The Hauser Report: The Script for Lamar Odom vs. Aaron Carter

Published

3 years ago

August 10, 2021

The Hauser Report: The Script for Lamar Odom vs. Aaron Carter

The sweet science is being inundated by a wave of what one might call “trash boxing.” YouTube personalities, social media influencers, and long-past-their-prime ring greats are capitalizing on the confusion created by hundreds of “championship” belts and the void resulting from the failure of the boxing establishment to make entertaining match-ups with the best fighting the best.

There have always been circus-like sideshows in boxing. In the 1800s, John L. Sullivan fought all comers in tours around the country. Muhammad Ali squared off against Antonio Inoki and Lyle Alzado, while Chuck Wepner faced Andre the Giant. Mark Gastineau, Jose Canseco and others tried – or pretended to try – their hand at ring combat. The difference now is that the sideshows are becoming boxing’s main event. Trash boxing is how the sport is being portrayed to the general public with paydays ranging from minimal to millions of dollars.

On June 11, 2021, former NBA basketball player Lamar Odom squared off against rapper Aaron Carter in the main event of an Official Celebrity Boxing card at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. The event was available on pay-per-view through FITE for $29.99. Bovada (an online sports betting site) listed Odom as a -400 favorite. The odds on Carter were +250.

The event was marketed to the public as a legitimate fight. Prior to it, Odom told TMZ, “I’m prepared. I don’t know who he’s sparring against, but I know my gym is full of guys that can fight and I’ve been sparring with and I have a really good trainer. He’s been talking sh**, but I’m gonna put him to sleep early. I asked his girlfriend yesterday, ‘Which round do you want to wake him up in.'”

Retired UFC star Chuck Liddell, who served as the referee, told TMZ, “I just wanna see how Odom is gonna fight Aaron. I’ll let them fight to some extent. Obviously, it’s a celebrity fight. I’m not gonna let him get too hurt. I’ll protect either one from either of them no matter who’s getting hurt. We don’t want them to get hurt, but you gotta let them fight. People are paying to watch you fight. You’re getting paid to fight. You wanna make some money, you gotta fight.”

But that was hype. In reality, the fight took place pursuant to a script that was submitted in advance to the New Jersey State Board of Athletic Control. In other words – despite the existence of a betting line and the manner in which the event was marketed to the public – the fight was “fixed.”

Odom-Carter was promoted by Damon Feldman, a former Philadelphia fighter who crafted a 9-and-0 record in a four-year career that ended in 1992. His first eight opponents had a composite ledger of 8 wins against 50 losses. His last opponent had lost 10 of 12 previous fights. Give Feldman credit for knowing what it means to be in a boxing ring.

In 2011, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 8, 2011, Feldman was sentenced to two years probation after pleading no contest to charges that he had fixed fights and promoted fights without a license in Pennsylvania.

More trouble followed. According to an April 29, 2020, article by Jack McCaffery of 21st-Century Media, Feldman was incarcerated for thirteen months ending in December of 2017 after a plea deal tied to charges of domestic violence that had been lodged against him. As recounted in a May 22, 2018, article in Philadelphia Magazine, the charges stemmed from an incident that occurred at the home of a woman who Feldman had previously been romantically involved with. The woman, who was bleeding profusely, told police that he had punched her several times in the face. Feldman told police that there had been a physical altercation between them and that the woman was injured when he threw her off of his back, causing her to fall down the stairs. The physical evidence was inconsistent with Feldman’s statement.

Feldman promoted his first “celebrity boxing” event in 2008. Over the years, his promotions have featured the likes of Tonya Harding, Paula Jones, and Joey Buttafuoco. “My dream,” he has said, “is to do a fight with Sylvester Stallone. If I could make money promoting regular fights, I would. But I can’t, so I’m doing this.”

That brings us to the June 11 encounter between Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter.

Odom is 6-feet-10-inches tall. He played in the NBA for fourteen seasons, seven of them with the Los Angeles Lakers. From 2009 to 2016, he was married to Khloe Kardashian.

In October 2015, Odom was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel after ingesting a combination of cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, he suffered six heart attacks and twelve strokes. He’s now 41 years old.

