In the previous episodes, Chicken Man and Lieutenant J. D. Hudson both painted a picture of their worlds hustlers and cops. I slowly began to learn who they were as they continued to share their stories and how they became the central figures of an event that in many ways encapsulated the struggles of the times. In nineteen seventy, the consciousness of the nation was shifting. The United States was in the middle of the Space Race and the Cold War.
The country was polarized over Vietnam, and that intensified when the United States invaded Cambodia in April of nineteen seventy. Protests were sweeping the nation, and America's view of the war was shifting. In May of nineteen seventy, four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured when members of the Ohio National Guard fired on a crowd
gathered to protest the war. It would seem that the nation was tearing itself apart, and these divisions would be amplified in the southern city of Atlanta when Muhammad Ali, a black Muslim who had been barred from fighting after he refused to be drafted, return to the world stage of boxing. All of a sudden, Atlanta throws it's hat into the ring to the surprise of everyone. We must understand that Atlanta is a new, sexy, kind of fast city with beautiful black people. My dad was really excited
about this. This was the cream of the crops, the most excited I ever seen him. You know, we're gonna live good for ever after this. It's bedlam in Atlanta. It's Marty Gras, It's New Year's e It's everything put together from my heart radio and doghouse pictures. This is fight Night. I'm Jeff Keating. It was the dawn of a new decade in America. The nation's struggles would soon be magnified. In one incredible event, the civil rights movement
had swept across the country. As Atlanta was becoming the black New South. The anti war movement had found a hero, Muhammad Ali, a young, confident black Muslim boxer known as the Louisville Lipp who had resisted a war that many in America had come to see as unjust. Meanwhile, Jerry Quarry, the Bellflower bomber, symbolized the great White Hope. As the word spread that Muhammad Ali was returning to the ring.
The national and international journalists sharpened their pencils and prepared for this event unlike any of the city had ever seen before. Politicians and businessmen worked behind the scenes to formalize and strategize plans that would ensure a boxing license was granted for Ali. Gangsters and hustlers from around the country packed bags of cash, knowing the gambling on this huge bout would be off the charts. This was a
perfect storm forming over Atlanta, and everything was at stake. Ironically, this classic fight between Ali and Quarry landed in the Deep South, in the city of Atlanta. I wanted to find out how that happened, so I spoke with Los Angeles based author and journalist David Davis, who recently penned a new book entitled Wheels of Courage. David had written an oral history about the fight that nobody wanted for
Atlanta Magazine in two thousand and five. So all of a sudden, Atlanta throws it's had into the ring to the surprise of everyone. And how this came about is Robert Cassell was a New York based attorney who had had some experience uh in the fight game. He had
helped promote the Joe Fraser Jimmy Ellis Championship fight. He tried to get Ali back in the unsuccessfully and then had an idea, which was to call his father in law, a gentleman named Harry Pett who owned a business in Atlanta, and called his father in law to say, Hey, Dad, is there anybody out there in Atlanta that you know who could pull off a fight involving Muhammad Ali? And his father in law called back and said, if you're going to get anything done in Atlanta, you go through
the state Senator Leroy Johnson. Leroy Johnson was the first black man elected to the Georgia State legislature since reconstruction. He was an insider in the political world in Atlanta and also in state politics. Leroy Johnson was one of the first politicians to recognize that while Georgia was under the control of Lester Matics, an avowed segregationist, Atlanta was becoming overwhelmingly black and that's where the power was. With
the pe bull. He sensed an opening. Maybe if he worked on this, he could get the Alie fight to Atlanta. Here's David Davis, so Leroy Johnson after talking to Harry Pett, searched the law books and found out that in Georgia there was no state law governoring the sport of boxing.
In other words, there was a loophole. When he saw that, he sensed an opening and realized that the power to license a fight in the state of Georgia would be through the mayor of Atlanta at the time, Sam Missell, and through the board of Aldermen and Leroy Johnson was a very, very smooth politician who had made friends on both sides of the aisle and with African American and white Americans alike, and he was allied with Sam Missel.
