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July 1998
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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BOXING'S LOSS, TOO
The death of Frank Sinatra was a loss to boxing as well as the showbusiness world. JACK WELSH on one of the sport's most famous fans |
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ALL-TIME GREATS: Ol' Blue Eyes, in an absolutely blinding suit, shapes up
against Rocky Marciano in 1955
- Get Big Pic If there's a fight night in Heaven, it's a cinch Frank Sinatra has already asked Sammy
Davis, Jr. to get some tickets. Growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra had a thing about boxing even before he was
out of short pants and launched that magnificent odyssey as America's most compelling
entertainer of the 20th Century. Throwing punches in street fights in Hoboken's "Little Italy" seemingly was
second nature to a 100-pound Sinatra long before he would aspire to become a global saloon
singer nonpareil out of his home state. And why not? It was in the genes. Pop Marty Sinatra was a full-time fireman and a
part-time lightweight. Mom Dolly had a heart bigger than Texas. The senior Sinatra showed
the kid how to jab with accuracy. Good thing too or little Frankie might have grown up as
Ol' Black Eyes. It was mother Sinatra's resolve to succeed that enabled her son to counter
when he was "riding high in April and shot down in May". When the infallible Matchmaker upstairs decided to give Sinatra the "10
count" at 82 in Los Angeles, "The Voice", with a ravaged heart and a
cancerous bladder, was willingly still able to do it his way. Bing Crosby died on a golf course of a heart attack in 1977, prompting old crony Phil
Harris to declare: "I think God made a mistake today." Such sentiments
world-wide seemed to surface again with the passing of an icon who caressed lyrics of
music like no other. Before Word War II, Sinatra's first thrust to prominence was in the Big Band era,
knocking the bobby-soxers into a swoon, singing first with Harry James and then Tommy
Dorsey. He could now afford ringside fight tickets regardless of the price, but he wanted
to be closer to the sport than just a fan. Sinatra became an advisor to a rising Italian heavyweight named Tami Mauriello who
became Joe Louis's second title defence after the war, on 18 September 1946 in New York.
Mauriello stunned Louis briefly with a wild right, but wound up a first-round KO victim.
Tami became a boxing trivia item when he told a network radio interviewer: "I hurt
Louis, but I got too God damn careless." Sinatra's lifetime quest for versatility came early in boxing too. Like being a
co-promoter of a heavyweight elimination bout between Jersey Joe Walcott and Joey Maxim on
23 June 1947 in Los Angeles's Gilmore Stadium. Walcott won a decision to earn a shot at
Louis on 5 December 1947 in Madison Square Garden. The Brown Bomber got the nod after 15
hard rounds, but many ringsiders thought Walcott merited an upset. Leaving the ring, Louis
said to said to Walcott: "Sorry, Joe." Like the Sweet Science in its salad days, everybody loved heavyweights, but no one more
than Sinatra. John Hall, then of the Los Angeles Times, was recently telling colleague
Mike Rosenthal about the time Sinatra met Rocky Marciano while he was making the movie Can
Can at 20th Century studios in 1960. "Bud Furillo of the L.A. Herald-Examiner was with us. Rocky, Bud and me went with
Frank to a Beverly Hills restaurant he had an interest in. It was a long, great night
eating and talking boxing. Sinatra loved having Marciano with us," Hall recalled. What had to be one of Sinatra's greatest thrills from a boxing standpoint came when
Life magazine signed him exclusively to photograph The Fight with Muhammad Ali and Smokin'
Joe Frazier meeting on 8 March 1971 in Madison Square Garden. Oscar-winning actor Burt
Lancaster was inked to do colour commentary for closed-circuit TV. It was the first time in history two undefeated champions met for the undisputed title.
