On Time

[H2O Man]

28. It's a funny thing,

but there were a lot of people who found Rubin scary. A black ex-con with a bald head, Fu Manchu and goatee, a middleweight with larger biceps that also scary heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Rubin would tell me about his friendship with Sonny. While Rubin hoped his image would sell tickets that earned his wages, Sonny wanted to put his past behind him, and be a champion everyone could be proud of.

Working with his defense, I got to see how law enforcement viewed him. A lot of that was a result of a Saturday Evening Post article, "A Fight Made in the Jungle." Rubin was challenging Joey Giardello for the title. A friend told the reporter some stories about Rubin (that the movie inaccurately attributes to Rubin being interviewed in a bar) that did not go over well with law enforcement. Sugar Ray Robinson called Carter the morning after it was published, to say it was a problem.

So it was the hostile ex-con versus a champion who's contract was owned by a known mobster with felony convictions. I never met Joey, but he was a teenaged hoodlum who became a good man. Many fighters -- including most top professionals -- had to do some buisiness with gangsters. Heck, my brothers and I did. Our two BCI Senior Investigator uncles warned us about them. Maybe that's why they treated us well.