He had helped bring out the African American vote to help Missell get elected as mayor in nineteen sixty nine, and working with a close friend of his, Jesse Hill, who was president of Atlanta Life Insurance, they approached Miscelle and said, look, we can get this fight here, We can get a license for this fight here, we can bring Ali down here, and we can have a barn burner of an event that speaks to the rising sense of Atlanta as a major league city. Here's Henrietta Antonine.
She worked with Jesse Hill for thirty years and she helped him behind the scenes to support Larroy Johnson in his effort to get Ali a boxing license in Atlanta. Jesse Hill was a giant in Atlanta. He was the president of Atlanta Lice Issuance Company. He was a community activists. He was a highly professional businessman. He worked with the civil rights movement. He was chamitable, was among of the King Junior Center, and he was one of the first
African American to be on the Chamber Commerce. I was inspired when I started working for Atlanta Life, and I admired our president, who was very outspoken, who who was involved in anything that involved justice and quality for black people. Here's a man that was always looking for the injustices
that we're facing our people all the time. And he talked about how ridiculous it was that they were going to stop Muhammad Alive from fighting because of his his religious belief and I hear I heard him discuss it more time than I can count. So he was one of them. He was one of the first to talk about that was not fair and it was it was an unjust law and and he was against it. And I remember him saying that they were going to do
something about it. So between Jesse Hill and Moory each Unson lobbying Sam misseell that did it, and Missle was convinced to give a license for the fight in Atlanta, and in exchange he got a donation for an anti drug organization that they had set up. So Leroy Johnson made an appointment to see less dramatics at the Governor's
office at the Capitol. And the way he described it was that just before his meeting, the governor's son had been involved in a little bit of an incident and the judge had ruled every person deserves a second chance. Here is State Senator Leroy Johnson. When the word got out that he was going to fight here, the question was whether or not the government was stopping. But a mathematics was stopping. So I went to him and I said, go, I got an opportunity to get a license for Ellie
to fight. And Elie doesn't know anything but fighting. That's his profession. And if he doesn't like, he's gonna have it gone well there, Governor supposed well. At that time, Governor matic Son had got into trouble into Cab County and the Jersey. The Cab County said to his son when he came to a citizen, I'm gonna give you another chance. I went to Mandick and I said, all I'm asking government is to give Ali another chance so
that he can find that's his profession. And so Maddox said to me, and under that umbrella, give him another chance. He said, Okay, on with the fighting. Even after Governor Maddox agreed not to stand in the way of obtaining Ali a boxing license publicly, his stance did not change, nor did his support. This was revealed that several news organizations across the nation covered this story how he became a political issue rather than a heavyweight fighter overnight. The
minute he refused to be drafted into the army. He tried to get out of the draft by saying he was a minister of the Black Muslim faith, but the course weren't having any of that, and after that, the people who are unprofessional boxing of the United States stripped him of his heavyweight crown. Meanwhile, a group of a lot of blacks and whites managed to get play a fight with Jerry Quarry to get him a license and bring the fight to Atlanta. Mayor Sam Marsell proclaimed the
fight are Sports Appreciation Week. Governor Lester Maddis, though, had different ideas. He thought the whole thing was a disgrace and declared a day of morning. I don't see how this fight could take face very anywhere in the United States of America. Will men fetish did their his country's uniform and refused to be inducted into the service of
his country. So our call for a day of mourning because of this, at this tragic thing is halfway in this United States of America, where men have fought so long and their wives and children have sacrificed so much, that this would take grace in this great city, in our great state, even more than, like I say, anywhere
in the country or now. That I had an understanding of what was going on in the world around October of nine, I also wanted to understand about the boxers that were about to face each other in the ring. Here's David Davis talking about Jerry Corry and how he
