How many more are going to sing?

[bennie]

Top Rank tried to bribe a Brooklyn boxer to take a dive in a 1995 heavyweight bout at Madison Square Garden, according to startling new allegations.
The boxer, Mitchell Rose, 34, told the New York Daily News he was offered $5,000 to throw the fight against Eric (Butterbean) Esch, but he refused to go down.
Rose, who since has retired, is cooperating with authorities leading a 20-month-long corruption probe of Bob Arum's Top Rank, one of the sport's biggest promoters.
"I was at my house just resting for the fight in the middle of the afternoon when someone knocked on my door. I looked out the peephole. There were two white guys from Top Rank who said they wanted to talk to me about the Butterbean fight," Rose told The News.
"They said, 'We have some money for you, a substantial amount of money.' They wanted me to take a dive. They didn't want me to beat Butterbean."
Rose said a promoter accompanied by a henchman offered him $5,000, on top of the $5,000 he would be paid just for getting in the ring.
At the time of the Dec. 15, 1995, fight, Butterbean was 14-0 and a fan favorite because of his "average Joe" persona and huge girth.
Rose was a virtual unknown out of Brooklyn's storied Gleason's Gym with one win and six losses on his record.
"That's why they wanted me to fight Butterbean. They saw me as just a bum who couldn't beat him. That's how Top Rank is. They wanted to find an easy target to pair with a rising star to build up their record," Rose said.
"Even if I wanted to throw the fight, I didn't trust those guys. I wasn't opening the door."
Rose knocked out Butterbean 48 seconds into the second round.
The win hurt his career, said Rose, who believes he was blackballed from boxing.
Butterbean laughed from his Alabama home yesterday when asked if he believed Top Rank tried to pay Rose to take a dive.
"Mitchell Rose was [overmatched], yeah. That's typical in boxing. But why would you pay a guy with a 1-6 record to take a dive? I didn't see anything at Top Rank criminal ... related to fighting," Butterbean said.
Law enforcement sources close to the probe said Rose's story matches other allegations they have come across. "This is exactly the kind of thing that we are after," said one investigator involved in the probe. "Shamming [throwing a fight] is just one of the problems."
The News broke the story of the undercover probe, which was led by an NYPD detective posing as a New York City gangster and an undercover FBI special agent acting as the "wiseguy's" mob muscle. Their efforts led to an FBI raid on Top Rank's Las Vegas offices last Tuesday. The undercovers moved through boxing circles, gaining trust before eventually joining Top Rank fighters ringside at major bouts, law enforcement sources said. FBI agents seized computers, medical documents, financial records and videotapes of fights. Arum, who returned from vacationing in South Africa days after agents stormed Top Rank's headquarters, denied that his company engaged in any corruption.
"Top Rank has done nothing wrong. Top Rank does not know the scope of the government's investigation. Top Rank is lawfully cooperating with that investigation," Arum, a Brooklyn native and former lawyer for the Department of Justice under Robert Kennedy, said in a statement on Friday. "Top Rank will continue to focus on its business of promoting its boxers and fights."
Asked yesterday about Rose's allegations, Top Rank spokesman Patrick Smith said, "We will not comment on unverified allegations."
The main event at the Garden that December night in 1995 was a fight between Oscar De La Hoya and (Jesse) James Leija, De La Hoya's first fight at the famed arena.
De La Hoya defended his lightweight title, finishing off Leija in the second round.
De La Hoya's last fight also is part of the boxing probe: Investigators told The News that his September 2003 loss to (Sugar) Shane Mosley could have been rigged.
Mosley won the bout by unanimous decision but De La Hoya cried foul, demanding a probe into the three judges' scorecards.
As for Rose, after his victory over Butterbean he rarely fought again.
"I always believed one day the truth was going to come out, that boxing is so shady. Everybody in boxing knows what's going on. It's an open secret," Rose said. "Boxing is like that. It's big, it's personal, and if you don't play by the rules, the dirty rules, you are all done.
"I would have been more successful if I would have lost that fight. I would have got another fight and made some money if I let this guy beat me up."

[shakermaker]

top rank are f*£$ed. I'm glad more of em are coming out the woodwork. The sport needs a good clear out