scartissue wrote:
I recall back in the day griping to a co-worker about the politics of boxing and grumbling to him how, "Jerry 'The Bull' Martin gets a title shot against Mustafa Muhammad, gets KO'd, a year later gets another title shot against Saad Muhammad and gets KO'd and is rewarded with an immediate title shot with Saad's successor Dwight Braxton and gets KO'd. I segued into the 'other LtHeavy champ' Michael Spinks and wondered aloud who he'll be defending his title against and my very witty co-worker mused, "Maybe Ht'll be against Jerry 'The Bull' Martin...once he gets out of the hospital!" I must admit to laughing my arse off at the statement. But Martin obviously had a good manager or maybe the networks liked him for his exciting style since all the title shots were televised. I don't know, but he was really being used as fodder at that point and boxing politics still suck.
Scartissue
Hey, tissue,
What you see on the surface is very different from what is actually going on.
Martin had as much potential as any of those guys.
He was "managed" by a weakling in Philly who was afraid of his own shadow and did whatever the big boys instructed.
For years Martin could not get a fight against a rated fighter,
but once a week they offered him a fight with James Scott in the prison.
WHY? Because they wanted to get rid of Scott.
Martin knew that they turned the heat up to 200 degrees in the prison and that the surroundings were total intimidation. Eddie Gregory had collapsed and lost under that pressure.
Martin kept refusing to take the fight. Time passed and passed. Finally he realized they were never going to let him fight a rated fighter,
So he agreed to the Scott fight.
As soon as he did, when he left in the morning to run, a group of men would knock on his door, his wife would answer holding her baby, and they would say to her, "We are muslims. We are friends of James Scott. And we know where you live." That would happen day after day.
I saw Martin work out in Philly before that fight, and they were giving him the best possible sparring partners, including some good heavyweights, and letting him go all out in his workouts.
(Usually he was chastized for going too hard in workouts, and told he couldn't use his right uppercut or no one would spar with him).
There were also higher up boxing 'people,' other than his pathetic 'manager,' around the gym when he worked out for that fight.
Martin knocked Scott down with single right hands in both the first and second rounds of the fight, and cut Scott badly in a later round.
WHY did he look like a world beater in that fight?
Because he was trained to WIN.
As for his ensuing title fights, I will attach an earlier post of mine below.
I like your mention of Martin's 'manager'. That makes me laugh.
The guy was a piece of used tissue paper. He jumped if you so much as breathed in his direction.
Fighters like Martin don't have a 'manager.' They have a stooge who dances for the unseen higher ups.
I called Martin's so-called 'manager' after the Martin-Matt Franklin (Sadd Muhammed) title fight----
the fight with Larry Hazzard's (Hazzard was a muslim) performance in the fight doing everything and more to stop Martin from winning, including stopping the fight when Martin was bothered by a punch, even though one round earlier Hazzard stood by and did nothing when Martin staggered Matt with a head shot and then beat him in the head for a solid minute while Matt didn't return a single punch.
I called the 'manager' later on that night of the day that fight took place and said I had four newsmen who didn't like what Hazzard had done in that fight and wanted to get his comments.
I said,"Can I give them your number?"
The so-called manager giggled nervously and said, "Oh, no. I wouldn't want you to do that."
I said, "I have their numbers. They all saw what Hazzard was doing. And they all want to write about it. They want quotes from you. Should I give you their numbers. And then you can call them."
"Oh, no, " the guy laughed uncomfortably. "I wouldn't want to do that."
This was a fighter's MANAGER. A fighter who had just been jobbed out of a title in a title fight. And he refused to talk to newsmen WHO WERE ON HIS FIGHTER'S SIDE.
WHY? Because the muslims had reached him after the fight.
I never in my life came across a more pathetic worm.
And that's why I laugh out loud when you refer to Martin's 'manager.'
The Jimmy Young-Cooney fight was held the same day as the Martin-Scott fight. For that one, the arrangement was that Young was not to train at all, to stand still directly in front of Cooney (as if Young ever "fought" like that). When I asked some of the same Philly higher up people appearing around the gym why Young wasn't working out for his fight with Cooney, they told me to mind my own business.
Rick Farris writes that he would like to interview Georgie Benton.
Benton lost his own career sitting around and waiting.
He was a used as a ‘policeman’ in the overall agenda.
And then his career was over. His years as a fighter were gone.
Newday boxing writer Bob Waters told me about what he saw in the dressing room after the Benton-Rubin Carter bout in New York, when Benton stood and posed for ten rounds and let Carter jab respectfully at him and collect a decision. Waters said to me, “Why did Jack McKinney ( a Philly boxing guy) come into Benton’s dressing room after that fight and slap Georgie right across the face, and say “Georgie, you threw that fight.” ?
WHY? Because Carter was supposed to get a title fight (which he then did) and Benton was a dutiful soldier for the people who were controlling things. Carter didn’t belong in the same ring with a fighter like Benton.
Here is some of an earlier post of mine on this same thread re Martin and his title fights:
______________________________________________________________________________________-
Martin had great equipment. They trained him to beat James Scott, because they wanted to get rid of Scott. They gave Martin the best sparring partners, and primed him to win that fight. He knocked Scott down with single right hands in both the first and seconds rounds, something nobody else ever did.
Then they told Martin to take time off (get out of shape) and that he wouldn’t fight until the end of the summer. I told him that didn’t make any sense, and that he shouldn’t get lax at that point.
Then, after he did stop training, they suddenly sprung on his him that he was fighting Eddie Gregory in a 15-round title fight in a couple weeks. In his ‘preparation’ for the fight, his stooge manager told him NOT to use any of his best punches, not practice them, etc. I talked to him only once before that fight, and he said he was “arguing” with his manager about that. Sick.
Martin’s chance of beating Gregory would have been NOT to allow Gregory to use his strengths—which were boxing at longer range, and to try to concentrate the fight in close where Martin would be using his strengths. Among other things, referee Tony Perez made sure there was no infighting.
Time stops me from going into detail re the Saad Muhammed-Martin title fight, where Martin was the only one involved who was not a member of the [muslim] club, with promoter Murad Muhammed, opponent Saad Muhammed, Saad’s managers, and referee Larry Hazzard-- all muslims. And of course the Larry Hazzard all time prize‘performance’ as so-called ‘referee’ in that fight.
Or Martin’s title fight with Braxton, where he wasn’t in condition to work out in a gym, much less fight, and showed up for that fight with stitches taken out of his lower lip two days before the fight and badly bruised ribs. And the lovely Eddie Futch there—the only time he was ever in Martin’s corner—just to make sure the fight did go on. And Futch didn’t even bother to go back to the dressing room with the badly beaten up Martin after the fight. On to his next ‘assignment.’
Some of these guys had great abilities and strengths, but were used as pieces in the overall ‘agenda.’