became interested in his life. I had done a long future story on Jerry Corey for The l A Weekly, and I was very curious about Jerry's career because it was one of those that you see sometimes in sports, and in boxing a career where the ability was there, but it's just for whatever reason, whether it was timing or bad luck, he never quite reached the pinnacle of his sport, which in boxing would have been the heavyweight
championship of the world. And it did happen that he was fighting in an era where there were some amazing heavyweight fighters Muhammad Ali of course, but also Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ernie Shavers, just a collection of quality heavyweights, and Jerry was slightly undersized even for that era and unfortunately never quite reached the pinnacle. Here's Dr Hopson describing Ali's character as a boxer and a man. Ali was
known as the Louisville Lipp Prize fighter. Ali was not the typical arctype you know, black but art type athlete. I mean, he was extremely you know smart. It grown up at a middle class on where his father was a mail carry, his mother's school teacher. But he was you know big, he was charismatic, and he was you know, fast with his hands. He was just a new style of boxer, heavyweight boxer, and he had a conscious. He had a conscious because he was afforded particular good things
in his life in terms of his family structure. And so when he decides to not participate in the draft and he's willing to go to jail, and then he changes his name to Muhammad Ali from Cassius Clay. Of course he's stripped of his title, and then he's really blacklisted in terms of where he could go and what he could do. When you take away a man's livelihood, it's natural that he would go into survival mode. But the choices for Muhammad Ali were extremely limited. Here's David
Davis describing what Ali was facing around the country. Ali was in exile, so to speak, in the boxing community. He was stripped of his heavy A title and no one would touch him the big fight commissions New York, Madison Square, Garden, Vegas, Los Angeles. So what was he to do? How was he to make a living? And he struggled with that and did a play on Broadway. He was on the college lecture circuit. But all through this time period, his managers and business people affiliated with him.
They searched for maybe they would fight on a Native American reservation, you know, because that would be outside of a boxing commission. That didn't happen. They were gonna maybe fight in Tijuana. That didn't happen. No one really wanted to take the chance because they figured somebody's gonna jump
up and file lawsuits and it's going to get ugly. Meanwhile, the heavyweight division was moving along with Joe Frasier, so the powers that be in boxing were waiting to see how all this was going to be resolved, either four Ali or against Ali. No one wanted to take a chance and advertise that they were promoting a Muhammad Ali fight because it would have been very, very unpopular with both the general public and the boxing powers that be. Here's Dr Hobson explaining why Atlanta would be a perfect
place to host this boxing event. There's a ground swell of things going on here and this is called the Black New South. And so you must understand that Atlanta is growing. It has now become an entertainment city. And as a result of it being a sports and entertainment city, you mean you have the arrival of the Falcons, the Hawks, and the braves. We must understand that Atlanta is a new,
sexy kind of fast city with beautiful black people. Here's David Davis describing the scene as the fight, and that big weekend approached. It's bedlam in Atlanta. It's Mardi Gras,
it's New Year's Eve, it's everything put together. And over the weekend you had this influx of journalists and the fight crowd and all of the hustlers and ball v vance who could shake down to Atlanta for this fight, and it seemed that everybody congregated at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which had just recently opened and was known for its trademark atrium lobby and glass enclosed elevators so that you could sit at the bar and watch the action of
people coming down into the lobby and see what they're wearing or what they're not wearing, and have another drink and celebrate what everybody assumed, or most people assumed, was going to be a Mohammad Ali victory. As the city prepared for this monumentous event, many citizens across the nations were still divided on their support from Mohammed Ali. Here's Dr Hobson. You know, White America was upset with Mohammed Ali because they felt that he had made boxing political.
