Posted on 02/03/2004 2:54:58 PM PST by blam
Heavyweight boxer paid to lose five times to same fighter: report
Tue Feb 3, 8:34 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A heavyweight fighter said he was paid money to use fake names in losing five times to the same boxer in the 1990s, it was reported.
According to prosecution documents filed in a federal sports bribery case, the unidentified heavyweight boxer said he used alias or his own name as part of a scheme to pad Don 'Man of Steel' Steele's won-loss record with 'fixed' fights, the Los Angeles Times reported.
FBI (news - web sites) agent Scott A. Gillespie accused Steele's manager Robert Mitchell, 41, of fixing fights to try and get Steele a 'big money' fight, the newspaper reported.
The boxer, listed as a FBI informant, said "he had several friends that were not amateur or professional boxers that fought Steele under false names ... and that his friends lost these fights on purpose and on instruction from Mitchell."
"Don Steele was Mitchell's most prized fighter," Gillespie wrote in the affidavit.
The boxing informant spoke to investigators as part of a 20-month probe of corruption in American boxing.
Last month, FBI officers raided Bob Arum's Top Rank headquarters in Las Vegas, seizing financial and medical documents, tapes and computers.
Court documents claim some of the suspect fights were organized by matchmakers Arum and Don King, said the Times. Both Arum and King have denied any wrongdoing and neither has been charged with a crime.
The probe is looking into not only fix fights and fake names, but also fixed weights, medical records, Social Security (news - web sites) numbers and the smuggling of foreigners into the United States to box.
Another matchmaker under suspicion is Robert Mittleman, who allegedly arranged fixed fights for Danish boxer Brian 'Danish Pastry' Nielson.
Nielson, who won an Olympic bronze medal, got his nickname because of a reputation of fighting easy opponents.
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