Kickbacks Are Alleged at the Forum : Boxing: Assistant matchmaker is accused of coercing managers and trainers into paying him cash to get their fighters on the card in Inglewood.

A cash kickback operation involving boxing expense checks and an assistant matchmaker has been operating at the Forum for several years, according to several boxing trainers and managers.

A monthlong Times investigation has found at least 10 managers or trainers who have said they were coerced into kicking back Forum expense money to the Forum’s assistant matchmaker, Merlin Petit.

The expense checks, made out to managers or trainers, are intended to cover boxers’ travel expenses. Instead, in many cases, the money has been given to Petit.

“I had three fighters on Forum undercards at three different times,” said George Lopez, a Los Angeles police officer who until recently trained and managed fighters.

“The first time I arranged a four-rounder for Jose Arreola (on Feb. 13, 1989), Petit said he’d give him a $400 purse but that there’d be a second check, made out to me, a $100 expense check. He told me I’d have to take it up to the Forum box office, cash it, and give him the cash.

“So I did it. I did the same thing with two other fighters I had, Adrian Arreola and Marcos Cristofalo. I was naive. At first, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, that it was just normal business.

“Then I got to thinking about it and decided the whole thing stunk. I was disgusted. I got out of pro boxing. I only work with amateur kids now.”

Petit, 69, has denied the charges.

“I’m shocked,” he said. “It’s not true. I can go to my books; I can show you who I got money from.”

The alleged kickback activity is a violation of California Athletic Commission rules. A matchmaker is forbidden, under Sections 230 and 232, to accept payment from boxers or their representatives. Matchmakers are hired by boxing promoters to arrange bouts, usually for a show’s undercard, and are to be paid only by promoters.

If found guilty of violating these state boxing rules, a person is subject to an unspecified fine and suspension.

Also, the penal code section of the state’s laws governing boxing states in Section 337e that “Any supervisor or official” at a California sports event who receives or agrees to receive or attempts to receive a bribe is guilty of a felony and may be punished by imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000.

Of the more than 50 people interviewed for this story, 17 said they had firsthand knowledge of the kickback operation, and 10 of them agreed to the use of their names. Many others said they had secondhand knowledge of the alleged scheme.

All those speaking on the record acknowledged that kickbacks had been paid to Petit for undercard bouts, most of them at the Forum.

The Times also has been told, however, that the manager of a recent Forum main-event fighter had to make a cash payment to another Forum staff member to get his boxer into the main event.

John Jackson, president of Forum boxing, denied that there was any kickback involved in any main-event fight.

Jerry Buss, owner of the Forum, said through a spokesman he had no comment.

Jackson, a former assistant football coach at USC, also denied that Petit had illegally taken money from boxing people. He said that Petit, at one point, had legally accepted payment from managers and boxers as a booking agent.

“The Athletic Commission came to me last summer and told me Petit was taking money as a booking agent,” Jackson said.

“At that point, we sat Merlin down and told him he could continue with us with the title of assistant matchmaker, and he told us he would do that and that he would not take payment from any managers or boxers who had bouts at the Forum.

“I assume that Petit has not accepted booking fees after we talked to him.”

There is no definition of what constitutes a booking agent in the state boxing rule book. One commission staff member said that any payment accepted by Petit from anyone other than the Forum at any time was against the rules.

“As far as we’re concerned, there is no such thing in California as a booking agent,” said Steve English, the commission’s assistant executive officer. “If a matchmaker takes money from boxers, he does so illegally because he is acting as a manager without a license. An assistant matchmaker can be paid only by the promoter.”

Forum matchmaker Tony Curtis also called Petit a booking agent. When told that the athletic commission says no such occupation is recognized in the state boxing rules, Curtis indicated that numerous booking agents needed to be so informed.

“There are people all over town who call themselves booking agents, guys who get 10%, and we have dealt with them for years,” he said.

“We do not pay Merlin a salary. We only help him out with his phone bill.”

Petit’s accusers say the alleged Forum kickback operation usually involves expense checks made out to managers. Petit is said to approach a fighter’s manager in the dressing room hallway, after his fighter has completed his bout.

Petit is then said to hand the manager a Forum expense check, which can be written for amounts ranging from $100 to as high as $1,500, in the case of an out-of-town fighter.

“If you’re new at it, he sends you up to the Forum box office that night to cash the check and give him the cash,” Lopez said.

Lopez and others said that Petit also makes advance arrangements on the telephone, when a manager is informed “it’s going to cost you” to get on a Forum boxing card.

Petit, who has been arranging undercard bouts for four years at the Forum, previously has been found in violation of Commission rules.

In June of 1990, he was fined $400 for attempting to make a Forum match with help from a suspended trainer, Ismael Rivera.

In October of 1990, Petit was suspended for 30 days for state violations, including failure to submit fight contracts to the commission staff 72 hours before a show, scheduling a card of fewer than the required 26 rounds of boxing and failing to notify the commission staff of a change in a main event without prior approval.

Also, in June of 1990, a commission staff memo obtained by The Times shows that Ken Gray, the commission’s chief executive officer at the time--he retired last June--was informed that boxer Robert Carson had filed a complaint against Petit at the commission’s Los Angeles office. Carson charged that Petit had tried to charge him 20% of his purse for a match in Irvine.

As a result, Petit was suspended for 30 days for “lack of knowledge regarding boxing rules,” and the commission required him to attend three “remedial training” sessions at its Los Angeles office.

