Good afternoon. You're listening to Gambling with an Edge. Now here are your
hosts, Bob Dancer and Richard Munchkin. Good afternoon, Welcome to Gambling with
an Edge. I'm Bob Dancer and I'm Richard Munchkin. This is one of
our irregularly scheduled podcast and today our guest is Dennis Rappaport, who was a
boxing manager boxing promoter, and we're going to talk to him. Dennis Rappaport,
Welcome to Gambling with an Edge. Hey guys, it's a pleasure for
me to be with you. All right. So you came up in Brooklyn,
So tell us about the Brooklyn roots and how your early years created a
foundation for your career as a boxing manager and promoter. Well. I grew
up in Brooklyn with so Richard's tradition from games that we played, punchbowl,
stickball, box baseball, and all the other great games that perhaps were unique
to Brooklyn. As a youngster, I was always a hustler looking to make
a buck. When I was thirteen, I had twenty five kids working for
me and doing what well. I became a friend of mine's father sold Viennese
cookies and one day I followed him and I found out the factory and I
became a Dennister friendly cookie man, hired twenty five kids and ultimately distributed to
charities who are resold. So you were telling us about you were selling everything
from cookies to Chinchilla's when you were ten. Yeah, and I was a
distributor for a vider. I sought security lots out of traveling karate school.
Uh. I was a kid that wanted to make a buck and be independent
and and it's led me on to various careers. So how did you get
into boxing? Well, I was in the well at seven years old.
My father was a huge boxing fan and had come from Canada to the US
forded bootleg fights against professional fighters when he was fifteen, never lost the fight.
He was short, but fearless and very quick and had a love for
boxing. And I remember, as a seven year old youngster watching Rockie,
watching Eugene Aston and Jake Lamatta and a couple of months later Sugary Robinson and
Jake Nomada, and I was captivated. I was mesmerized and a love of
fear became from that point on with being boxed and uh. Years later,
I went to the Nassau Colisecene, and I saw other had been a boxing
show schedule, and I saw a fellow with a trainer is Uh a sweater,
and I went over to him and introduced myself follow him. A businessman
would admit with it very interested in boxing and if he had anybody that had
potential, to let me know. I get a call. About a week
and af later. They called me down to a gym and I saw Damon
running characters like you only read about. And I was in the real estate
business at the time, and all the frustrations and the anxiety of real estate
left and I was in a make believe world of things you only hear about.
So I go into this room and I quickly identified that I was a
subject of a scam. They were going to take this businessman and being of
a fighter that was a twelve pair his prime and try to grab as much
money as possible. I picked it up, but something happened. Nothing happened
on that deal, but that feeling in the gym that that's almost inexpressible created
an interest, and we started going to gyms and looking for talent, and
I first signed the fello about him A Ronning Harris. He was nicknamed Ronning
Masl Harris, and he was I had been an Olympic gold medal winner and
he won it in nineteen sixty eighty at George Foreman one, and it was
seventeen or eighteen, and I was a pro. Gil Clancy had managed him
and couldn't move him, and he was the first fighter I signed. I
remember calling Bob Aram up. You know, I was aggressively ignorant at the
time about professional boxing, to say the least. And when I spoke to
Arab, he said, oh, Jannie Harris from Detroit, and I said,
no, he's from Canting. He says, he don't know what you're
talking about and hung up on me. Well, I don't take that type
of rejection. Well, so I began to fit out of the box of
what to be able to do with this fight and how I represented him,
How am I going to get him exposure? So I think we used some
innovative and creative things to get him attention. To give you a couple of
examples, we maintained that Ronnie was a black Jew and wanted a fight with
the A. I made this request of the commission. They became hysterical laughing
and rejected it. I took him to the New York State Supreme Court.