But the truth of the matter is that the body politics of what it means to be black big and strong has always been a political kind of conversation. They saw him as a draft dodger. They saw in his own patriotic when the truth of the matter is that Mohammed Ali was probably the most patriotic person in the United States because he believed in the American Constitution and felt like he had the right to protest or to
assert himself on his terms. I mean, in a city that is sixty seven percent black at this time, of course, he becomes the embodiment of the brains and the brawn of what it means to be black, particularly in the black New South. Right before all the festivities in Atlanta began, Chicken Man was dealing with this anxiety as he prepared to pull the party off, especially when he heard that engraved invitations were printed and passed out to a large
group of hustlers and gangsters. So he got the idea to move the party without telling anyone, and then letting people know at the last minute where the real party was going to be held. Here's Chicken Man telling j D from a tape recorded over forty years ago about his plan. Let me tell you another thing that really made me aware. I had to go back to New York for something. I called a cab back to the
train station downtime. Polo picked me up. Polo told me and said, god, man, do you know these people gotta have some invitations. I had no idea because I wouldn't agree, no way to have an invitation to give him the game to anybody, and to give me anybody. So I said, well, so when I got into a minute, I staid, York and I talked to him. So they already did it nine. So when I come back to allow, I get the
idea to move it with that didn't even know. And when they come where supposed to be, then we had taken to where it really is. Chicken Man starts to put his plan in motion by cutting a deal with a local thug who was hard up for cash. So a boy, a fellow I had out a little ding any probably his name was Teddy Pollard. Used to be a little thug drug using so he about to lose his house. So this this is a good way to
baddest house. Hi. I was gonna give him the money the badest house, hiding three or fold of notes or whatever to use the house. Three n fol day. It was a blessing both way. So we go and he we go to setting up the basement. So now the two or three days before the part for the for the fire, week before the fight, the people New York and some people here to build a out take. If people come with all the materials they want, they know what they wanted. So I had to go get somebody,
a copenter who could do what they want. And they know the lumber, they know everything all they needed, with some about competence who can father the instructions so they'd be at the craft table. But still I'm playing. I'm gonna move because I'm getting more engy and engy for some reason. But when he decides to tell his buddy Fireball, who would ask him to host the party, Fireball was against this plan. So then next morning I see called me.
I said, listen, man, we're gonna move. I've already arrayed, we're gonna move the game, the Craft game from my house to play. I gotta take you by and show you. But he got all upset. It's no, man, I don't want to move there. You gonna move for we want the crap game to be where the people are. People want to leave a party to go to the crap game. But the crap game at the part people get because
the game is all ready there. So I said, well, but Matt, so I tried to reason with him why I wanted to do that, but it was just again what he wanted to do. You know. I had second thoughts, but I said, Okay, now Chicken Man is back to where he started. He finally gets everything set up and even though he still had a bad feeling, the party was ready to go. Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Describing the scene. I went to the house prior to the party, you know, but I was a young boy, and I was like, wow,
they got it the whole place. I mean that was nothing in there but roule a wheels and card tables and crap tables, and I mean that's always in there, you know. And I was like, wow, this is incredible. He did it, and he pulled it off. Everything was working according to schedule. The pre partying starts at Chicken Man's house and things are rolling. Hustlers are dressed to the nines, Booze is flowing like a river. Money is
flying everywhere. The party of parties. Chicken Men had a bad feeling for weeks, and now that he sees all the action at his house, he knows some ship is about to go down. He doesn't know when, he just knows, but he's in it and he's got to let it play out. If so many people came in the house, I mean niggas had a meek heads. I mean I had, you know, and I thought I had been to a few places and saw a few things. But when I saw these things coming and the good, the good told me,
I got. I got. I actually got afraid then, because you know, I know the danger and the police catching all. Let's all us together whatever we call what we thought we would have. I mean people. Then there money, so I realized not in love and involved in something here. But I think I know WA makes some money though you know I'm staying because advises and all these big crap fits the biggest time they're only the time I saw the bush. You that that money that's said, that's
that's quite. I ain't eve knob of that right right there. I want shot that ain't invested with people better. I mean it came like never before. Everyone was in for a fight. Muhammad Ali was fighting the rust from his absence in the ring, the pressure from his supporters to regain his title, and for his safety as thousands of death threats were targeting him and his entourage. Jerry Corey was fighting to prove himself as a championship boxer and to live up to the title forced upon him as
the Great White Hope. J. D. Hudson was fighting to keep Ali alive since he was in charge of his security team in Atlanta, and soon Chicken Man would be fighting for his life. Nobody he knew that while this huge event was happening, a mastermind lurked in the shadows, preparing to take down the super Bowl of parties and robbed some of the most dangerous gangsters in the country, and it was all about to happen on Fight Night.
Fight Night is a joint production from High Heart Radio, Will Packer Media and Doghouse Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures. Produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer, James Lopez, Kenny Burns, Dan Bush, Lars Jacobsen, and Noel Brown. Supervising producers Taylor Hickoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush. Written by Jeff Keating and Jim Roberts. Edited by Matt Owen. Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolonnie Prescott.
Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players. Additional music by Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and Videotape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries. Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis. Fight Night is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, check out the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.