Boxing Fits This Old Boy Like A Glove

He still kept one foot in the ring, however, and in 1970 he booked a French fighter in the Garden. His name was Marcel Cerdan Jr., and his opponent was Canada 's Donato Paduano. Kanter got $40,000 for Cerdan, an incredible sum for an unranked welterweight. Brenner called it "a holdup." Kanter said, "It's been seven long years." And though Kanter is not an overly sentimental man, he watched the son and saw the father. His eyes betrayed him; young Cerdan lost a decision to Paduano.

But Kanter was in business again. One of the American managers who now deals with him is Harlan Haas, a Texan, who says, "I don't have time to call a dozen boxing people in Europe , so I need one man I can trust. Now I've got George Kanter. He knows the business over there, and he cares about the fighters he works with."

Last fall Kanter called Haas and said, "I need a middleweight for Jean Mateo in Paris , a stand-up guy, not a runner." Haas suggested Willie Warren , a 30-year-old welder from Corpus Christi who rarely made $1,000 for a fight.

Kanter got Warren $2,000, and though he lost a close decision, many French sportswriters thought he had won. A group of fans carried him off on their shoulders. Says Kanter, "I never saw that in Paris before." Two months later he got Warren $3,000 for a fight with Benny Briscoe, then the No. 2 middleweight in the world. Warren got a draw. Kanter next found Warren a slot in the Schwartz-Elbaum tournament at Kansas City , for a purse of $10,000. Harlan Haas says, "Willie was going nowhere and George Kanter resurrected him."

These days George Kanter's alarm clock goes off at 6:30 a.m., but it is already 12:30 p.m. in France , and his phone begins to ring. "Hello, Kanter?" a caller said one recent morning. "This is Marcelin Martin in Marseilles . Have you any ideas for a show at the Palais des Sports?" Kanter tells him, "I'm thinking of going to Australia for Tony Mundine. He's very big in France . Maybe I'll put him in with a top American fighter, like Willie Taylor of New York—he beat the European light-heavy champion—and back up the show with some good French names." Martin says he will discuss it with his partner, and says goodby. Moments later the phone rings again: "Monsieur Kanter? Monsieur Vercoutter in Dunkirk. How does it look for a world's title fight for my boy, Jo Kimpwani?"

"You will have to be patient," Kanter tells him. "The World Boxing Council named him the No. 1 contender, and we'll get a match, probably in Bangkok . But now I am expecting a call from Paris . Au revoir, Monsieur Vercoutter."

Soon Kanter selects one of his 11 Pierre Cardin suits. He leaves his ninth-floor apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and catches a 9:17 train for Manhattan , where he has a desk in the Madison Avenue office of his old friend Murray Goodman, a well-known publicist of boxing and other sports. The desk is littered with Styrofoam coffee cups, Last week's newspapers and the remains of king-size Saratogas, which Kanter chain-smokes. He pays Goodman $50 a month for his little slum. He was offered an office at Don King 's, a royal chamber in comparison, but he says he must preserve his "independence." By this he means he must work with many people, and in the boxing business, where everyone seems to hate everyone else, he wants to keep his options open.

On this morning he goes to see Henry Schwartz, a former television consultant and associate of Don King , at World Television Champions, Inc. Schwartz warns Kanter, "If it comes out you're talking to me, you're liable to lose some of your old friends." They discuss a promotion in France . Kanter tells Schwartz about Mundine and Taylor, then rushes out and grabs a cab downtown to the Telstar Gym, run by Gil Clancy , manager of Emile Griffith . Kanter and Clancy have been trying to get Griffith a fight in France—but apparently for different reasons. It would take place in P�rigueux, where, Kanter keeps saying, "The p�t� is very good. I would certainly like to go. That's my problem. I'm always thinking, 'Oh, that town has good oysters....' "But Clancy wants $20,000, and the promoter can only pay $12,000.

Kanter says, "But, Gil, we've worked together for years."

Finally Clancy agrees. "Oh, go ahead," he says, "make the match."