Don Muse, former commission assistant executive officer, said Petit is a repeat offender.

“Petit charges a 10% booking fee for making a fight, and it’s strictly against the rules,” said Muse, now himself a matchmaker.

“I caught him at it once. I fined the Forum $100, and Ken Gray wouldn’t back me up on it. At the time, (Petit) didn’t even have a matchmaker’s license.”

San Pedro trainer John Ibarra says Petit also uses standby fighters as leverage to reduce the size of agreed-to purses of scheduled fighters.

A standby fighter is one who is paid to appear at a boxing show, ready to fight, in case a main event ends early or another boxer fails to show up.

“Another thing Petit is famous for is bringing in several standby fighters after telling you he’ll pay your kid $1,200 for, say, an eight-rounder,” Ibarra said.

“Then at the weigh-in, he gives you your contract and it says $900. When you ask him where’s the other $300, he’ll point to the standby fighters and tell you: ‘Hey, any of these guys will fight for $900.’ ”

Petit also denied that charge.

“It’s very untrue . . . totally false,” Petit said.

Petit’s alleged cash kickback operation at the Forum could net him several thousand dollars in a single night, California Athletic Commission pay sheets show. Expense checks paid to all fighters on a Forum card sometimes total more than $10,000.

Commission pay sheets show how much every boxer and manager receives in purses and expenses, and are signed by boxers and managers upon receipt.

Not all boxing people allegedly approached by Petit agree to hand over their expense money. And others, generally high-profile boxing managers and trainers, are never approached. According to several managers, low-profile out-of-town boxers and managers are the main targets.

One night, according to Johnny Flores, a widely known, longtime Southland boxing figure, Petit tried to shake down Gilbert Alcantara, a trainer who worked for Flores.

“This was a four-round kid I got on a Forum undercard, and Alcantara took him over to the weigh-in,” Flores said.

“Petit tried to shake Gilbert down for $100. When Gilbert asked him, ‘Did you clear this with Johnny?’ Petit said ‘Johnny who?’

“When Gilbert said Johnny Flores, Petit said ‘Oh, forget it then,’ and walked away.”

Alcantara said: “I didn’t pay him anything. I was really mad. And I said to him, ‘Hey, tell me now if I’m going to have problems getting fights here now, and I won’t bother coming back.’ ”

Boxing people interviewed by The Times say they are left with the impression that if they don’t pay Petit, their fighters will not be booked on future Forum cards.

Said Jerry Moore, longtime trainer from Alta Loma: “Petit shook me down for $100 the first time I took a kid to the Forum for a four-rounder. He had me endorse my check, go to the box office and cash it and bring the cash back to him. I didn’t like it, but I did it.

“The next time he tried it, I told him I wouldn’t do it anymore. So he signed my name to the check and cashed it. That was four or five months ago, and they’ve never called me since.”

Bill Slayton, who owns the Broadway Gym in Los Angeles and who once managed heavyweight champion Ken Norton, said that Forum cash kickbacks are a daily topic of conversation at his gym, where about 30 pros train daily.

“They’ve never approached me, because they know I’d raise hell,” Slayton said. “But I hear what’s happening there. I know what Petit does. We all know it. It’s extortion, and it’s got to stop.”

The Forum isn’t the only venue where Petit is accused of working a kickback operation.

“Petit shook me down at a show at the Long Beach Hyatt,” trainer Ibarra said.

“I had Robert Carson there for a standby eight-rounder, and Petit didn’t know me. I was also helping the promoters that night, sort of a co-promoter.

“He came up to me and said: ‘You give me some money, and I’ll squeeze your kid in.’ I told him to go to hell, and he just walked away.”

Jesse Reid, a Fountain Valley trainer, said Petit backed off when Reid once objected vigorously to Petit’s asking for cash. Reid also said he has since paid a price.

“Five months ago, I had an eight-round kid named Sal Lopez at the Forum,” Reid said. “We’d agreed on a $1,000 purse with Petit. On fight night, he hands me a check for $900 and I asked where the rest was.

“He said he’d give me a separate $100 check for expenses and then send me to the box office to have it cashed. Then I was to give it to him for making the match.

“Well, I raised hell and got my $100 back. . . . But ever since that night, the Forum has never called me about a fight. See, I caused them a problem.”

Zack Padilla, an Azusa junior-welterweight who has been a pro since 1984, has fought at the Forum twice.

“We had to pay Petit,” he said. “It was the only way he’d get us on the card. One time, I’d been retired five years and we asked for a fight. They wanted me to fight a guy who’d been active, who had 19 knockouts in his last 21 fights--and we would’ve had to pay for it.”

Said Calvin Meeks, a welterweight from Los Angeles who boxed four times at the Forum in 1987: “All the fighters I know say one thing about Merlin Petit, ‘Stay away from him. . . . He’ll try to overmatch you against some out-of-town guy, and he’ll want you to pay him for it.’

“See, we’re not like football or basketball players. We got no protection from those kind of guys. If you don’t make Mike Tyson- or Sugar Ray Leonard-money, you’re on a one-way street. We know we’ll wind up broke.

“But boxing is a beautiful sport, and that’s why we do it. We love it. We just want to be treated fair, that’s all.”

* LOST OPPORTUNITY

Ricky Romero, who retired with a 19-1 record, wanted to be a Forum headliner but says he wouldn’t pay for it. C10