AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 9
Constantine “Cus” D’Amato was an American boxing manager and trainer who handled the careers of Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and José Torres, all of whom went on to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Watch The Scoop from Monday to Friday featuring Canadian heavyweight champ Bola Ray, who lends his vast experience in the sport and provides his comments and analysis on boxing, on YouTube and TalkinFight.com/live. #boxinghistory
.
.
.
#boxer #boxing #boxingtalkshow
Transcribed:
Hello talking fight fans around the world.
How are you we have bola the champ coming at you with the scoop on talk and fight once again, a friday night here in toronto and uh? What do you got for us tonight chap well um, one of the attributes of athletics.
More importantly, boxing that i find fascinating is the whole evolution of the craft throughout history.
This can be seen usually with the changing of the guards, in that when a new dominant champion is crowned when sonny liston destroyed um floyd patterson in the first round in the world title fight the boxing world took notice and recognized that this in style was one Of greater success now he plotted forward with huge clubbing punches and um yeah won the title.
A few fights later liston is now set to dance with ali and only to shake up the status quo.
Again, now standing around staying grounded while delivering mountain moving blows was eclipsed by a fast backwards footwork with stinging punches now.
This was the status quo for boxing for over two decades post.
This fight only to then have the peekaboo scenario come to play in the way of mike tyson and the evolution goes on and on and on.
Today.
I’M talking about a man that was integral to the evolution of the support of boxing, who was an amateur boxer and was denied his professional license due to an eye injury which he claimed he got in a street fight.
But then others say it was due to a beating by the hands of his father in the man’s five decades of being in the sport.
He worked with several world champions, but notably he managed one trained to um and in doing so change the whole course of history.
The two that he trained one became the youngest ever heavyweight champion in the world.
The next one eclipsed that record as the youngest heavyweight champion, not bad, not bad.
My name is bola raymond oluguwali, and this is a scoop so born january, 7th or 17th.
Sorry, 1908 to italian american parents was one constantine cuss growing up in new york in his early years was one where he dedicated his trajectory to actually becoming a catholic priest.
His father, like many of the day, ruled the household with an iron hand, and what that methodology teaches is that might is right, and so it wasn’t long before cuss was actually lashing out and having street fights um.
It was not said when his actual beginnings in boxing was, but it was during his teen years that he took up the sport and he went on to have a decent amateur career to the point where he was longing to try his hand at the professional game.
Now, unfortunately, his license was never clear to to his eye injury.
So, instead of hanging up the gloves for good, he became a coach.
Now he tried uh.
He opened up his own, his first boxing scenario um and called it.
The empire sporting club with his trusted friend jack barrow at the grimacy boxing club, now keep in mind.
Cuss was 22 years old.
When he’s done this so good on you at the beginning, cuss actually literally lived in the gym, and he did this for years.
Being a new young trainer, he learned the harsh lessons of the sport.
The hard way being a good trainer is a blessing, but the reality is that connected managers go off and poach your athletes, because they’re good, because you’ve done such a good job.
That’S your thanks.
That’S what that’s, what history will give you as a thanks so and uh? This happened to him quite a few times um.
This is the case in one rocky graziano who, after starting his pro career with cuss, was poached and then went on a few short fights afterwards to win the world uh middleweight title um now cuss and his good friend howard corsa, worked to and succeeded in bringing Down the international boxing club of new york or the ibc okay, this was a corporation that was created to host boxing belts in madison square guards.
The ibc went on to secure some top name fighters and with that yeah they ended up running a monopoly.
In boxing they were the only game in town 51.
Fights were held one year 47 by them.
Now, where there’s a monopoly, not far behind, you will find the mob as true as rain and there they were.
In 1960, the senate subcommittee and anti-trust and monopoly chair by senator esten cafer held a hearing into organized crime and professional boxing.
It revealed that the ibc had ties to to mafioso frankie carbone yeah frankie is a soldier of the new york cheesy family.
This is yeah who had had been a gunman in murder, inc wow.
They actually went and named themselves um.
