LAS VEGAS — Seven professional boxers and a manager have told the FBI they agreed to throw fights for as much as $10,000 cash apiece to pad the victory records of two heavyweights being groomed for "big money" matches, according to prosecution documents filed in a federal sports bribery case.
The prosecutors also say that another manager, nationally prominent boxing agent Robert Mittleman, bribed an American fighter with $10,000 cash and a Lincoln Navigator SUV to lose a March 21, 2000, bout in Denmark against Brian Nielsen, a former Olympic bronze medalist whom Mittleman represented.
The affidavit and related court documents contain a litany of confessed misconduct among boxers, providing rare details of fixed fights in a sport long shadowed by suspicions of corruption.
"It's clear what happened here wasn't unique," said one federal law enforcement source. "It's fair to say this case reads like an indictment of all professional boxing."
Beyond potential criminal sanctions, the case could have political implications.
The latest allegations have arisen despite regional oversight by boxing commissions in most states, suggesting that little effective reform has taken place in the 40 years since writer Jimmy Cannon described boxing as "the red light district of sports."
To compel changes, public figures, including former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, support creating a national boxing commission. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have introduced bills to establish such a commission.
The newest disclosures could add political impetus to those efforts.
Mittleman and the others are among more than 30 boxing figures who have either admitted to or been accused of fighting under phony names or agreeing to fix fights since the early 1990s, based on court records and published accounts. Mittleman has not been charged with a crime.
Some of the tainted bouts were arranged by matchmakers affiliated with either Don King or Bob Arum, boxing's two dominant promoters. Neither King nor Arum has been charged or publicly accused of any involvement in fixing fights.
Last month agents of the FBI raided Arum's Top Rank Inc. offices here, seizing employee computers and records. The raid culminated a 20-month undercover inquiry by the Justice Department's organized crime task force called Operation Match Book.