We won, and at the last minute the Commission the night of the fight,
I got to stay to prevent him from wearing a yamacause it was almost
a riot. The crowd was predominantly laden and they were offended that the commission
wanted to take the yamaka off. That begat and the first thing that got
riding exposure it was on talk radio, it was in the newspapers. Fiddler
in the ring boxes self and that became one of the numerous things that we
did. Another thing we did was the guard and promised us about and had
renee and as I said, I don't take rejection and know weather. So
I called up every newspaper, every television station UH at the time and said
I'm going to show up on this off of Sunday, that I'm going to
show up on Monday at the offices of Madison Square Garden. They promised me
a fight and then they claimed they couldn't get anyone to fight him. I'm
going to show up with a seven one hundred and fifty pound gorilla and a
paint. If there's no Midlewight in the world. That'll fight Harris. Harris
is so courageous, will fight the gorilla. The early edition of the post
there were about a thousand people outside. To my shock, both in Western
which owned the guard must have been embarrassed. Teddy BRender an old, an
older matchmaker, you know, one of these guys that just spoke this way,
real matchmaker was known to make wars quote them. My partner and said,
what is that crazy man doing. He's making Gulf and Western look bad.
And my partner, who was at home, said all he wanted to
do was to fulfil your promise and get him a fight. And finally they
relented. Harris went out and fort another gold medal with a sugaray sealed and
uh, that was one of many things we did to get exposure. With
exposure gave us the leverage and the opportunity to get invites. And now,
were you also a trainer to Ronnie Harris or just the manager? No?
No, I was. I was the manager occasionally with some fighters. I
was very hands on in terms of selecting trainers, in terms of being at
the gym's uh uh, planning strategy, selecting opponents, you know, things
like that. I was very hands on God and it gave me excusevely my
real estate business, uh, which uh I was in all my life,
but it didn't have the same job, high profile, or the glitz and
glab that I got of when I got involved the boxing. So I understand
that you had a fight with Ronnie Harris in Argentina where you ran into a
number of problems. Ronnie Harris became the North American Boxing Federation champion, and
we had a fight in Vegas against Gracian Toner, the European champion, and
I had at the time Mike Marley wrote for I think the Last vacage is
at Review, a Las Vegas journal, and I said, somebody put something
under my door and said that the fixers in that the judges are you can't
win this fight, and I publicized it. Wow, they put everybody on
the defense. Some people accused that I had somebody who I could note to
myself. All the people say, well it was a credible source, Well
whatever, Okay. The judges all were very defensive the fights Tona and prior
to the fight, an ugly incident took place. It was at the Aladdin
Hotel and a fella I was friendly with at the time, was running the
Aladdin and they put mistakenly put the dressing rooms right next to each other.
And as I was out looking at the audience, a fight broke out between
the camps. I heard the loud, screaming voices, and I ran in
and my people and the Toners people were in a fight. They had Gene
cord body, a bodier, a former champion, and it became an ugly,
unfortunate incident. Now, all of a sudden, CBS screens it's time
walk out. I had broken up the fight at that point, but unfortunately
Ponish people had were bloodied up, so they're walking in this is prime time
CBS with blood all over their face. And Harris won the fight, but
it created a major problem. The winner of the fight was supposed to fight
Hugo Quoro, the champion, in Monte Carlo, which would have been neutral
territory. Because of the reputation, which is somewhat in the farious. According
to Aram, of Tonish people from Marseilles, France, they felt that everyone's
life would be in danger in Monte Carlo. I told Aram I would give
him a release of liability and we would take care of our own security,
and he insisted on Uh that the fight take place in Argentina, the hometown
of Corps. Again ill with it. It was Aaron's concerned of us security
or we felt that it would be a big attraction fighting the Argentinian in his
own home hometown. Well, we go to Argentina, were treated orally.
It was like the literally the event. My z Ohn had been the champion,
Quoro was a recent champion and everyone want to treat us for it until
the day of the fight, and taught my shock and surprise. The following
things happened on our way close to the parking lot, a group of people
try to overturn our car. We finally make it to the arena and myself
and a couple of other people were in we'll chenting out the corners and where
Ronnie was going to fight, and we were told that we couldn't be in
the corner, and I said, there's nothing in this world that's going to
get me out of the corner. Well, my fighters fighting for the Middleway
Championship. Shortly afterwards, people came security or police with machine guns. Well,
I wasn't exactly a profile and courage at that point speaking up. So
being surrounded by machine guns, okay, uh we were we I went to
sit in the seat. Shortly afterwards, his brother refused to leave, was
surrounded by machine guns, so that he's staying and literally they were taking him
and out and a lot of people said he would never be found again.