Carter, a 33-year-old rapper whose music career has been in decline in recent years, has struggled publicly with substance abuse and other issues.

Odom-Clark was scheduled for three ninety-second rounds with headgear. Paulie Malignaggi, Ice-T, and Coco provided the pay-per-view commentary. Multiple websites – many of them respected boxing and MMA outlets – reported on the encounter as though it was a real fight.

Sam Quinn of CBS Sports.com wrote, “On Friday night, we saw one of the most anticipated celebrity boxing matches of the year. On paper, the fight looked like a mismatch. The 6-0 Carter is almost a foot shorter than Odom, and the difference in their weight and reach is similar. Odom has physical gifts that the rest of us simply don’t and he showed it in knocking Carter out.”

Mark Lelinwalla of DAZN News reported, “Despite giving up 10 inches in height, 64.5 pounds, and 11 inches in reach to Odom, Carter enjoyed early success with a barrage of lefts and rights that connected to his taller, larger opponent’s head in the opening round. However, Odom got his bearings, went to the outside, and placed a right jab-left hook combination which dropped Carter. The pop star of the 90s didn’t have his legs under him and wisely held on to survive the round. But he wouldn’t make it against Odom much longer. The second round had Odom spinning Carter around and around before delivering several unanswered lefts to drop the singer once again. Special guest referee Chuck Liddell began counting, as Carter indicated that he was no longer fit to continue.”

Nick Selbe of Sports Illustrated recounted, “The stoppage occurred in the second of the fight’s three, 90-second rounds, as Carter failed to put up much defense against Odom’s flurry of punches.”

One might ask, “Where was the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board in all of this?” After all, the NJSACB is charged with regulating combat sports in New Jersey. And as earlier noted, Odom-Carter was marketed to the public as a legitimate boxing match. Odds on the outcome were posted on gambling sites such as Bovada. Normally, this would place the event within the purview of the NJSACB.

The answer is that the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board didn’t have jurisdiction over the event because it wasn’t a “real” fight. It was scripted entertainment.

Celebrity Boxing (Feldman’s promotional company) represented to the NJSACB that Odom-Clark was “scripted,” not a combat sports competition. Thus, it was no more subject to regulation by the NJSACB than professional wrestling.

Further to that point, in advance of the event, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board asked Celebrity Boxing to send it a copy of the script. On May 23, the promotion emailed the script to Deputy Attorney General Nick Lembo (who oversees legal matters for the NJSACB). Once the script was received, NJSACB commissioner Larry Hazzard was advised by the Attorney General’s office that he had no jurisdiction over the event.

In mid-June, this writer learned about the existence of the script. On June 30, pursuant to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, I filed a request for documents from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. More specifically, I asked for “All documents relating to the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition at the Showboat Hotel featuring Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter, including but not limited to any script for the main event.”

On July 2, my request for documents was denied in its entirety by the Custodian of Records for the Attorney General’s Office. Three grounds were listed for the denial:

(1) “The event referred to in your request was not subject to the regulatory purview of the State of New Jersey Athletic Control Board.”

However, the fact that the event was not subject to the regulatory purview of the NJSACB had no bearing on the existence of the documents.

(2) “Your request is overly broad and improper.”

I did not believe that to be the case. However, in response, I told the Custodian of Records that, for the time being, I would be satisfied with receiving “any script for the main event” pursuant to my request.

(3) “To the extent that any such script may exist, it would be the confidential and proprietary property of Celebrity Boxing.”

To support this claim, the Custodian of Records stated, “Celebrity Boxing Entertainment LLC (CBE), the organizer of the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition, repeatedly marked information, documents, and correspondence to the SACB as confidential and proprietary business information [and] stated that the release of the requested information would cause irreparable harm to CBE, its shareholders, investors and participants.”

However, just because someone writes “confidential” and “proprietary” on a document and claims that the document is exempt from production doesn’t make it so. Also, since the scripted June 11 event had already occurred, there was no longer anything confidential about the script.

Following proper procedure, I asked the Custodian of Records to reconsider my request. Again, the request was denied. This time, the Custodian of Records abandoned her first two objections to production, restated her position that the documents were exempt from production because they contain confidential and proprietary information, and added a new excuse – that the documents “were obtained as part of SACB’s review of the event” and thus are exempt from release because they are “records concerning background investigations or evaluations for public employment, appointment to public office, or licensing, whether open, closed, or inactive.”

