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i AT THE RINGSIDE By Barney Nagler NEW YORK, N. Y., May 7.— Mr. Cus DAmato is back in town. Having roared , through the hinterlands with his cham- pion, he has returned to the scene of his ascendancy. Mr. DAmato, for the late comers, is manager of Floyd Patterson. Some may remember Patterson as the world heavyweight titlehold-er. Of late, Patterson has been so inactive fistically, his face is all but forgotten by the clientele. It would only be fair then to introduce him all over again. He is a nice enough lad out of Brooklyn, a kid only 22 who got into trouble as a lad, fell into a romantic trap at one point and now is happily married. He is a hell of a fighter as well, or was when last seen, on the occasion of his dumping of Archie Moore I in Chicago last November. Patterson likes to fight. However, Mr. DAmato feels that he and his athletes are pure beyond the clutching hands of all in boxing. Mr. DAmato does not want to fight for the International Boxing Club, which he has accused variously of being dirty and dishonest. AAA He has forgotten to say that he was quite willing to do business with the IBC when a chance to win the world heavyweight championship was part of the deal. He has neglected to tell all around him that he is in debt to the IBC, which serves as banker to the boys when things get tough. He has forgotten to say that he once charged that gangsters were trying to move in on his fighter, only to retract the charges later. Now he is saying he is going to take Patterson to England for a title defense because he does not want to be on the continent with Jim NOrris corporation. He is. by his own words, a fugitive from injustice. This is to warn Mr. DAmato that he is striding a tightrope. England is a wonderful island. The language is quaint, being an English remote from the accent of the Bronx, where Mr. DAmato was born and raised. Also, it is a land in which strange things happen within the ropes. AAA Low punching is frowned upon. Patterson might well blow his title to, say Nino Valdes, on a foul. Americans by the score have lost fights over there because of low blows. Some have even. lost in such fash- ion when the punch they landed was around the neck. Anything lower than the chin, in some instances, have been classified as foul. In addition, Mr. DAmato may find that Patterson is no more beloved in London than he is in Kansas City or Minneapolis, where his recent exhibition matches drew something less than enough money to pay the ushers and ticket-takers. It is one thing to be promised loot in abundance. It is another to find the swag on hand when chips are down. Pattersons proprietor has insisted he will fight only for an independent promoter. Does this mean that in our land of liberty there is not one promoter independent of Jim Norris? Must the world heavyweight champion go all the way to Blighty to do battle? Obviously, this is not so. Just as obviously, Mr. DAmato knows full well that Continued on Page Forty One 1 r-——— — — — —— —— — — — — — — J AT THE RINGSIDE By BARNEY NAGLER Continued from Page Two he is not going to England. What he also knows is that he is saying all he says only to needle the IBC against the day when he may find himself confronted with the necessity of paying his debts. Mr. DAmatos latest beef is that the IBC long has indulged in larceny by withholding part of the television purse received from sponsors. He says this without knowing the facts. The IBC long has insisted it receive some 4,000 from its Friday night bouts. No evidence in refutation of this figure has been presented either by Mr. DAmato or others who have charged the IBC with a form of commercial larceny. The fact is that it is quite simple to make accusations against an organization which is, in a large and real sense, in public disrepute. At a time when the IBC may be cut down and quartered by Federal court action as a monopoly. Mr. DAmato ! blithely goes along with the swim of things. He is winning friends he believes, and influencing the destiny of boxing. He regards the world heavyweight championship as his personal property incidentally held by his fighter. He ascribes to himself a proprietary right the English, for example, do not recognize. In Europe, Mr. DAmato might like to know, a championship is the property of various and sundry commissions and boxing boards and. as such, subject to recalj. Were that it was So in the UJS.