My partner, Mike Johns, cooled off the situation, but it was a
it was a horrible situation. They made our trainer in between rounds leave the
corner, so when the bell rang to the next round, he had a
run for the rescuer. He had to run to the ring while the Arris
was the split decision. A referee named Bill take and a sparring partner was
so traumatized by the events they wouldn't even let us back into the dressing room.
It was locked. They were literally frightened for their life. It was
a horrific experience. Harris lost the split decision, and if they fought anywhere
else in the world, okay, without all these things going on. And
Harris was aware of some things because when he would go back to his corner,
he didn't see his corner and they were running there, and he was
aware of he must have seen the machine guns earlier on. And he didn't
fight to fight. He was capable. He was super talented. Rowdy wasn't
exciting, but he was a tremendous technician. You couldn't hit him in his
rare end if you didn't want to get hit. And uh, it was
a bit of disappointment. And uh, my first uh or many situations of
guy's fighting for a title. Uh, that was one that I'm not a
gracious loser, and I had I usually get even. That was one that
I never had the opportunity to get even on. But it was a nightmarish
situation. M Hm. You were involved with Jerry Cooney. How did that
happen? Well? Interestingly enough to fellow Bill say, Oh, it introduced
me to Ronnie Harris was the first black referee, or not the first black
referee, but among the early black referees, and he introduced me also to
Cooney. Cooney had an outstanding amateur record and beat the Russians. He was
a young fellow. I wasn't that much older than him, Okay, and
we sat down, we broke red. I had already signed another gold medal
winner from that great nineteen seventy six Olympic team Howard Davis, who had won
the vout Back Bark Award as the Outstanding fighter in the Olympics over Sugar elen
In and all the other great fighters. And I negotiated a deal directly with
CBS, which was the first time that was done. Okay, a sports
illustrator called it the contract of the year. We negotiated, which is a
long story, but it was an outstanding, outstanding deal. And Jerry was
from Long Island, knew about the Davy situation. We had got a lot
of favorable publicity making the deal. Uh. There was an instant before and
we uh we signed him and UH with Jerry at one point as he's being
developed and he was very personable and he added, uh outside the ring,
he was very understated. Inside the ring, he uh he would send three
four guys sparring partners to the hospital a week. Uh. It was what
happened for the first year. His trainer Woodland him spar so he was being
a lot of the guys in the gym. Oh, the poor boy from
Long Island, he won't spa and they were doing maybe there was ten sparring
partners. Soon as Victor allowed him to spa. He knew that they were
going to look to take his head off, and he just destroyed him.
At the end, he emptied out every every weight in the gym anyhow,
which Aerry. We did another thing. We brought a leprechaun into the ring.
Jerry, and I gotta tell you the first, the first time,
this fella leprechaun, if you will, was very nervous. He was so
burgers okay, and he was in the green uniform and he was gonna hexit
the oppoted. He literally got sick, threw up in the bathroom. Uh
didn't do any of the uh the hexing uh was frozen. But the next
day it made the front page of the Daily News. Little did I know
that we created a diva. So his next fight was at the Westchester County
Center. We used him again and he was finding a guy by the name
of Sam McGill. Whole in this world could have ever pictured that McGill,
a professional fighter, was literally afraid of a leprechaut. Came down for the
commission and one of the commissioners was a former pr man by Ella Fitzgerald years
before, and he says to me, I got a six page letter from
the McGill's management about not allowing a leprechaut in the ring. Not allowing it.