That was blatant nonsense. The “investigation” exemption under New Jersey law applies to instances where an individual has submitted an application for public employment, appointment to public office, or licensing by the State of New Jersey and an investigation of the applicant followed. There was no such application in this matter.

On July 21, I took things to the next level and filed a complaint with the New Jersey Government Records Council. In response, the Custodian of Records conceded that the script at issue exists and had been transmitted by email to Deputy Attorney General Nick Lembo on May 23, 2021. But the Custodian continues to claim that the script is exempt from production for the reasons stated above.

The Custodian has also refused to identify or produce relevant documents other than the script, claiming, “as Mr. Hauser failed to identify with specificity the records he sought, aside from requesting a copy of the script, it was not possible to determine the full universe of records that could be responsive.”

This is a ridiculous assertion. It’s impossible for me to “identify with specificity” the records sought because I don’t know with specificity what these records are. I do know that the universe of documents responsive to my request is small and easily reviewable. Indeed, in one of its responses, the Custodian states, “the organizer of the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition repeatedly marked information, documents, and correspondence to the SACB as confidential and proprietary business information.” So obviously, the Custodian has already reviewed the documents.

That’s where things stand at the moment. My request for documents is still before the Government Records Council. Conceivably, the Custodian of Records will force the matter to full-blown litigation.

There are serious issues involved here. If Odom-Carter was in fact “scripted” (which now appears to be conceded, given the acknowledgment that there was a script), then the NJSACB was correct in not exercising jurisdiction over it. However, if Odom-Carter was scripted, it was marketed in misleading fashion to the public. Pursuant to this marketing, at least some consumers were deluded into paying money for on-site tickets and pay-per-view buys. And more troubling, legal gaming companies posted odds and took bets on a “fixed” match.

On the other hand, if the event was not “scripted,” then the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board should have exercised jurisdiction over it.

The New Jersey Open Public Records Act was enacted to protect the public through the free flow of information. Hiding the truth of this matter through a disingenuous response to a valid Open Public Records Act request is a disservice to the public and also a violation of the act. I’d like to think that the denial of my request was an inadvertent error by a well-intentioned public servant and not an act designed to cover up possible wrongdoing by a well-connected private entity.

Meanwhile, according to TMZ and the Celebrity Boxing website, Odom has signed a contract to fight 54-year-old, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe in Florida on October 2. The bout is slated to be contested with 23-ounce gloves and will consist of three two-minute rounds. It’s not clear at the present time whether headgear will be worn.

Bowe hit rock bottom on February 25, 1998, when he kidnapped his estranged wife and their five children in a frightening irrational attempt to reunite his family. After lengthy pre-trail maneuvering, he pled guilty to criminal charges and was imprisoned for seventeen months. In conjunction with Bowe’s plea bargain and sentencing, his attorneys submitted evidence to the court stating that Riddick’s conduct resulted from brain damage sustained as a consequence of boxing. More specifically, Dr. Neil Blumberg interviewed Bowe at length, studied the results of an MRI and various cognitive tests, and testified that, as a consequence of multiple blows to the head, Bowe suffered from a brain impairment known as frontal lobe syndrome. Blumberg further testified that this condition was “not curable.”

One has to wonder how many of the other fights that boxing fans have seen in recent months have been scripted? One should also note that boxing is a dangerous game. Eventually, a YouTuber or old-timer will be seriously hurt. What then?

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing – will be published this autumn University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, he was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Anderson Cruises by Vapid Merhy and Ajagba edges Vianello in Texas

Published

2 days ago

April 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Anderson-Cruises-by-Vapid-Merhy-and-Ajagba-Edges-Vianello-in-Texas

Jared Anderson returned to the ring tonight on a Top Rank card in Corpus Christi, Texas. Touted as the next big thing in the heavyweight division, Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) hardly broke a sweat while cruising past Ryad Merhy in a bout with very little action, much to the disgruntlement of the crowd which started booing as early as the second round. The fault was all Merhy as he was reluctant to let his hands go. Somehow, he won a round on the scorecard of judge David Sutherland who likely fell asleep for a round for which he could be forgiven.

