Prosecutor: Road to title hopes was paved with fixed fights

Jace Radke

Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

In closing arguments this morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss told jurors about boxer Richard "The Bull" Melito Jr.'s plan to become heavyweight champion and about how a line of allegedly fixed fights and crooked promoters were going to be his road to the top.

Bliss went through more than a dozen fights and explained how promoter Robert "Bobby" Mitchell allegedly lined up opponents who would take a dive against Melito, including boxer Thomas Williams. who is alleged to have thrown his fight with Melito at Paris Las Vegas in August 2000.

Mitchell and Williams "breached public and private trust to the boxing fans who thought they were going to a sporting event and not a business. Not a fixed fight," Bliss said.

After three weeks of testimony jurors were expected to be handed the case for deliberation by noon today.

According to an August 2001 indictment Mitchell and others arranged for some of Melito's fights to be fixed including the fight with Williams in Las Vegas on Aug. 12, 2000 on a Don King-promoted card.

Mitchell and Williams are charged with sports bribery and conspiracy to commit sports bribery. Both have pleaded not guilty. Sports bribery carries a possible sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Bliss told jurors that Melito Jr.'s father saw potential in his son and wanted to see him make it to the top. She said that Melito Sr. wanted to ensure that his son would win so he paid fighters to take a dive.

Mitchell allegedly found the heavyweights and brought them into the fixed fight scheme, Bliss said.

Bliss explained that Mitchell would pay fighters from $1,500 to $15,000 to throw the fights.

Defense attorneys for Mitchell and Williams have denied the charges against their clients, and were scheduled to present their closing arguments following Bliss.

Among the witnesses that testified in the case was convicted fight-fixer Richard Mittleman.

Mittleman, 61, of Oak Park, Ill., is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the case, and has pleaded guilty to helping to fix the Melito fight, as well as a Williams fight in Denmark in March 2000 against Brian Nielson. In addition, Mittleman admitted to attempting to bribe an assistant U.S. attorney and a federal judge to try to get the indictment against Williams dropped.

"Mitchell did not want a real fight," Mittleman said during his testimony about the Williams-Melito bout. "He wanted someone who would lay down for Melito."

Others who testified in the case included former heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon and international boxing announcer Col. Bob Sheridan, who called the 1975 "Thrilla in Manila" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.