He's very superstitious, so I said, and I was trying to keep
a straight face. I couldn't believe he was saying this to me. I
said, Marvin, you show me where in the New York State Athletic Commission
it rules out elepercats. That's like Santa Claus. He didn't know what to
say it. Finally he said, look, you could let the lepochart in
the ring, but he can't x the opponent. Little did I know that
the leprecaon after getting all this publicity and seeing him on a front page,
this guy thought that he was a star. So I said, go into
the ring, but you can't x the opponent. You can dance around a
little bit, but you know, I don't give him one of these things
and move your fingers. Anyhow. Make a long story short, I created
a monster. As soon as McGill got into the ring, the leprechaun starts
dancing next to him and starts wiggling his fingers. McGill turned around not to
look at the lefrachaun. Uh the commission came. Always said Rappaport will grab
your license, and I had to have the leprechaun uh seasoned assist from making
the opponent. He went on won the decision, and I think that was
the end of uh the uh uh, the Lucker con and boxing. Yeah,
so how did you get? Then the match with Cooney? How I
mean with Holmes, how did that? Well? It was a Cooney became
uh. He knocked out uh everywhere but him a ron Lyle in one,
one or two rounds with he broke his rid with a body shot. Then
we were matched against Jimmy who had beat beat him but didn't get the decision
Ali, who did defeat Foreman. Uh was a real uh. One of
these guys that were was a real Uh made everybody look bad. To be
very honest with you, I didn't want that fight. I was very concerned,
uh because nobody looked good against uh Young. And often people will say,
oh, Cooney Ford an old Jimmy Young. Well, if you say,
could look at Young's record after he fought Cooney, he beat five guys,
most of them were undefeated. Okay, King, this was a co
promotion because I always I would never get involved with King controlling any part of
any fighter that I was involved in. He had a young young people got
him in the best shape that he was ever ind okay, and Cooney destroyed
him. They stopped to fight. Young was a bloody mess and Young almost
never got hit in a fight. And all of a sudden, Cooney now
is a is a national star. And at the time Norton was coming back
and he was fighting a car, but a young car that was eighteen and
oh like seventeen knockouts who had just knocked out Ernie Shades. We agreed to
fight the winner. To a mild surprise, guys, Nordon defeats Cord.
We fight obviously, we fight the winner. We couldn't fight the loser.
Coney in fifty four seconds knocks out when it is scariest knockouts. You'll let
it see. It was a one or two point away from from a fatality.
The referee was late and stopping it. I jumped into the ring and
all I saw with a white of Norton's eyes. Now it is fifty four
seconds, okay, And then a match was made and it was the biggest
grossing event in one night in the history of the sport. I even think
it exceeded the gross of the Super Bowl that year. Okay, it took
place in Vegas. They built in Caesars, they built a parking lot.
It was fucking a parking light. They built in a I reader. It
was every celebrity, every star that you could possibly name, was there.
It became let me, let me give you an example. Cody was on
the cover of every magazine. Okay, you could think of not only sports
illustrated in sport magazine and boxing magazines, but what I call coursed dover them
things, things that were not oriented towards sports. The cover of Time magazine,
which was a funny story. By the way, on the cover you
see a picture of him and Sylvester Stallone, And if you took a look
at the cover, you'd be shocked because if you look Stallone, Stallone isn't
tall, and Cooney's about six feet six six feet maybe almost six feet seven.
And people always wondered, how in this world do you see them to
get together? And Stallan is almost as big as Tony. We got to
the studio a great photographer but a nickname Neil Leifer, who was one of
the great photographers, had uh Stallone didn't want it to be a big such
a big disparity in size, so he stood on a cart. Then we
got into an argument. The argument was, hey, look, we don't
mind if you want to appear taller, but you're not going to be taller
than company. So I finally was resolved itself that he was almost the size
of coding with the box that used, and that was the cover of time.
Unfortunately, h to fight you more fire and press more international than Tregue.
It was an extraordinary event, uh King, I made King do.
I insisted on parody that Cooney the Challenger get as much as Homes. As
it turns out he wound up making a couple of million dollars more than Homes
because I had sent auditors and accountants to every close circuit location okay, so
I would know exactly the money that was taken in, so King couldn't uh
finagle with the numbers. And interestingly enough, Homes had heard about that we
were hiring it and asked if he could have a copy okay, and I
said, yeah, it's going to cost about one hundred thousand dollars okay,
with all the auditors and accountants going out, you pay air. Cooney pays
air, the Corney side pays air, and you'd be entitled to it.
