Was Pete Rademacher poorly managed?

I was unaware he did not get paid! Still he was famous fighting for a title that really meant something back then, the heavyweight championship of the world. Being the Olympic champ to get a shot right out of the gate is what he's famous four. It's a boxing tory and one that is still told 50+ year later.

At the end os his career, he was nothing but a good journeyman.

 

Lol nothing brave about it he wasn’t taking the shots lol

 

That's better. Yes $25,000 was a lo of money back then, He got paid. 99% of the boxer around today making their debut would like a payday like that one.

 

That's unfair, Choklab.

 

That wasn't for his debut. It was for Folley.

He wasn't paid for his debut. And Folley brutally stopped him in four rounds.

And he clearly didn't accomplish everything he wanted in boxing. There is a far rosier picture being painted here by some.

He was one of the worst-managed Olympic heavyweight gold medalists in history.

But I'm glad he had a happy marriage.

 

Rademacher's career is like no other. It can't be judged by the same standards as other fighters. Pete masterminded his own career. If you want to analyze whether it was a success or not, you have to your homework, find out about his life, and put yourself in his place.

 

Why do I have to put myself in his place?

He had a poorly managed pro career. By no measure did he have a properly managed pro career. For example, every Olympic gold medal winner who received a world title shot GOT PAID. Pete "the Mastermind" didn't.

I'm glad he and his wife love each other. I'm glad people got a laugh out of him telling stories about getting brutally KOed by Patterson. Like I said, he sounds like a nice guy.

But that doesn't mean he was properly managed. He clearly wasn't.

 

When it comes to judging success, you have blinders on

 

This thread is not about who had a lovely marriage, or who enjoyed his grandkids, it's about whether his BOXING career was properly managed.

It was NOT.

 

From a financial and opportunity standpoint ? No. He got a shot at the heavyweight title without ever having to fight a single professional beforehand. From a long term career perspective ? Yes. He was an Olympic Gold medalist who was large in stature for his day and probably had potential. A slower progression and with a good trainer might have led to a longer career, better wins and more paydays. But that’s also speculation

 

Correct. Because he was also chinny, so he could have won 8 of his first 11 fights boxing for peanuts and never gotten a title shot.

He became a respectable heavyweight campaigner with a somewhat successful career. Probably went about as far as he would have with a more conventional approach (although maybe would have had a few more padded wins).

Seems to me he had a boxing career on his own terms. He bet on himself. He didn’t win the title but he got his shot, became well known and parlayed that into a successful post-boxing career and life. Many have been ‘managed better’ and come out far worse.

 

He was an Olympic Gold medalist before he turned pro. He was married before he turned pro. He was a college graduate before he turned pro.

Being a journeyman pro boxer didn't help anything. Getting floored 10 TIMES in his first two fights and losing both by brutal knockout didn't help him long term.

I find this whole discussion bizarre.

Pete Rademacher was a poorly managed fighter. WITHOUT question. He sounds like he had a great life before he turned pro, and after he retired.

While he was a pro boxer, he got floored about 30 times, tended to get the living crap beaten out of him and he didn't make much doing it ... because he was poorly managed. He got $8,000 for the Bobo Olson fight.

But I'm glad he got out in tact.

 

True. There are no guarantees in life and this holds particularly true for boxing. Rademacher won the Olympic gold medal, turned pro and fought for the world title. That’s enough of a story.

 

It's ironic that we are having precisely the same discussion that Rademacher had with reporters at the time of the fight. In an interview with reporter Emmett Watson of the Seattle P-I just before the bout, Pete discussed the trouble he had convincing reporters why he wasn't crazy for wanting to fight Patterson without bolstering his reputation by winning a few pro fights first. "What they don't understand," he said, " is that even if I win a whole string of fights, I'm just another pro fighter. This way -- coming into it as an amateur -- makes all the difference. It makes the fight. That's the nature, the very life, of the idea."

As the manager, the fighter, and, since he arranged for the fight's funding, the de facto promoter of the fight, Rademacher himself is the best judge of whether he was properly managed when he fought Patterson. Pete undoubtedly knew he wouldn't be that good of a fighter as a pro and that he would never have another chance to fight Floyd. The idea of being the first person to fight for the heavyweight championship as an amateur had captured his fancy. Achieving that goal was a masterpiece of managing. No one had done it before and no one has done it since. So, no, he was not poorly managed.

 

Dubblechin you are out of your depth here by a country mile. Kasimirkid, John Ochs, has forgotten more about Rademacher than youll ever know. You are stuck on this idea that Rademacher had some manager who mismanaged his career. Rademacher managed himself and managed his career exactly as he wanted it to go. Hes said many time he has zero regrets and wouldnt change a thing. You say he accomplished nothing in his career but his career was far more successful than 99% of the boxers in history and he capitalized on the fame you say he never got for the rest of his life (which is still ongoing). Again, turning pro at nearly 30, would it have been wise to spend the next four years fighting his way to a possible title shot (that likely would have never came and petered out potentially before he ever faced a top contender), or did he do the wise thing by accomplishing a much publicized feat in challenging for the title in his first fight and using that fame (regardless of whether you are willing to acknowledge it) to propel the rest of his career and earn some decent paydays in the process before retiring relatively unscathed to a very successful post boxing life/career. Pretending that is a case of a mismanaged career seems bizarre in the extreme and really kind of misses the entire point of why these guys ultimately do what they do.