I i just see that as heat, but oh, what do i know? Um at the time of the hearing, carbon was imprisoned in rikers uh island having been convicted of the undercover management of prize fighters and unlicensed matchmaking.
Okay, the hearing revealed that carbon’s wife was employed by the ibc at a salary of 45 000 a year in 1960 for the record that equates to 403 thousand dollars a year today.
What was she doing? Yeah, the following year: gibson jr, ann carbone, carbone’s partner, frankie, blinky, palermo, a member of the saint louis crime, family and los angeles, mob, mobsters, um, joe tasika and oh, and not to be forgotten.
Louis dragna were charged with conspiracy and extortion against the national boxing association.
Will welterweight champion don jordan now after a three-month trial in which the u.
s attorney general robert kennedy served as a prosecutor, the defendants were convicted and sent to federal prison, and then they wondered why the candidates got whacked by the mob.
For these reasons, cuss refused to have his fighters fight on their uh on their cards.
Now undercut cusses tutelage.
Floyd patterson uh captured the olympic uh middleweight gold medal in 1952 in helsinki, d’amato then guided patterson through his professional ranks and maneuvered patterson into a fight for the vacant.
That was the title that was vacated by um rocky marciano, so he ended up after beating tommy jackson in an elimination fight.
He was set to square off against none other than archie, moore of which he ended up stopping him in the fifth round and became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the time.
He was 21 years old, 10 months three weeks and five days he was the first.
He was the first olympic gold medalist to win a professional title, patterson and models split after patterson’s second consecutive first-round, knockout of uh by the hands of sonny liston, but their relationship was actually deteriorating um prior to that, so it is what it is now.
The model also managed another world champion by the name of jose torres who, in may of 1965, the madison square gardens defeated international boxing hall of famer member willie pastrono to become the world light heavyweight champion with the victory tory became the third puerto rican world boxing Champion in history and the first latino uh light heavyweight champion, not a bad distinction.
There is a report that says: cuss apparently could have trained muhammad ali, but chose not to and of course, because um he claims that he didn’t want anything to do with the ali circus.
Now, ali and cuss were friends and in his recollection, ali would listen to him, but did not give that kind.
Respect to his own trainer angelo dundee.
Now um cuss went on to claim that he asked angelo.
Why put up with that kind of nonsense, at which point in time that angelo said well, because it helps all his other fighters get on fights because of their association with ali? When angela was asked the exact same question, he claimed that it not to be the case that ali didn’t want to train with cuss, but he did agree that he was underpaid that ali often underpaid now.
It also needs to be said that ali and cuss were were actually really good.
Friends, ali had the utmost respect for cuss um when, when ali was going through his problems with um the us government and was forced to well not compete, not earn a living for three years because often gave him money to uh.
Keep him afloat so and all he never forgot this.
After patterson and torrey’s careers ended uh d’amato worked relatively obscurely.
He eventually moved to the catskills new york, where he opened a gym and called it creatively.
Catskills boxing club.
He was convinced art.
He convinced camille ewald, who was soon to be his wife, to not sell her 14 bedroom home in the catskills, but turn it into a training center for where you were boys, hence, and that’s the property where the boxing gym ended up being there, he met and Began to work with the future heavyweight champion of the world iron mike tyson, who was in a nearby reform school at the time.
Actually, he ended up adopting tyson after his mother passed away um around when tyson was still like, 12 or 13 years of age um.
Tomorrow, trained him for over the next few years, encouraging him to use his trademark peek-a-boo style, where use your hands are held high, and but the big thing is that you actually stand square to your opponent, but it’s very difficult to actually penetrate now.
Some people felt, or at least more importantly, he came under great criticism in that with that style because they said that.
Well, how do you launch an offense from that position? Um made all sorts of stuff up, but history shows that it was actually rather devastating when everybody was looking at like floating high and imitating muhammad ali mike tyson came underneath and submarined everybody with the peekaboo style.
So you know um.
He ended up also bringing in a couple of apprentices in one teddy alice and another one in kevin rooney, who are two of some of the best uh trainers.
The content has ever seen, so he really did a lot for the sport.
