Archie Moore | The 50 Year Old Who Defied the Boxing Mafia

[Slugfester]

You mean Kearns was not the same swine who demanded and got 10% of Archie's remaining career winnings for giving Arch a shot at Maxim?

[Willie Pep 229]

Why do people think Archie Moore didn't play the IBC game?

Excerpt from a synopsis of a April 23 1956 Sports Illustrated article.

"By 1951 every champion—except Joey Maxim, who held the light heavyweight title, . . . was under exclusive contract to IBC. Maxim's manager is Jack (Doc) Kearns, a loner. That failure was corrected in 1952 when Archie Moore won the title from Maxim and went into the IBC bag."

From this source it seems it was Doc Kearns who was the holdout, not Archie Moore.

[Ivich]

You mean Kearns was not the same swine who demanded and got 10% of Archie's remaining career winnings for giving Arch a shot at Maxim?

Being Maxim's manager Kearns was in a position to give Moore the title shot he had so long deserved and waited for.
Moore fought Maxim for pennies,he then had two gimmee defences against Joey,before struggling a bit with Johnson.
Kearns was out for Kearns ,but in the process of filling his pockets he filled his fighters pockets
too.
Ancient Archie retired the year Kearns died.'
Moore had plenty of negative things to say about his earlier managers but I've never seen any negative comments from his about Kearns.Have you?


Be with me Beauty ,for the fire is dying.

My dog and I are old,too old for roving.

Man whose passion sets the spindrift flying is soon too lame for roving
too old for loving.

[Slugfester]

Being Maxim's manager Kearns was in a position to give Moore the title shot he had so long deserved and waited for.
Moore fought Maxim for pennies,he then had two gimmee defences against Joey,before struggling a bit with Johnson.
Kearns was out for Kearns ,but in the process of filling his pockets he filled his fighters pockets
too.
Ancient Archie retired the year Kearns died.'
Moore had plenty of negative things to say about his earlier managers but I've never seen any negative comments from his about Kearns.Have you?

Kearns was the type of manager who enters the ring with one fighter and leaves with whoever wins, a la Don King. If Moore had lost to Maxim, he would still have owed Kearns 10% of his purses going forward. I have never heard Moore address the subject, but I figure it shouldn't be necessary to hear Moore say anything negative about Kearns. There are plenty of other testimonies, including Dempsey himself, and police reports. Of course Moore made more money as a champion than a contender. But who else would have put it into Maxim's head to demand $1000,000 of the purse? That sounds right out of the Kearns playbook. Kearns knew it was his farewell kiss to Maxim, so he wanted to cash in off a bigger purse for Maxim, along with his 10% cut for absolutely nothing from Moore going forward.

I am sure Moore had good reasons for his quiet. He was pretty bright. At least he was making multiple $1000's now instead of multiple $100's. My personal conjecture is that after past experiences, he rationalized he needed a crook fighting for him in the politics of boxing, and got a good one. Knowing Moore's savvy, I think there is a strong possibility he renegotiated or restructured their 10% for-nothing-deal. He could have used Kearns' management of him as a pressure point, unless that, too, was included in their deal. The lawyer in Kearns might have seen the sense in giving up the frosting for the cake. I wish more information was available on the deal. You might have that. 10% is a figure I read only once upon a time.

[Willie Pep 229]

Kearns was the type of manager who enters the ring with one fighter and leaves with whoever wins, a la Don King. If Moore had lost to Maxim, he would still have owed Kearns 10% of his purses going forward. I have never heard Moore address the subject, but I figure it shouldn't be necessary to hear Moore say anything negative about Kearns. There are plenty of other testimonies, including Dempsey himself, and police reports. Of course Moore made more money as a champion than a contender. But who else would have put it into Maxim's head to demand $1000,000 of the purse? That sounds right out of the Kearns playbook. Kearns knew it was his farewell kiss to Maxim, so he wanted to cash in off a bigger purse for Maxim, along with his 10% cut for absolutely nothing from Moore going forward.

I am sure Moore had good reasons for his quiet. He was pretty bright. At least he was making multiple $1000's now instead of multiple $100's. My personal conjecture is that after past experiences, he rationalized he needed a crook fighting for him in the politics of boxing, and got a good one. Knowing Moore's savvy, I think there is a strong possibility he renegotiated or restructured their 10% for-nothing-deal. He could have used Kearns' management of him as a pressure point, unless that, too, was included in their deal. The lawyer in Kearns might have seen the sense in giving up the frosting for the cake. I wish more information was available on the deal. You might have that. 10% is a figure I read only once upon a time.

If that were possible you would likely be discussing a crime right now.

That kind of history gets deliberately disappeared. At least the stuff you actually want to see.

Probably got a better shot on finding the Greb-Tunney I fight film than finding a Doc Kearns' contract.

I wonder how much got written down vs. understood, at threat of retaliation.