At age 22, Cus D’Amato opened the Empire Sporting Club with Jack Barrow at the Gramercy Gym. He lived in the gym for years. According to D’Amato, he spent his time at the gym waiting for a “champion”, but his best fighters were routinely poached by “connected” managers.
One fighter discovered by D’Amato was Italian-American Rocky Graziano, who signed with other trainers and managers and went on to become middleweight champion of the world. D’Amato also confronted boxing politics and decided, along with his friend Howard Cosell, to thwart the International Boxing Club of New York (IBC). Suspicious to the point of paranoia, he refused to match his fighter in any bout promoted by the IBC. The IBC was eventually found to be in violation of anti-trust laws and was dissolved.
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