Homes didn't want to go for the fifty thousand. After the fight, he
caught contacts us asked for a copy. I said you could have a copy
after you said fifty thousan frankly, he never did, and it wound up
costing him two million dollars and it was an Unfortunately, King was fueling the
worst feeling for the worst instincts of people, UH, trying to exploit the
U a black fighter, undefeated champion against a white contender, a tremendous puncher
that was undefeated. And it was first of all, it was morally reprehensible,
Okay. Cooney's line was, it's not important if you're black or white,
just how you for you left or right. It made him very uncomfortable.
It was not only morally reprehensible. And I come from being a background
of being an activist to civil rights where I was almost lynched by the court
quote Sclan. He wasn't aware of it at the time. Me and King
got into very in negotiations, with me UH demanding parody and a co promotion
that he co promoted with a guy that had been a real estate part remind
for years frankly and uh, we're all kinds of controls on dollars flowing.
And uh, you know, King tried everything. Uh he uh, he
tried to put on the job. He tried intimidation. Yeah, yeah,
I don't mean to sound like I'm some tough guy, but intimidated. He
got no chance of working with me. It just it was like, you
know, forget about it, and it looked hot at times. Then King
did put on Sharman almost to a dance. Uh. He was manipulative Macavelliot.
He said, well, why you know, what is it that you
Why are you so hilarying me? And I said, because if you had
the opportunity to take our eyeballs any out. Make a long story short.
King had a great work ethic. Was as manipulative as you could ever envision
any want to be used, any and every approach He did his background.
First, he thought that I made the eracist and you know that's why he
couldn't manipulate me. I had a partner and it was a proot, you
know, for all the morning in Bob, So it will take a little
less. I refused I wanted to try to psycholige that we work on Holmes
his mind and demand party parody in perse. Anyhow, we're negotiating in Chicago.
King must have done some investigation. Then his shock he found that not
only was it I e racist, but somehow he found not that I was
almost lynched by the ku Kluts plan, and I was very much an activist
for civil rights. To my shock, We're negotiating in a Chicago hotel room,
and who walks in the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and he first thanks me
for a position that I had taken on apartheid, where I wouldn't allow Cooney
to go to South Africa unless it was in part of a viable, integrated
audience, and I had to be guaranteed that came. Meanwhile, had said
Greg paines here under a different corporation to South Africa, and hey, I
make a long story short. The Reverend Jackson thank me and then said,
you know, a dentist, if you allowed Cooney, who's white, to
get as much as the champion arms as black, you'll be retarding the civil
rights movement for fifteen you know, like taking fifteen years back. I looked
at Reverend Jackson, and I said, look an old due respect, this
is not black. This is not white. We're talking about green. Cooney
is the attraction. Holmes was in the shadow of Ali. It was never
the type of attraction that Cootie is. Now when you talk black and white,
the reality is Ali was black. Was the biggest attraction in boxing.
Sugar a leaded was a contemporary of homes Was. It a far bigger attraction
because he had charisma. I said, Cooney has the charisma. Holmes has
the belt, and that's the only reason we're even agreeing to parody. He
looked at me, he left the King and sort of said this isn't going
to work, put his palm on my forehead and said, Lord bless this
crazy man. Shrugged his shoulders the King and walked out. And that's part
of what happened with the Homeschoony fight. Unfortunately, I think it was the
thirteenth rounder Cooney was stopped. The fight was originally set for March, was
corresponded until June because Scooney had a rotato cup injury and King was trying to
put the pressure for the fight and still take place in March. And I
would never allow a fight of a mind. Okay to go into a fight
with a serious injury, So me and King really had a curious thing.
I wouldn't allow it to happen. And the fight was postponed in June,
and unfortunately several things had taken place after the Northern fight. The Hollywood crowd
came around too much partying and some inner demons that Cooney faked and it wasn't
the same Cooney that fort Norton or or uh uh it was uh you but
no, you were looking for a name. He fought young and Lyle before
Norton. Yes, uh uh Jimmy m Lyle. Uh, I feel about
him, Adino Dennis who I don't know, like thirty five and two Edny
adamal Lopez and I think to all with sphinx or uh uh some tough guys.