He changed.
The trajectory of the sport simply by introducing mike to that style and then mike dominated with that style, and then some other people tried to copy that style.
So the that was, he always claimed that that was that he knew the answer to ali floyd patterson, who also somewhat did the peekaboo style nowhere close to as efficiently as uh as mike did, but did the peekaboo um proved not to uh execute that style very Well, because ali beat him up not once but twice, but when he did dolly when ali did beat him up, cuss wasn’t in the picture so yeah.
Now it’s unclear as to exactly which age 11 or 12 um tyson began seriously.
Interested became seriously interested in boxing professionally, but there’s one irish bob stewart, a former golden glove champion, was approached by tyson, while working as a counselor at the travon school for the boys.
His reform school um tyson knew that steward’s former boxing glory and special specifically asked to speak to stuart, who admitted immediately took well.
He took a gruff attitude towards mike because oh mike was well, he he had a terrible behavior.
He was like beating people up all over the place.
He was just a troubled man-child, but he ended up giving in and he worked with mike for a bit.
But then, after a certain point in time, he said that there’s nothing more, that i could teach you.
So he passed the reigns on to customato.
He introduced him to custom auto and they were together until cuss’s death.
Now cuss died.
Unfortunately, before he was able to see mike become a world champion.
He died one year prior just just over a year prior, so kevin rooney ended up taking him across the finish line to the to that destination.
Point um mike and cuss had an incredible relationship mike as i’ve said, was a troubled youth to say the least and again, at 12 years old, he weighed 190 pounds um.
He was a handful to the average man, let alone a 70 somewhat or yeah 70.
Some odd year old man so mike, went and said how, when he was the one person that actually he feared ever was chris tomorrow and cuss didn’t have to he never physically abused him or anything is just just by talking to him.
He’D, have these fights you’d have a fight where he everyone in society would say wow that was a devastating fight.
He did x, y and z.
He was just unbelievable and then cuss would go.
My let’s have a word and that’s all it took mike, feared but respected and loved that man like there’s no tomorrow and it was he attributes him to being the reason why he is was so successful as a professional, so [ Music ] well offered his contribution To history um yeah, he was incredibly grateful too.
I think rightfully so um november, 4th 1985.
, so um cuss succumb to pneumonia at the age of 77.
.
It was a tragic day.
I actually remember that.
I just remember thinking i i didn’t know what mike was going to do.
Yeah just like your world, just bought it out from underneath you so um, but yeah.
He was a sensational man and he is truly missed.
I really wanted to do this segment on him because again it’s it’s one thing to be a great fighter or you know a great trainer and you get some talented kids in or what have you, but i think it’s a totally different thing to literally be that Cinderella story taking a kid from nothing like mike and putting him on top of the world, but then he went even one step further than that and he changed the trajectory of the sport whoever’s up on top everybody wants to emulate, especially if you’re dominant for a While, like muhammad ali was a dominant for over two decades and then his protege larry holmes was done for the next for the better part of the next decade, everybody was standing tall and fighting like ali in homes and whatnot only to have this little fire hydrant Come along and take everybody out at the knees change the trajectory show the imperfection in that style and help the sport evolve.
That is a legend, and with that that’s my show, if you enjoyed this, show please hit the like button and subscribe.
Don’T forget to hit the notification bell, it’s a boy baller and that’s the scoop very well said that was a great story, uh and a great story of evolution too, because not many people can truly put these pieces together and take us through how the sport has Evolved uh, the way you just did – and you did so really eloquently quite frankly, uh very well done um.
It’S always nice to hear uh those trainers, those behind the scenes, those unsung heroes, get the credit that they are due because you spent the week doing that.
This week and telling us about who are sit, who are these men sitting in the corner so to speak and how have they changed? Not only the fighters but the sport itself and tonight’s.
A great example of changing, not just the fighter but the actual game itself.
So yeah yeah well done.
Thank you raito! It’S friday, it’s uh the weekend uh! I guess we’ll see you on monday same time, same bat channel all right, see ya.
There are no reviews yet.