July 2009, boxing's most tragic month?

[QueensburyRules]

Zora Folley, a friend of his, and two women were drinking around a hotel pool. Folley and the man started wrestling, and drunk Zora fell and hit his head on the side of the pool. Zora was considered a "family man" (he had nine kids with his wife) so getting drunk at a hotel with a woman and another couple wasn't something the sporting press at the time tended to play up.

Sonny Liston testified before Congress in 1964. He died six years later in Las Vegas while his wife went to visit her mother after Christmas.

Eddie Machen had been in and out of mental institutions and likely had CTE (along with his other problems). Gatti likely had CTE as well. (Micky Ward believes he currently has it. He's agreed to donate his brain after his death.) NFL players with CTE tend to kill themselves at a brisk clip.

- - The empty pool narrative preceded the full pool narrative for years because of media limitations. Don't change these were MOB fighters.

I know about Sonny 64 Senate testimony, but he was subpoenaed by Congress again before his death, so unless that narrative changes or has changed, his death is su****ious given the degree of laxity of Vegas law enforcement in a backwater desert community grown by the mob.

[edpboxing]

USA BOXING

USA BOXING USA BOXING REMEMBERS THE 1980 PLANE CRASH


March 14, 2019, 1:37 p.m. (ET)

On March 14, 1980, the sport of amateur boxing and the world tragically lost 22 members to a plane crash near Warsaw, Poland. The fourteen boxers and eight staff members aboard the flight, which killed a total of 77 people, were en route to an international event in Poland at the time of the crash.




The team was traveling from New York to Warsaw to compete in two dual events in Cracow and Katowice when the Polish IL-62 jetliner went down just a half a mile from Warsaw's Okecie Airport.




Today marks the 39th anniversary of the tragic accident and USA Boxing would like to acknowledge those team members and the sacrifice they made for their country and the love of the sport. Those lost on March 14, 1980 will never be forgotten.






USA Boxing Team Members and Staff Lost in the 1980 Plane Crash




KELVIN D. ANDERSON

ELLIOT CHAVIS

GARY TYRONE CLAYTON

WALTER HARRIS

BYRON LINDSAY

ANDRE MCCOY

PAUL PALOMINO

BYRON PAYTON

GEORGE PIMENTAL

CHUCK ROBINSON

DAVID RODRIGUEZ

LEMUEL STEEPLES

JEROME STEWART

COL. BERNARD CALLAHAN

THOMAS "SARGE" JOHNSON

JOSEPH BLAND

JOHN RADISON

JUNIOR ROBLES

LONNIE YOUNG

DELORES WESSON

DR. RAY WESSON

STEVE SMIGIEL


......for my two Cents. RIP

Came across this thread doing some research… RIP. Byron Payton was from my small hometown in TX. He was 16 years old at the time of the crash. I wasn’t born quite yet, but all the people I’ve talked to that saw/knew him, said he was truly special.

[Ivich]

Lol. You are a treasure. That's fer sure.
Too many Nick Tosches crime fiction novels? Zero inside information in those fables. Liston, Machen and Folley were all accidents. So was Marciano; to head that off. As a Historian, I have only time for what is factual. Got a follow-up? Don't waste it on me. Ain't gonna bite but this once. People do love their bigfoot stories though.

I'm not a historian so these are just my layman's thoughts.

I think there is room for doubt as regards Liston,by all accounts he was dealing, using himself ,and drinking heavily and may have trod on somebody's toes,

I'm not aware of any reason the Mob would need or want to eliminate Machen and Folley, so I discount that supposition.
Machen had a history of mental health problems so he may have offed himself.
,The great Jazz trumpeter Chet Baker died from falling out of a window,he had a history of drug abuse ,
so that's an open question.

Not trying to dismiss the Mob's involvement in other deaths,I certainly think they killed JFK for example.

I've read Arguello was a depressive and was not doing well financially, so it is likely he took his own life.imo

Gatti's reported life style opens up the possibility that his death ,was unintentional.

What would be the motive for his murder?

I'm sure there are those who know more about these deaths, and so I'm happy to be corrected,on any of my musings.

[Anthony342]

Wasn't Arguello's death mentioned to be under questionable circumstances at the time it happened in the press?

[kara]

Wasn't Arguello's death mentioned to be under questionable circumstances at the time it happened in the press?

Yeah, everyone thought it was political in some way

[QueensburyRules]

I'm not a historian so these are just my layman's thoughts.

I think there is room for doubt as regards Liston,by all accounts he was dealing, using himself ,and drinking heavily and may have trod on somebody's toes,

I'm not aware of any reason the Mob would need or want to eliminate Machen and Folley, so I discount that supposition.
Machen had a history of mental health problems so he may have offed himself.
,The great Jazz trumpeter Chet Baker died from falling out of a window,he had a history of drug abuse ,
so that's an open question.

Not trying to dismiss the Mob's involvement in other deaths,I certainly think they killed JFK for example.

I've read Arguello was a depressive and was not doing well financially, so it is likely he took his own life.imo

Gatti's reported life style opens up the possibility that his death ,was unintentional.

What would be the motive for his murder?

I'm sure there are those who know more about these deaths, and so I'm happy to be corrected,on any of my musings.

- -Hmmmm…Folley around some associates on a dark and dreary night falls into an empty pool to crack his skull open, Machen dives out a high rise wind for the same, and Sonny by himself as a non drug user found dead in his home of an overdose while Geraldine was out, but nothing su****ious happened, eh?

[Anthony342]

Yeah, everyone thought it was political in some way

Wasn't it also possibly considered murder, like Arturo Gatti at the time?

[kara]

Wasn't it also possibly considered murder, like Arturo Gatti at the time?

They thought some political foe had him bumped off

[Anthony342]

They thought some political foe had him bumped off

I heard it was his wife, but they thought that was the case with Arguello.

[QueensburyRules]

I heard it was his wife, but they thought that was the case with Arguello.

- - Wife always a likely suspect with a high profile abuser Gatti was reputed to be. Also drunk on drugs as I remember.

Mean no disrespect, but you take your chances in these 3rd world countries if you disrespect the locals that may have happened.