Merhy, born in the Ivory Coast but a resident of Brussels, Belgium, was 32-2 (26 KOs) heading in after fighting most of his career as a cruiserweight. He gave up six inches in height to Anderson who was content to peck away when it became obvious to him that little would be coming back his way.

Anderson may face a more daunting adversary on Monday when he has a court date in Romulus, Michigan, to answer charges related to an incident in February where he drove his Dodge Challenger at a high rate speed, baiting the police into a merry chase. (Weirdly, Anderson entered the ring tonight wearing the sort of helmet that one associates with a race car driver.)

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, a battle between six-foot-six former Olympians, Italy’s Guido Vianello started and finished strong, but Efe Ajagba had the best of it in the middle rounds and prevailed on a split decision. Two of the judges favored Ajagba by 96-94 scores with the dissenter favoring the Italian from Rome by the same margin.

Vianello had the best round of the fight. He staggered Ajagba with a combination in round two. At the end of the round, a befuddled Ajagba returned to the wrong corner and it appeared that an upset was brewing. But the Nigerian, who trains in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma, got back into the fight with a more varied offensive attack and better head movement. In winning, he improved his ledger to 20-1 (14). Vianello, who sparred extensively with Daniel Dubois in London in preparation for this fight, declined to 12-2-1 in what was likely his final outing under the Top Rank banner.

Other Bouts of Note

In the opening bout on the main ESPN platform, 35-year-old super featherweight Robson Conceicao, a gold medalist for Brazil in the 2016 Rio Olympics, stepped down in class after fighting Emanuel Navarrete tooth-and-nail to a draw in his previous bout and scored a seventh-round stoppage of Jose Ivan Guardado who was a cooked goose after slumping to the canvas after taking a wicked shot to the liver. Guardado made it to his feet, but the end was imminent and the referee waived it off at the 2:27 mark.

Conceicao improved to 18-1 (9 KOs). It was the U.S. debut for Guardado (15-2-1), a boxer from Ensenada, Mexico who had done most of his fighting up the road in Tijuana.

Ruben Villa, the pride of Salinas, California, improved to 22-1 (7) and moved one step closer to a match with WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas with a unanimous 10-round decision over Tijuana’s Cristian Cruz (22-7-1). The judges had it 97-93 and 98-92 twice.

Cruz, the son of former IBF world featherweight title-holder Cristobal Cruz, was better than his record. He entered the bout on a 21-1-1 run after losing five of his first seven pro fights.

Cleveland southpaw Abdullah Mason, who turned 20 earlier this month, continued his fast ascent up the lightweight ladder with a fourth-round stoppage of Ronal Ron.

Mason (13-0, 11 KOs) put Ron on the canvas in the opening round with a short left hook. He scored a second knockdown with a shot to the liver. A flurry of punches, a diverse array, forced the stoppage at the 1:02 mark of round four. A 25-year-old SoCal-based Venezuelan, the spunky but out-gunned Ron declined to 14-6.

Charly Suarez, a 35-year-old former Olympian from the Philippines, ranked #5 at junior lightweight by the IBF, advanced to 17-0 (9) with a unanimous 8-round decision over SoCal’s Louie Coria (5-7).

This was a tactical fight. In the final round, Coria, subbing for 19-0 Henry Lebron, caught the Filipino off-balance and knocked him into the ropes which held him up. It was scored a knockdown, but came too little, too late for Coria who lost by scores of 76-75 and 77-74 twice.

Suarez, whose signature win was a 12^th-round stoppage of the previously undefeated Aussie Paul Fleming in Sydney, may be headed to a rematch with Robson Conceicao. They fought as amateurs in 2016 in Kazakhstan and Suarez lost a narrow 6-round decision.

Photo credit: Mikey Willams / Top Rank via Getty Images

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Ellie Scotney and Rhiannon Dixon Win World Title Fights in Manchester

Published

2 days ago

April 13, 2024

David A. Avila

Ellie-Scotney-and-Rhiannon-Dixon-Win-World-Title-Fights-in-Manchester

England’s Ellie Scotney started slowly against the long reach of France’s Segolene Lefebvre but used rough tactics and a full-steam ahead approach to unify the super bantamweight division by unanimous decision on Saturday.