It also was the first time both combatants earned $2.5 million. The Garden drew more than
20,000 admissions with much of the diamond-and-mink dripping assembly looking like the
text for a celebrities' Who's Who. Ever the perfectionist, a tuxedoed-Sinatra hunched on the ringside apron with big
league elbow-to-elbow photographers rapid-firing the fighters' rage on film. Frazier
nearly trapped Ali on the ropes in the 11th round, and then brought the house to its feet
in the 15th when Joe dropped Muhammad with one of the most vicious left hooks in ring
history. A lesser man would have never been on his feet at the bell to hear Frazier had
handed The Greatest his first defeat. Anyone who saw the brutal battle live (and maybe TV too) knows what I mean in
describing the heart-skipping experience as a mental orgasm. And Sinatra was no exception
once his film was rushed to Life's Manhattan office. Sinatra's work was later endorsed by
veteran editors as "brilliant". Sinatra's self-appraisal was succinct: "And I thought singing was hard work." Sinatra was booked at Caesars Palace as Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney wound down their
training for their epic WBC heavyweight title showdown on 11 June 1982 which attracted
more than 30,000 bipartisan spectators. Ol' Blue Eyes attended both fighters' training sessions as often as possible, being
smuggled in and out of the ring enclosure to escape the autograph crunch. He enjoyed the
informal daily raps with Holmes and Cooney telling the media: "These guys are both in
terrific shape. It's too tough to pick a winner here, but it should be a great
fight." Sinatra would later admit he didn't make a bet, but he was "greatly impressed the
way Holmes shook off Cooney's low blows in the ninth round and then scored a big TKO in
the 13th round". Sinatra was back on 13 November that year along with his life-long compadre, Jilly
Rizzo, to watch Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini defend his WBA lightweight title against
Korea's tough Deuk Koo Kim at Caesars. It was a flat-out war until Mancini, looking like the loser, rallied to stop Kim in the
14th round. Kim collapsed in the ring, suffering a blood clot on the brain. The game Seoul
import died within a week. Reliable sources told me Sinatra, without fanfare, later phoned
the stunned Mancini offering condolences and prayers for the champion in dealing with the
ordeal. Francis Albert Sinatra is legend for keeping his incredible works of charity a bigger
secret than anything they have in the Pentagon. In the week of Sinatra's passing, Joey
Bishop, the last survivor of the Rat Pack (the group of high-livers comprising Sinatra,
Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford) said: "If I had ever told the
public of Sinatra's endless humanitarian projects, he would have never spoken to me
again." A similar situation involved Sonny King, popular Las Vegas singer and long-time
confidant of the super star, when they were in Miami in the early '60s. "Little things meant a lot to Frank. Like one night we were at the Fountainebleau
hotel's Boom Boom Room to hear Pupi Campo and his band. I took a quick break to the
restroom. When I returned, I told Sinatra that Beau Jack, the former lightweight champion,
was working in there shining shoes," King recalled. "Frank got up and we went back to see the old fighter. Entering he said: 'Beau, I
would like to shine your shoes for the many thrills you have given me during your career.'
Frank gave him a thousand dollars. Every night after that for the four weeks we were in
town, he went back to see Beau Jack and quietly slip him two or three hundred. Sinatra
loved fights, but he never talked about that night." However, what may be his finest hour in boxing benevolence could not be kept
under wraps by its very nature - raising money for the Joe Louis International Sports
Foundation in Las Vegas. The Sports Foundation was sponsored by Caesars Palace to establish scholarships for
needy students and to provide funds for other worthy youth projects. Its debut also had a
dual purpose when the posh Strip edifice chose 9 November 1978 for "A Night With The
Champ - A Tribute to Joe Louis". Sinatra was the hard-working chairman in putting the package together with a turnout of
more than 1,500 persons (not including celebrities) eagerly paying $500 per for the gala
dinner. It was incidental that Holmes knocked out Alfredo Evangelista in seven rounds the
next night because the big weekend was exclusively for Louis, who would be a fatal heart
attack victim six months later. Sinatra shared MC duties with Howard Cosell and it was easier to tell you who wasn't
there than who was. It was an incredible presentation rivalling the Academy Awards with a
boxing theme. For openers, ring greats included Ali, Billy Conn, Sugar Ray Robinson, Max
Schmeling, Larry Holmes, Tony Galento, Ken Norton, Floyd Patterson, Ingemar Johansson,
Leon Spinks, and Charley Fusari. Entertainment giants breaking bread were staggering: Gregory Peck, Orson Welles, Gene
Kelly, Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Cary Grant, Jon Voight, Jack
Klugman, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Wayne Newton, Jane Fonda,
Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Telly Savalas, Connie Stevens, Rich Little, Redd Foxx, Red
Buttons, Slappy White, and Jack Carter. And just a few of the super stars from other sports: Jim Brown, Joe Namath, Rosie
Greer, George Allen, Deacon Jones, Tommy Lasorda, Steve Garvey, Willie Mays, Reggie
Jackson, Rod Carew, Reggie Smith, Jimmy Connors, Rod Laver, Don Budge, Ernie Banks, Bill
Russell, Tommy John, and Jim Rice. If that wasn't enough, opera tenor Robert Merrill sang the National Anthem and Rev.
Jesse Jackson gave the invocation. Remember the entire cast was recruited by Hoboken's
greatest hero, all duly grateful to thank the incomparable Brown Bomber for those
magnificent innings the sport is still trying to recapture. Sinatra was likely speaking for the entire house in his salute to a man much of the
world still remembers as the greatest heavyweight champion in history. "Joe Louis fought everybody and if they gave him a good bout, he fought them
again," said Sinatra. "He fought for his country and he fought often. Joe stood
for America. How many people, in any endeavour, stand for a country? Joe Louis did and he
was more than a title-holder. He was a mantle-bearer of pride, integrity, and
achievement." And with that statement, Sinatra sealed his place in history as a man who was as great
a fight fan as he was an entertainer. |
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