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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Combat sports & self-defence > Boxing
More than any other sport, boxing has a history of being easy to
rig. There are only two athletes and one or both may be induced to
accept a bribe; if not the fighters, then the judges or referee
might be swayed. In such inviting circumstances, the mob moved into
boxing in the 1930s and profited by corrupting a sport ripe for
exploitation. In Boxing and the Mob: The Notorious History of the
Sweet Science, Jeffrey Sussman tells the story of the coercive and
criminal underside of boxing, covering nearly the entire twentieth
century. He profiles some of its most infamous characters, such as
Owney Madden, Frankie Carbo, and Frank Palermo, and details many of
the fixed matches in boxing's storied history. In addition, Sussman
examines the influence of the mob on legendary boxers-including
Primo Carnera, Sugar Ray Robinson, Max Baer, Carmen Basilio, Sonny
Liston, and Jake LaMotta-and whether they caved to the mobsters'
threats or refused to throw their fights. Boxing and the Mob is the
first book to cover a century of fixed fights, paid-off referees,
greedy managers, misused boxers, and the mobsters who controlled it
all. True crime and the world of boxing are intertwined with
absorbing detail in this notorious piece of American history.
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