“There’s a lot more I didn’t show,” said an excited Scotney (pictured on the left).

IBF titlist Scotney (9-0) added the WBO title by nullifying Lefebvre’s (18-1) reach and dominating the inside with a two-fisted attack in front of an excited crowd in Manchester, England.

For the first two rounds Lefebvre used her long reach and smooth fluid attack to keep Scotney at the end of her punches. Then the fight turned when the British fighter bulled her way inside with body shots and forced the French fighter into the ropes.

Aggressiveness by Scotney turned the fight in her favor. But Lefebvre remained active and countered with overhand rights throughout the match.

Body shots by Scotney continued to pummel the French champion’s abdomen but she remained steadfast in her counter-attacks. Combinations landed for Lefebvre and a counter overhand right scored to keep her in the contest in the fifth round.

Scotney increased the intensity of her attack in the sixth and seventh rounds. In perhaps her best round Scotney was almost perfect in scoring while not getting hit with anything from the French fighter.

Maybe the success of the previous round caused Scotney to pause. It allowed Lefebvre to rally behind some solid shots in a slow round and gave the French fighter an opening. Maybe.

The British fighter opened up more savagely after taking two Lefevbre rights to open the ninth. Scotney attacked with bruising more emphatic blows despite getting hit. Though both fired blows Scotney’s were more powerful.

Both champions opened-up the 10^th and final round with punches flying. Once again Scotney’s blows had more power behind them though the French fighter scored too, and though her face looked less bruised than Scotney’s the pure force of Scotney’s attacks was more impressive.

All three judges saw Scotney the winner 97-93, 96-94 and a ridiculous 99-91. The London-based fighter now has the IBF and WBO super bantamweight titles.

Promoter Eddie Hearn said a possible showdown with WBC titlist Erika Cruz looms large possibly in the summer.

“Great performance. Great punch output,” said Hearn of Scotney’s performance.

Dixon Wins WBO Title

British southpaw Rhiannon Dixon (10-0) out-fought Argentina’s Karen Carabajal (22-2) over 10 rounds and won a very competitive unanimous decision to win the vacant WBO lightweight title. It was one of the titles vacated by Katie Taylor who is now the undisputed super lightweight world champion.

An aggressive Dixon dominated the first three rounds including a knockdown in the third round with a perfect left-hand counter that dropped Carabajal. The Argentine got up and rallied in the round.

Carabajal, whose only loss was against Katie Taylor, slowly began figuring out Dixon’s attacks and each round got more competitive. The Argentine fighter used counter rights to find a hole in Dixon’s defense to probably win the round in the sixth.

The final three rounds saw both fighters engage evenly with Carabajal scoring on counters and Dixon attacking the body successfully.

After 10 rounds all three judges saw it in Dixon’s favor 98-91, 97-92, 96-93 who now wields the WBO lightweight world title.

“It’s difficult to find words,” said Dixon after winning the title.

–Hometown Fighter Wins

Manchester’s Zelfa Barrett (31-2, 17 KOs) battled back and forth with Jordan Gill (28-3-1, 9 KO-s) and finally ended the super featherweight fight with two knockdowns via lefts to the body in the 10^th round of a scheduled 12-round match for a regional title.

The smooth moving Barrett found the busier Gill more complex than expected and for the first nine rounds was fighting a 50/50 fight against the fellow British fighter from the small town of Chatteris north of London.

In the 10^th round after multiple shots on the body of Gill, a left hook to the ribs collapsed the Chatteris fighter to the floor. He willed himself up and soon after was floored again but this time by a left to the solar plexus. Again he continued but was belted around until the referee stopped the onslaught by Barrett at 2:44 of the 10^th.

“A tough, tough fighter,” said Barrett about Gill. “I had to work hard.”

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O.J. Simpson the Boxer: A Heartwarming Tale for the Whole Family

Published

3 days ago

April 12, 2024

Arne K. Lang

OJ-Simpson-the-Boxer-A-Heartwarming-Tale-for-the-Whole-Family

O.J. Simpson passed away on Wednesday, April 10, at age 76 in Las Vegas where he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. For millions of Americans, news of his passing unloosed a flood of memories.

