This was the 1950s and the sports passions of male children largely mimicked their fathers. Richard Reusse's were baseball, boxing, Gophers football and the state basketball tournament, and thus those were mine.
Legend had it that Richard had refereed boxing matches in southern Minnesota for a time, including a card when Jack Dempsey was brought in to referee the main event.
As proof, Richard had a photo of himself with the champ in Dempsey's restaurant from a visit to New York City, which undoubtedly put him in a category with only 150,000 other customers that purchased a steak at Jack's joint.
The black-and-white Philco arrived in our house in 1955, shortly after the one available station — Channel 11, KELO in Sioux Falls — started live programming.
More than any sport, there was boxing to be seen: Gillette's Friday Night Fights, Pabst Blue Ribbon's fights on Wednesdays.
Sports Illustrated also started to appear around the house. SI offered excellent boxing coverage and photos, while trumpeting the need to "clean up the sport.''
These became names of my sports awakening: Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo.
They were said to be Mafia-connected and the real powers behind the International Boxing Club, which controlled the sport and its eight weight-class titles in the United States.
Carbo was once described by a New York cop as "the nicest killer you could ever meet." Palermo was known as "Blinky" because he couldn't look victims of a hit in the eye as he shot them.
Apparently, the most egregious act of fight manipulation came back in 1947, when Frankie and Blinky ordered Jake LaMotta to take a dive (for $20,000) against an inadequate fighter called Blackjack Billy Fox.
Which I found to be an amusing connection to the current boxing kerfuffle based on a fight that took place on Aug. 7 in the Minneapolis Armory.
Nobody took a dive. This wasn't my pal, the late, great, terrified Ray Whebbe, running around the ring in Japan with his back to an opponent, waiting to suffer the decisive blow.
This was the routine stuff that's happened in boxing in the 60 years since Carbo went to prison and we "cleaned up" the sport:
The guy that won the fight lost the decision.
The twist here is that this time Fox was not the beneficiary, as was "Blackjack Billy," but the loser:
Mykal Fox, 25, nicknamed "The Professor," from Maryland. He was brought in as a replacement to fight Gabriel Maestre, a Venezuelan amateur champ with three pro fights, for 12 rounds for the World Boxing Association's "interim" welterweight title.
Maestre is alleged to have strong connections to countryman Gilberto Mendoza Jr., the WBA's president. The previous president was Gilberto Mendoza Sr.
The WBA's headquarters moved from Caracas to Panama a few years ago, but the group's power remains Venezuelan.
The WBA sent a list of preferred judges to the state of Minnesota: Gloria Martinez Rizzo, married to WBA executive Ricardo Rizzo; David Singh; and John Mariano, a Minnesota-based official.
It was a unanimous decision for Maestre: Rizzo, 117-110; Singh, 114-113; and Mariano, 115-112. By all accounts, the 3,100 spectators had it as lopsided in Fox's favor as Rizzo did for Maestre.
Rizzo was suspended by the WBA last week, not for a ludicrous scorecard but for racist tweets — attacking Michele Obama in vile fashion, among others — that were discovered when boxing media started looking into her background.
Mariano explained himself by calling it a "tough fight to judge."
Mark Ortega, in town helping with the Fox television broadcast, didn't view it as tough at all. He sent an e-mail to Eileen McNiff, a state employee charged with getting such complaints to proper authorities, and the Star Tribune that included this:
"Fox was a late replacement, knocking down Maestre in the second round while also putting on a boxing lesson, making the two-time Olympian look like a total and complete novice …
"He used his jab and his legs to make Maestre whiff at air constantly. At absolute worst, Fox lost four rounds."
The WBA on Thursday admitted its folly, vacating the interim welterweight title, asking for the fight to be declared a no-contest and ordering a rematch.
Premier Boxing Champions and Fox television have scheduled another card for the Armory on Sept. 5. A COVID-19 problem surfaced with a potential headliner, and the main event remains in flux.
If you do attend, remember this:
Stick around for the decision. It's still boxing. You might not have seen what you were certain you saw.
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The sweet science still has plenty of sour moments - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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