Columnist Dean Juipe: Fried loved boxing, life in Las Vegas

Dean Juipe

Monday, Aug. 6, 2001 | 10:29 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

I swear I was thinking about Alex Fried as I walked into the Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas Sunday morning.

Not that that was unusual.

I don't get to the Plaza that often, yet every time I do it's with a certain nostalgia that Fried contributed to. I can't go there and not think of him.

For several years in the 1990s he promoted fights at the Plaza, and he also served as manager for a number of local boxers including former cruiserweight world champion Arthur Williams.

These and similar remembrances were on my mind as I strolled into the hotel en route to the third floor and a fight card promoted by Top Rank. Yet no sooner had I arrived and I was informed that Fried had died.

He passed away last week at the age of 77 and has been buried in Jerusalem.

Alex the Jeweler was one of a kind.

He was obviously skilled in his true profession and owned a jewelry shop in the Las Vegas Hilton, as well as one on East Sahara Avenue. He was a craftsman who enjoyed the finer things and had many of them at his disposal in his walk-in vault.

Yet he delved into boxing and loved it, even though I'm fairly certain his wife Rachel -- who kept the family's business books -- implored him to be conscious of his losses. In paying his fighters' expenses and in shows at the Plaza that broke even at best, he had to have lost more money on the sport than he ever took in.

Occasionally one of his fighters would say Fried was tight, yet he was forever giving things away. At times, he was generous to a fault.

"He was a kind, gentle man," said Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner. "He was a sweet man, and his death is a tough one for me.

"He was very important to boxing in Las Vegas at a time when we weren't as busy as we have been lately. He kept the sport alive in Las Vegas and he was great for the local fighters."

A native of Hungary who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, Fried moved to Las Vegas in 1974. As his jewelry business prospered, he gravitated to boxing.

He was attracted to the big stars in both sports and entertainment, and was on a first-name basis with many of them. He didn't boast about it but he thoroughly enjoyed working with fighters (and celebrities) on special jewelry items that he would make specifically for them.

One such set, designed for former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, worked its way into the news pages when Bowe's promissory note came past due and Fried was forced to file suit. I don't think he ever got the money, but that outstanding debt gave me an excuse to call Fried every now and then to see how he was doing.

He had heart trouble that apparently led to his death.

He also liked to gamble and was known at the Plaza long before he got into boxing. "Alex was our best customer," said the man who runs the hotel, Mike Nolan, with a smile that indicated Fried left a little at the tables.

Self-made and self-assured, Alex Fried was quite an interesting character. He could be tough and he could be charming.

I found him to be remarkably respectful of the good things he had acquired.