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The noi’s attempt to enter the boxing
business was blasted by sports writers,
some of whom tolerated the exploitation
of boxers by organized crime. According
to Michael Ezra, in his book Muhammad
Ali: The Making of an Icon, when the
leaders of Main Bout, Inc., which had
noi backing, complained that their
efforts were being undermined by
the mob, the sports writers dismissed
the complaints. “Clearly,” he writes,
“these sports writers weren’t reporting
the whole story, because the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (fbi) launched
an inquiry into the failed promotion
of a bout between Ali and Ernie Terrell
that was supposed to occur in Toronto
and be sponsored by Main Bout, Inc.”
It suspected that Terrell withdrew not
only because of financial concerns and
because they couldn’t guarantee the
two hundred fifty thousand dollar
purse that they’d promised, but also
because of death threats to him and
Bernie Glickman by Chicago Mafia
figures, which would no longer profit
if the bout were moved to Canada.
Investigators were unable to link the
boycott to the mob, and no further
federal examination of the fight took
place. The Pittsburgh Courier sighed,
“…as usual, the casting of light on
supported underworld control of boxing
still remains unfulfilled.” Wrote Robert
Lipsyte, “To the underworld, the
new organization meant only that a
‘rival gang’ had moved in and was
in a position to ‘ace them out’ by not
dealing with ‘trusted’ closed-circuit
television operators or exhibitors
as well as the other businessmen who
normally get pay days from a title
fight.” A United Press International
(upi) writer added, “New York Mafia
interests were enraged at the attempt of
the Muslims to take over closed boxing
through Main Bout, Inc.”
BLACK RENAISSANCE NOIRE
“When we lived in Venice, a
postal worker asked whether
I was Sugar Ray’s son; I said
yes. He went to the back and
brought out a photo of his
uncle, Mr. Gambino, and my
dad together. Mr. Gambino
said that Dad was not to be
bought and that he was crazy.
Dad kept putting famous
people out of the training
camp, like Frank Sinatra.
This was at Camp Greenwood
Lake. Sinatra asked whether my
dad could do a little something
for some friends of his.
My dad said no. He was also
approached by Frankie Carbo.
In those days, they wanted
you to extend the fight a little
bit, not to take a dive.”
Muhammad Ali has been associated
with criminals in and outside of the
ring. But before he was managed by
Don King, he was under the control
of Herbert Muhammad and the noi
(The Nation of Islam), which presented
the mob with a competitor. King took
the fifth when asked whether he knew
John Gotti. At one point, King, slow
in returning payments for a loan to
mob figures, had to beg that a contract
on his life be removed. The New York
Times revealed on April 7, 2014
that Mr. Sharpton played down his
involvement with Mafia figures,
although “it has long been known that
[Rev. Al Sharpton] worked with the
f.b.i. in the 1980s in an investigation of
the boxing promoter Don King.”
The noi threatened the Gambino crime
family after Muhammad Ali’s name
came up during an fbi wiretap of
a meeting that included members of
organized crime. Learning of this,
members of noi threatened that if any
harm came to Ali they would go
to the Waldorf Astoria and throw
Frank Sinatra out of the window.
This contradicts the image of black
characters who appeared on the
popular series The Sopranos, where they
featured as inept and stupid, or the
attitude of some Ali biographers who
imply that the Muslims were cowards.
Emboldened by their making organized
crime back down, some rogue members
of the noi took the Philadelphia heroin
trade from it.
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At least in the old days, v