Jabbing with the Commish
Randy Gordon is our former boxing commissioner — and who knew we had a former boxing commissioner — or even a current one.
Randy: “At 10 my right side was burned badly in an explosion. Doctors said I’d never walk again. In a wheelchair for a year. My 10th birthday, my parents pushed me in front of our TV to watch the fights. In ’59, every Friday I’d watch them. I’d imitate the fighters by moving my legs. Six months later, I tried standing for the first time in a year.
“Boxing brought my life back. I went to journalism school, wrote about boxing, announcing it, put my five kids through college with those earnings. Eventually inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, back in 1989, Gov. Mario Cuomo made me commissioner of NY State Athletic Commission and that’s my whole story.”
OK, so now, today, who’s the greatest boxer of all time?
“Sugar Ray Robinson.”
Hit in the head so much, boxers seem a little less bright.
“Taken advantage of. They earn hundreds of millions. Easy to overspend on sports cars, homes for friends, girlfriends, jewelry. Spending but not investing. Once, mobs had control. Now cameras, many people, too many watchers. The sport’s cleaner. We tried getting Muhammad Ali, who had dozens of amateur fights, to get medical testing. Hitting on the head is not a good thing.
“There’s also arms. It’s a skill. Trained, they’re not hurt at all. Not cut to ribbons. Noses not broken. No scar tissue. That’s choreographed movie stuff now. In the old days, yes. No more. Today it’s more a ballet.
“I’d like the rounds shortened, under three minutes, and to see they’re cared for financially.”
Listing spied
Itchy to escape Crapdami? Sean Connery’s former Nice, France, estate Villa Roc Fleuri is back on the market. It’s Mediterranean views, rooftop deck, nice Nice views, spa, pool, five bedrooms. Down from $30 mil, now just a low small pitiful paltry poverty-level insignificant shrunken woeful embarrassing teeny $23.5 mil.
Scene & heard
Important news: De Blasio stepped into a porta-potty at a Ditmas BBQ. The door hit him as he waddled in. What occurred inside stays inside . . . Anna Wintour’s newie replacement got a scissor to her paycheck. Only making a shrinking, sinking lousy $250,000 . . . Jerry Nadler, not waddling again for Congress, decided with the missus Joyce and together called pals before calling press. Wonderful that Joyce now has him all alone — just for herself . . . And Kevin Bacon: “When looking for a part I never get a haircut. Sometimes the hair grows to my shoulders. Casting agents would say: ‘What’s with the hippie look?’ Still, superstitious, I’d never get a trim until I got a part.”
HOF gives Fonz two thumbs up
Henry Winkler’s grabbed the TV Hall of Fame last month for playing Fonz on 1970s thing “Happy Days.” Says celeb seer John Cohan: “Doesn’t deserve it. Was a takeoff on the Kookie character from ‘77 Sunset Strip.’ Kookie was a record seller star with that hit ‘Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb,)’ which every single person alive remembers.”
Down boys. Even I don’t remember the record — or him.
Robert Downey Jr: “I crack open the NY Post first thing in the morning and the rest of my day goes downhill.”
Definitely not only in New York, kids, not only in New York.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
