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The Man who built Gods
How did a lone underdog take men with no prospects and make them world champions?
Unless you’re a boxing fan, you’ve probably never heard of Constantine D’Amato, but if you’ve not heard of any of his fighters, you must have been living under a rock for the past century. Better known as Cus, Mr D’Amato was born in 1908 and passed away in 1985, shortly before his most famous student and adopted son, became the youngest ever heavyweight champion of the world.
Often in debt himself, Cus took the most disadvantaged students from the worst parts of town, paying for their food, equipment and even their board. He famously stood up to the mafia who largely controlled boxing , risking his life to do so. Muhammad Ali was a friend and great admirer of Cus, publicly referring to him as the ‘number 1 teacher of boxing in the world.’
It was not empty praise. Cus’s first world champion was Floyd Patterson, a teenager with pitifully low self esteem who would hide away from the world in railway tunnels sucking his thumb. Mr D’Amato moulded Floyd into the heavyweight champion of the world, carefully managing his career and picking his fights.
Ultimately Floyd betrayed Cus, as did Jose Torres, the second fighter Cus steered towards the world title. But D’Amato was never betrayed by the…
