a delay in his shot at the welterweight championship.

 

I can't source it but there was a story about how some tennis player smacked around a mob guy who was looking for a cut, and Marciano told him that he hates doing it himself, but it is how things are.

Sorry, I can't do better than that, but I read it somewhere.

 

Marciano was respected and admired by mob guys, but Rocky was a clean guy and wouldn't play. Lots of eras had mob connections including Ali, through the Dundee brothers, Holmes through Rich Giachetti, Tyson through Cus and many eras and fighters but how much did the mob participate in anything criminal?

Don King was known for controlling the Alphabet Organizations and actually paid Ring magazine for rating and most inside boxing people said he controlled the WBC and WBA and IBF but payoffs were always rampant and that is organized crime not just when Italians are involved.

Walcott may have had stronger connections to the Italian mob than Rocky but didn't help him from getting brutally KO'd.

I heard SRR had strong mob connections, but I don't think he needed them.