Bouncing Checks

I mention about not letting my boys fight for nothing, and they never did, but one time our checks did bounced.

In 1983 Don Fraser called me, said he was the matchmaker for a couple of guys that had taken the Olympic over after Aileen Eaton retired. Said they had a USA channel date and asked if I was interesting in a fight for both Frankie and Tony on the card. I told him “of course, I am interested” We talked money and opponents, Juan Escobar for Frankie and Rocky Montoya for Tony, at 10Gs each. Agreeing on the details I went to see Fraser at the Olympic to sign contracts.

With contracts signed the boys who had already been in the gym had 3 weeks to get themselves in great shape, which they did. Weight-ins were on the morning of the fights, everybody made weight.

That night Frankie had the toughest fight of his career. He took an ass beating in the first 4 rounds from Escobar. After the 4^th round I told Frankie I was giving him just one more round and if he didn’t show me anything I was going to stop the fight, he agreed with me. With lumps on top of lumps he went out and won the 5^th round, he won the 6^th round, and won every round there-forth, dropping Escobar late in the 10^th and final round to win a split decision.

Tony who was making his first start since the Howard Davis robbery was not happy about just getting 10Gs. I told him not every fight that he had was going to be a Howard Davis type pay day. He fought and won a unanimous decision, but his mind was somewhere else.

The boys got their pay, minus my cut. Next day we went to the bank and deposit our checks. A few days later we got a notice from the bank that the checks had bounced. I called the flakes that promoted the fights and they told me to run the checks through again, we did, and they bounced again.

Now it was 2 weeks after the fights, and our checks still had not been made good, and the flakes were promoting another show at the Olympic. I called Joey Olmos who was the L.A CSAC head guy on the morning of the coming show. I explained to Joey our situation, he told me to meet him at the weight-ins. I did. At the weight-ins Joey announced to the fighters that were scheduled to fight that night and their managers. That unless I got our money by 5PM that there was not going to be a show that night.

The flakes called me to the side and told me that they would give me a check on the spot. I replied to them that I would accept nothing-less than 3 certified checks. They had till 5PM to come up with the checks, they did. They also promoted their last show that night. Soon they were gone in the wind, never to be heard from or seen again.