Via Ken Hisner: The title of this article is the title of a book that featured legendary inductee at the 2019 International Boxing Hall of Fame as matchmaker, manager, mentor, and promoter Don Elbaum is planning while match fans have been looking forward to reading for years. At the age of 13, he was even a reporter for Ring Magazine.
I caught up with my longtime friend Don Elbaum, who lived on his old estate in Erie, Pennsylvania, and discussed the book and his boxing life from 1954 to 2005. 2016.
Elbaum promoted his first game at the age of eighteen and has gone on to advertise or co-promote over 1,000 cards, including 196 shows at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the span of time alone. 5 years. He promoted some of the final fights of boxing greats Willie Pep and “Sugar” Ray Robinson.
Elbaum is known for staging unusually themed cards, such as a show featuring inconclusive heavyweights, billed in an attempt to win the title of “Heavyweight”. best of the world”.
He is also the source and subject of many anecdotes; for example, during his time as a promoter for Robinson, he found two very old and good boxing gloves and gave them to Robinson at a press conference because these were the gloves that Robinson was wearing. on his professional debut nearly 25 years earlier.
Robinson became very emotional and cradled the gloves in his hands, but when he was about to put them on, it was discovered that Elbaum had given him the other two gloves. Elbaum, in telling the story to journalist Thomas Hauser, claimed that IBHOF promoter J Russell Peltz once offered him $5,000 for the gloves in question and added that “I had to find the gloves. that hand or two gloves like them.”
Elbaum also started Don King’s boxing career by helping him organize a charity boxing event in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1970s. Elbaum later portrayed himself in an HBO-produced film about King’s Life, released in 1997.
Elbaum has managed or worked as a mentor for several boxers, including world champion Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor, Tony “TNT” Tubbs, Simon “Mantequilla” Brown, Maurice “Thin Man” Blocker and rivals Earnie “The Black Terminator” Shavers, Doyle Baird and David Telesco.
In addition to his amateur career, Elbaum had a number of professional fights during the 1960s. Many of them took place in shows he promoted, where he substituted at the last minute when a boxer was unavailable. any other.
Elbaum has promoted approximately 223 events in many US cities and countries such as Hungary, Haiti, Canada, Kosovo, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Russia, and Ireland.
KEN: “How old were you when you entered your first boxing event?”
DON: “My dad used to take me to fights when I was 13 in Cleveland. Larry Atkins is the promoter.”
KEN: “What was the first game you heard on the radio?”
DON: “The first game I heard on the radio was Ike Williams and Bob Montgomery.”
KEN: “What was one of the biggest differences then and now in New York City?”
DON: “Back in the 40s and 50s, there were eight fights a week in New York City, and now eight in a year.”
KEN: “Have you ever seen a match of ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson?”
DON: “I was there when ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson fought Artie Levine.”
KEN: “How familiar are old-timers to recognize who is today’s boxer by their looks?”
DON: “A longtime boxer fan commented, ‘I don’t recognize (the fighters’) faces anymore.’”
KEN: “What was your first boxing job?”
DON: “I was 14 years old and was advised to fight by Larry Atkins. He told me to hit 4 and 6 rounds for him”.
KEN: “When did you start reading Ring magazine?”
DON: “I used to take Ring Magazine and read it 3-4 hours a day.”
KEN: What was one of the weirdest matches you’ve arranged?
DON: “I put Manny “The Monster” Quinney from Buffalo into a 0-2 head-on, and I told him to run after him when the bell rang and made the grunting sound you do, and he I did so without grounding. the punch caused the guy to fall on the canvas and be counted out.
KEN: “I heard you brought Don King into boxing. Can you give me some information about that?
DON: “Yes, and I have apologized to the world ever since.”
KEN: “Can you tell me something positive or negative about your career?”
DON: “It was an incredible roller coaster ride. I have absolutely no regrets. I will do it all again in a heartbeat.”
Be sure to look for Don Elbaum’s book titled “The Stories of Don Elbaum and Some Are True!”