The O.J. Simpson double murder trial lasted 37 weeks. CNN and two other fledgling cable networks provided gavel-to-gavel coverage. On Oct. 3, 1995, the day that the jury rendered its verdict, CBS, NBC, ABC, and ESPN suspended regular programming to cover the trial. Worldwide, more than 100 million people were reportedly glued to their TV or radio.

O.J.’s life can be neatly compartmentalized into two halves. The dividing line is June 12, 1994. On that date, Simpson’s estranged wife, the former Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood at the home that Nicole shared with their two children.

Before then, O.J. was famous. After then, he was infamous.

Simpson first came to the fore on the gridiron. In 1968, his final season at the University of Southern California, he was so dynamic that he won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide, out-distancing Purdue’s Leroy Keyes by 1,750 votes. This was the widest margin to that point between a Heisman winner and runner-up and a milestone that stood for 51 years until surpassed by LSU quarterback Joe Burrows in 2019.

In the NFL, among his many achievements, he became the first and only NFL running back to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a 14-game season, a record that will never be broken.

But one can’t appreciate the depth of O.J.s celebrityhood by citing statistics. He transcended his sport like few athletes before or since. Owing in large part to his commercials for the Hertz rental car chain, he became one of America’s most recognizable people.

O.J. Simpson was raised by a single mother in a government housing project in the gritty Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Unlike many of his boyhood peers, he was never quick to raise his fists. Weirdly, he once said that running away from fights proved useful to him when he took up football. It helped his stamina.

Although he never boxed in real life, O.J. portrayed a boxer in a made-for-TV movie. Titled “Goldie and the Boxer,” it aired on NBC on Sunday, Dec. 29, 1979, two weeks after O.J. played in his last NFL game. Co-produced by Simpson’s own production company, it starred O.J. opposite precocious Melissa Michaelson who played the 10-year-old Goldie.

In promos, the movie was tagged as a heartwarming tale for kids and their parents. Associated Press writer John Egan described it as “a cross between the Shirley Temple classic ‘Little Miss Marker’ and a low-budget ‘Rocky.’”

Here’s a synopsis, compliments of New York Times TV critic John J. O’Connor:

“The year is 1946, and Joe Gallagher is returning to Louisiana as an army veteran. He is quickly ripped off by a succession of thugs and finds himself broke and battered in Pennsylvania where he is befriended by a young Goldie. Her father is a boxer and Joe joins the training camp as a sparring partner. When the father dies, Joe takes his place on the fight circuit and Goldie becomes his manager…”

The consensus of the pundits was that O.J. the actor was very much a work in progress, but that he had great potential. And the movie, despite its hokey plot, attracted so many viewers that NBC wanted to turn it into a series.

O.J. had too much on his plate to commit to doing a regular series. Among other things, he had signed on to become part of NBC’s main stable of reporters at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, a gig that evaporated when the U.S. under President Jimmy Carter joined 64 other nations in boycotting the Games as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, the movie did spawn a sequel, “Goldie and the Boxer Go To Hollywood,” with Simpson and Michaelson reprising their roles.

I never met O.J. Simpson, but have a vivid memory of finding myself walking behind him into the outdoor boxing arena at Caesars Palace. If memory serves, this was the Hagler-Hearns fight of 1985, in which case the lady on his arm would have been Nicole as they were married earlier that year. She was quite a dish in that tight-fitting pantsuit and I remember thinking to myself, “of all the trophies this dude has won, here is the best trophy of them all.” (Forgive me.)

Simpson had cameo roles in several movies before leaving USC. When he finally turned his back on football, the world was his oyster. O.J., wrote Barry Lorge in the Washington Post, was “bright, affable, charming, articulate and credible, a public relation man’s dream-come true.”

No one would have foreseen the swerve his life would take.

When the jury, after only four hours of deliberation, returned a verdict of “not guilty,” there was cheering in some corners of America. The overwhelming consensus of the white population, however, was that the verdict was an abomination, a gross miscarriage of justice.

We’ll leave it at that.

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