Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Jeff German: FBI hits boxing’s underside

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

January 17 - 18, 2004

WHEN THE FBI's "Operation Match Book" investigation into the boxing world broke open 10 days ago, there was speculation that it was focusing on some of the superstars of the oft-criticized sport.

The New York Daily News stirred things up by suggesting that Las Vegas FBI agents were looking into whether last September's title fight between Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand was fixed.

But that's not where this racketeering investigation is headed.

When FBI agents are finished poring through piles of records they seized Jan. 6 from Top Rank Inc., one of boxing's most well-known promoters, and compiling evidence obtained through electronic surveillance from months of tedious undercover work, we're not going to be hearing a lot about the big fish of the sport.

Instead, we're going to be hearing about the fighters who have wallowed in boxing's underbelly -- people like Brad Rone, who died in a makeshift outdoor ring in the small Utah town of Cedar City last July.

Rone, a 34-year-old heavyweight from Las Vegas with a history of high blood pressure, had won only seven of his 53 professional fights and had lost his last 26 before he accepted a match at the last minute with Billy Zumbrun on the night of July 18. The out-of-shape Rone needed the $800 he was to receive from the fight to travel to Cincinnati to attend the funeral of his mother, who had died a day earlier. But Rone collapsed in the ring after the first round and later died before he had a chance to bury his mother. Boxing experts said at the time that he had no business being in the ring.

As the FBI investigation progresses, we're also going to be hearing a lot about cons like Joey Torres, a 42-year-old light heavyweight who tried to make a comeback with the help of Top Rank while he was out of prison challenging a 1979 murder conviction.

His one and only comeback fight, which took place in Southern California against no-name Perry Williams in April 2002, was so one-sided in his favor that the crowd reportedly booed, causing state boxing officials there to investigate the match. Officials were unable to find evidence that the fight was fixed, but the FBI suspects it was.

Torres, who's back in jail now, ended up assisting the FBI in the investigation by helping introduce it's chief undercover agent to the boxing community. The agent, a New York police detective who went here by the name "Big Frankie" Manzione, portrayed himself as a flamboyant, street-smart cousin of Torres.

Both Manzione and Torres spent a lot of time with Top Rank officials during the undercover phase of the investigation, which might explain why Top Rank, run by Bob Arum, has surfaced as the main target. But I'm told that other boxing promoters also are likely to be dragged into the probe before it's over.

Though the investigation is being spearheaded in Las Vegas, much of the wrongdoing uncovered by FBI agents actually occurred in other states.

Don't think of this investigation as one that will bring out the traditional form of fight-fixing we all know, where someone takes a dive to line the pockets of a group of people betting on the fight. Very little, if any, of that kind of activity will come to light.

The probe, however, is going to reveal the underside of boxing that we have long suspected and wanted cleaned up -- how weight scales are manipulated to allow mismatches with superior fighters looking to move up the rankings and how boxers with obviously lesser skills are blatantly thrown into the ring to pad the winning records of opponents being groomed for stardom.

What FBI agents are trying to do is not send a lot of people to jail, but rather figure out how the boxing world works and where it's going wrong. How do champions become champions? How does one fighter end up with 38 wins in a row while another fighter loses 38 in a row?

It's not going to be an easy task. For every superstar like Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, there are 100 fighters like Brad Rone and Joey Torres.

But no one is expecting a knockout blow here. Just getting answers to some of these questions will earn agents a big thank you from fight fans across the country.

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