A lot of people give me more credit than I deserve. And how
I'm gonna moved Cooney, et cetera. Uh. The reality is when he
had a tremendous amount of of talent and charisma, was very personable and uh
you know uh and uh, although unfortunately we're not in contact like I thought
that we were. Uh, we had a very close relationship, and it
sort of standens me that uh we uh checked at the parts on our over
the years. But Corney H. Corney's greatest triumph wasn't in the ring,
was entertaining sobriety and from uh from some self destructive things. Uh. But
uh he's solid, he's financially secure, he's uh uh, he's on serious
radio. Uh and he gives back so as to help fighters in need.
And uh, who's lived a life that that matters. Now you had dealings
with Donald Trump in the boxing business too, right, Yeah, I did.
It's uh back in the uh when we announced that a Sphinx Corny fight.
The fellow who controlled spacers who had beat in Holmes was a fellow by
him of Butch Lewis. Butch was a charismatic guy. But if he had
the leverage over you, okay, he was impossible to deal with. But
occasionally he would wear a tuxedo with a bow tie without a shirt. I
had no idea that this press conference that was going to be held at the
Plaza that he was going to show up, and it took sedo with a
bow tie, went out his shirt. But knowing that he had several times
done this. I got one of my guys and I took a long shot
and I said, go get us buy a tuxedo shirt. Little did I
know, he shows up in a tuxedo bow tie, but without a shirt.
And he gets up and at the time Trump owned the plaza. And
he gets up and says, I want you to know if you're wondering why
I'm not wearing a shirt and negotiating with Trump. He literally took his shirt
off my back. Now it's my term and I bring a paper bag.
And I don't know Trump, I know Trump. I know you better than
I know Trump. At that point, if i'll and I come up and
say, I want you to know what kind of class app he is.
He said to me he believes every man with taste shouldn't wear a tuxedo without
a shirt. And he asked me to give this to you, and I
presented Lewis with a tuxedo shirt. Well, Trump asked h fellow by m
of Mark Edison, who was from the Grossinger family. But now I was
working uh with Trump Maystern PC. He died of that plane crash with several
of Trump's executives. Who is this guy? Who is this guy Trump,
being the gissist that he is. He said, well, it's Dennis rappaported
and he's in the real estate business and he's a real good client at our
hotel. You know, he likes to play. And after that I received
a call at my hotel and the voice says, hey, how's everybody cheating
here? Now you know, how's everything going? I was cruel as who
it was, But I have a habit. My habit is instead of saying
who is this, I figure I'm going to catch the voice and know who
it is. Finally, this guy goes on and starts ragging how we out
maneuve it merv Griffin and all this, and I put together that's trouble.
He said, sir, how do you think we're doing. I said,
you're losing a lot of money unnecessarily. He said, well, what are
you talking about. I said, your elevators are antiquated. And I said,
you get an average a big player if he has to wait ten to
fifteen minutes every time he wants you use the elevator, you realize the amount
the time you're losing. From the table. That night, a psychologist who
I had worked with some of my fighters, a sports psychologists. Was in
the lobby getting into the lobby into the elevator, and who was there Trup,
his wife, a couple of executives, and it must have thank you
a while for the elevator to get there. And he happened to have been
in my suite Palumbo. When I was talking to Trump, Andy, I
make the one story short, Sharp was screaming at them. He's absolutely right,
this is completely unacceptable. Do you realize what we're losing? Well,
from that point, all of a sudden we got invited myself and the elected
somebody that later became my wife. He invited six couples to Mary Lago when
it was his personal residence. We're invited on his boat, parties, et
cetera. And uh, you know this was you know and for some reason,
uh I remember after the Sphinx and Dyson Ford my sister in law.
May she rest in peace. Uh uh. He used to warn junkets from
Youngstown, Ohio in Cleveland to the tas So she had a whole bunch of
people from Ohio. Trump walks into this private club and all of a sudden,
the person he walks off to his day and he will get into a
whole conversation, and he tells me how busy they were, but they didn't
have a great hole. They went to a perv to bed luck, et
cetera, and hehow uh and everybody is wondering, who's this guy that trump
it was talking to it. Ah. Now he isn't too fond of me,
because frankly, i've uh uh uh, I'm not uh you know,
I make accusations of Inglish insurrection as the associate bath uh narcissists, pudince puppet,
et cetera. So where we once had a friendly relationship, and I
don't want to really this isn't the place here in the politics. But let's
you say our political views are very very different. Now. Who was Mitch
blood Green? Mitch blood Green? What a caliber, unforgettable Mitch Green.
