The Mob and Boxing

theirs no such thing as the MOB, seriously u guys need to stop watching soparons and fake mobster movies!

"The Devil And Sonny Liston" by Nick Tosches is an excellent book about the mob's involvement in boxing. Check it out just for the descriptions of Blinky Palermo and Frankie Carbo.

Yeah, I've had the book for about 8 months and still havent had a chance to read it. Look forward to it now that you mentioned that.

I'm currently reading an awesome book called "The Five Familes", which is a history of the Italian Mafia in NYC. They talk about the mafia's influence on boxing in the 1940's, most notably Frankie Carbo, who was a boxing promoter and a mafia hitman for murder inc. It's not really known exactly how many fights he fixed, but his influence on boxing was HUGE. A lot of people know the famous story about Lamotta taking a dive so he could get a legit shot at the title. They do mention in the book that Sugar Ray Robinson was such a huge draw and moneymaker that he could be uncooperative with the mafia and not be touched. By all accounts he never worked with Carbo. I just found it very interesting and can't help but wonder if they still have an influence on the sport to this day. Yeah, I've read some stuff on Mafia/Organized Crime and its influence on sports in the 40's - 70's. I think the alphabelt belts are equal to if not worse than the Mob ever was. There extorition under the guise of "Sanctioning fees" is so incredible that when I tell someone who doesn't know better they think I"m lying.