Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

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There is confusion to this day about the exact terms of the deal Gould did with Jacobs for Braddock. Some say it was 10 percent of the gate whenever the title was contested at the Garden. Another theory has it that Braddock got a tenth of the overall promotion, no matter where it was held, as long as Jacobs and the Twentieth Century Sporting Club were involved. My guess is Uncle Mike dipped into the champion's purse to meet his part of the deal, writing it off as expenses, one of the fight game's oldest dodges. Toward the end, Jacobs, his health failing, got tired of the arrangement, and their lawyers swapped expensive letters.

As Lucky Jim remembered it years later in conversation with the writer Peter Heller: “I got 10 percent of the promotions involving any championship because once Louis won the fight, Mike Jacobs, who controlled Louis, controlled the heavyweight division, and he had control of that title. But, if Louis got knocked out, we didn't make it with Louis, we made it with the promotions the next ten years, regardless of who was champion. As long as Jacobs promoted that fight, we were in for 10 percent, like an annuity. We might have got one hundred fifty thousand out of it over the ten years. Which wasn't a bad annuity.”