He stood about six foot five, six foot six. He used to like
to take his shirt off and show his muscles. He wants. There was
a gas station on the Grand Central Parkway. He once took over the gas
station chased the attendant as people pull up the gas He said, I'm a
garser. What ten dollars twenty dollars given to you? Put your own gas
in until the police came. Mitch had spent a a lot of time in
and out of jail, and there were rumors of angel dust and what have
you from getting high. It was a great amateur who could knock you out
at one shot, but for some reason something happened in the pros and he
didn't have that lethal power before Mike Tyson went to dismas right after Don King.
Chased Don King into the kitchen, always feeling that he got beat for
money in all this, and he was someone had wanted me to get involved
in promoting him. A guy from Chicago signed him, and I really didn't
want to get involved. Finally I get involved, and I got to tell
you something I found them today. There's a Jewish word. It's called my
sugar. Yeah it could be my sugar. But I sort of found him
likable. One day we were walking to the garden. Now when we're at
Don King Wig Okay and the place when crazy residents of corporations. Before that,
we weren't a private club. We're asking him for an autograph. He
was, and I gave him a line, Uh Bill, call him Mike
Tyson, call him Cicily Tyson, and he would go on. He wants
to rematch at all list with Tyson anyhow uh. One day in Hallow,
coming out of U Gopa Dan's, a clothing store, is Mike Gyson.
Green heres he's there, takes his bike and rides over and confronts Dyser and
becomes belligerent, and Tyson hits him, which tremendous shop with his fish.
Green goes down. Hyson gets ready to get into his car, and all
of a sudden, you hear this mid shaid, sissy, you're a sissy.
You're Cicely Tyson, not like Thyson. You're running away, and Tyson
comes back and hits there three four shots, tremendous shot shots, and he
figures Gringing is out and he's about to get into his oar again and Green
says, you ain't shit. You away again, and Tyson this start comes
back and get hits him with six or seven punches here there every shot you
could think of, shots that would send people for the hospital to be unconscious.
And he walks away, figuring this guy is going to be out for
ten minutes. As I said, you ain't shit man, you'll know like
sicily then you wore a mile this dart Tyson, it gets into his car.
Interestingly enough, about a week a week in half later, Mike is
out for dinner with a young lady from Africa, a very extracted lady,
and they had gone to a nice restaurant in Haller. All of a sudden,
someone saysted you won't believe We'll just pulled up in his bike Mitch Screen
and Tyson is saying to himself, oh my god, by evening, please
please. Unfortunately nothing happened. Now to end the story, what happened with
Mitch Green mid Screen? After me decided I mid Screen's record with me was
zero winds, zero losses, zero fights. I took him to young Stad,
Ohio to set up a fight. We had a press conference. After
place that we went to, we would take off his shirt, his shirk,
and somebody said, look, you could sign, you can eat whatever
you want. You're a friend of Dennis's. Out of respect, okay,
but don't take your shirt off again. And these were two guys. One
was a fella whose name was Joe Lewis, but not the Joe Lewis who
out of his nose must have been bidden off. And one was a fellow
beamed Bernie, who was wow, and he wound up dying in in jail.
A very a very a very good hearted, but a dangerous guy.
And he told Green, look, next time they'll send you out a pint
box. Okay, I've asked you now several times. You can't go with
the public establishments and start taking off your shirts, you know. Anyhow,
Green went to Youngstown, went there for for press confidence. I couldn't get
him into a ring. Many years later, I had everywhere and I never
one forced her so and cold and said will you fight Mitch Green? I
said, yes, of course, but you got to have a backup.
I don't think you'll ever get into the ring. And uh, actually that
time he did, I no longer promoted him, forced to beat him a
decision. Green was a very it was a character. If you read about
him in the book, you would say, I had that's fiction. It
could never happen. But for some reason I got a kick out of him
in many ways. And uh, but again never got him into the ring.
