The Goldberg Effect.

[Willie Pep 229]

I noticed that getting the odds on a past fight is not as easy as one might assume. Sometimes that information has to be gleaned from documentaries and other secondary sources. This lack of easy availability makes it difficult to gauge just how much Goldberg Effect might be in effect. Ahem!

So I started a separate list of the historical odds on fights. If you know 'em, post 'em, lads. I will only record the suggestions of those who are not already known for numerical and other distortions.

As an example, try it yourself, and see just how hard it is to churn up the odds on the internet on something as recent as Fury/Wilder 1. Maybe y'all have a source I do not have. Of course, I never pay for ANYTHING on the internet. No special subscriptions, or any such bull.

I am not sure if you want to go back this far, and the source is secondary, but the odds for Dempsey-Tunney (1) were relative to the history's arch so I suspect the author put in the research.

It is from Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, by David Pietrusza

He was an advocate that Rothstein had his hand in messing with the fight (that Dempsey's breakfast was messed with) but stops short of actual accusation becuse he admites he can't prove it.

What he points out is that Rothstein bragged the night of the fight that he had 100K bet on Tunney at 4 to 1 odds. (The bet laid four days before the fight.)

He goes on to say that Abe Attell (as a Rothstein agent), the night of the fight, was taking bets at ringside and was waving a large bundle of cash calling for any Dempsey money. The author claims that Attell and other agents took so many bets that the odds by fight time had shifted to Tunney as a 7-5 favorite.

The rest of the work seems well researched but who knows.

I remember hearing, but again no proof, that Mancini went off as a 6 to 1 favorite over Bramble (1). Might be able to hear that on the fight commentary.

I don't remember if I heard it that night or the next day after the upset occured. But I am pretty certain I heard 6 to 1 Mancini somewhere.

[QueensburyRules]

It is from Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, by David Pietrusza

- - There were competing gamblers trying to fix the 1616 Series. It was so bad that in the first trial any evidence was destroyed in a courthouse break in causing the DA to drop the case.

Then the Witch Posse managed to retry the original suspects who were then found not guilty, case closed forever save for Commish Landis, a former judge he disliked every man he ever met who issued the lifetime Ban that made Shoeless Joe Jackson into the legend he was building toward. He had a record setting 1919 WS, his most hits still being a record today.