I had a promotional deal. It didn't matter. It was uh,
you know, at the time. Whenever I did, I could yeah get
him to show up for a fight, and the mitched blood Green. Uh
was certainly an unforgettable character. Yeah, now you were a manager for most
of this career, but then you became a promoter. So how did you
decide to change? Well, initially after Cooney, Uh, it's uh tiring.
You want to know what direction his life would go? What to do?
You know he had fought most of his life, And I said,
well, horrible promotional company called super Fights with another guy named Jeff Levine.
And Uh, I really loved managing. I loved me being uh at the
at the at the training camp, and I didn't love being up online,
uh, getting trying to get new spot orring for Corney because he went through
sparring partners like you would go through war. Uh, like you would have
food, you fellow. Uh uh So anyhow, I uh that's originally why
there was all large story. There's a lot of polarization and divisive. There's
some undermining going on. Uh and that created a uh some polarization. Uh.
They were manipulate people who manipulating things, and that created problems between me
and Cooney and uh, ultimately and promoting, I met between management and promoting.
Uh. I managed or promoted five evyweight champions, some for very short
lengths of time, some after they were champions, some before they were champions,
or some wilt with champions uh and also called promoted for uh uh Macho
camacho and a lot of well known names and lower divisions. It was a
you know, boxing at its best could be something like poetry emotion. It
could be Picasso, it could be Mozart, it could be Beethoven, it
could be an art form at its best. It could be cool and ugly.
The politics of it, the hpocrisy of a lot of these sanctioning organizations
and their money grabs, and the multiple multi champions in each division by the
same organizations. Uh, the apocrisy. I met some very fine people uh
in boxing. Uh, some quality people. I met leaders of countries.
UH met some uh celebrity these I can't even begin to tell you. And
I became friendly because of my exposure in boxing and people, I admit,
and also a lot of sleeves, so you know, Uh, the whole
hit, the whole spectrum. That's why I referred to it as damon running.
But let me just say this, there was so many magical moments,
unforgettable memories. I've seen fighters traveling the boulevard of broken dreams and blighted hopes.
I called one of the Cinderella story Oligisky. It was stopped three out
of five times, and I got a call. His trainer told them to
retire his uh promoter released him for nothing. They thought that he had yesterday
but had no more tomorrow's and was looking at life. Uh to the floor
with the toilet. I'm not going to say a laboratory. And I got
to call for Victor Valley Junior, son of Victor Valley Senior, who trained
most of my fighters, and he says, I think I see something,
and I had them bring them over to my place and then my building.
There's a gym, you know, a gymnasy, you know, just a
state of the art gym, and there was plenty of room, and I
looked at I just took a shot and from a guy the boxing will was
laughing while at Rappaport getting involved with this maskuya he shot. He's got nothing
well, between the sports psychologist to keep bringing Victor into teacher, between him
motivating him, building up his confidence. Remember he was stopped in three of
the last five fights he had before I got involved. A couple of years
later, his and his were he becomes heavyweight champion of the world and I'll
never forget. At the post by press conference, I was exhilarated. This
was I call this the greatest comeback in boxing history. Uh. Think of
a story about James J. Braddock and they called it the Cinderella Man.
Well, Oleg's daughter, sit down, ayodareal Cinderella story and the press conferences,
I will talk about the Cinderella story. And I said in the words
of a famous crooner, Flak Sinatra, and he said, wote a song
about high oaks, and he said that with high hopes, even an ant
could move a rubber tree plant. Nothing is impossible. The only limitations that
are limitations that we put on ourselves. Dad a dream and Julie dig and
tonight all the nonsa is all the all the doubters, all the people that
said the impossible said it was impossible. Well, you've seen an example of
the impossible becoming a reality, pulling the sky of every way shift in the
world and it was just exhilarating. Well, that seems like a perfect place
to wrap this up. And it's very clear, you know, we can
hear your real love of the sport coming through without question. You're the poet
of the of the gym ah. I thought you and it's been a pleasure
to be with you. Guys. It's been fun.