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Mark Gastineau is a former all-pro defensive end in the National Football League who played for the New York Jets from 1979 until ’88. A ferocious pass rusher, he accumulated 100.5 quarterback sacks in his first 100 starts in the league. In 1984, Gastineau set the record for most sacks in a single season (22), which stood for 16 years until the New York Giants’ Michael Strahan controversially broke it in 2001, as Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre seemingly allowed Strahan to sack him.

Gastineau retired from professional football and began a career in professional boxing. Those who managed his boxing career wanted to capitalize on his name and build an impressive record for him against hand-picked opponents. Their goal was to secure a huge payday against former heavyweight champion George Foreman. Because of his sheer size, brute strength and athletic ability, Mark would have won some professional boxing matches against the right opponents without any training.

However those around him used him as a pawn and led him to believe he was actually a good boxer. I’m confident he was unaware of the lengths his manager and trainer would sink to in order to secure a huge payday for the well-known football player. Two years after he began his boxing career I unwittingly would become involved in a fixed fight featuring Gastineau.

In the spring of 1993, former heavyweight boxing contender /character actor Randall “Tex” Cobb who lived in Nashville at the time, started training at Club Knockout, a boxing gym that I managed. This was the home of our amateur boxing team and my professional boxers. In the next few months, the boxers and I got to know the personable Cobb fairly well. Cobb had been retired from boxing for several years, but was on the comeback trail. He had strung together several wins and was attempting to fight his way back into contention to become heavyweight world champion.

In his first career as a boxer, Cobb served as the proverbial punching bag for heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in a fight so one-sided that ringside announcer Howard Cosell decided to call it quits as a boxing announcer. Cosell supposedly was outraged the noncompetitive fight was allowed to continue. Larry Holmes was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers I’ve ever seen and his left jab might have even been better than Muhammad Ali’s. It was almost impossible for other boxers to get past his jab. He made nearly all his opponents look ordinary.

Although Cobb wasn’t blessed with great skills, he was unbelievably tough and durable. He took everything Holmes dished out that night and never buckled or went down. I don’t believe there was an opportunity for the referee to stop the bout in spite of the Cosell criticism.

At the end of Cobb’s first boxing career, I was in the building and saw with my own eyes he and former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks nearly beat each other to death in a match Cobb won at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville. Cobb was definitely a rock-’em, sock-’em type of fighter. In his prime, he was also one of the toughest men ever to lace on a pair of gloves.

While training with us at Club Knockout, Cobb indicated he wanted to fight again in a main event in Nashville. He told me his manager, “Elvis” Rick Parker, who also managed heavyweight contender “Smokin” Bert Cooper and Gastineau, wanted to promote in Nashville. He said Parker didn’t have a license in the state and needed a local promoter to co-promote the show. I’d read somewhere that Parker wasn’t the most honest guy, but I had never met Rick and didn’t know anything about him other than I occasionally would see him in the corner with Gastineau and Cooper in bouts on television.

Through the years, I had worked with many other promoters even the one and only Don King without incident. In fact, Bob Goodman, the vice president of boxing at Don King Productions, asked me to help him get officials for a world championship fight they were doing in Nashville. I’d met Bobby years before and Bobby is a great guy. So I introduced him to several local officials who were hired as judges, referees, physicians and even a timekeeper for the event.

Even though I was somewhat leery of working with Parker I was enamored with the thought of being involved with a promotion involving famous boxers Cobb, Cooper and Gastineau. Tex Cobb was famous for his involvement in boxing and for his biker role in the Nicolas Cage movie Raising Arizona. I felt that he would draw a very large crowd to the auditorium and it would be a profitable promotion.

During a conversation with Cobb, I explained my concerns about working with Parker. He told me he would fight in the main event and that we should do well at the gate. As for Parker, he said to make sure you protect yourself. So I spoke with Parker on the phone and we verbally agreed to do the show together. We were to use my promoter’s license. In essence, I was a front man for Parker who was the actual promoter. In exchange for the use of my license, Parker would put Tex Cobb in the main event, and place Bert Cooper in an exhibition against five different boxers. Parker also said he would give Mark Gastineau and my fighter Keith McKnight undercard bouts. We agreed to a 50-50 split of the profit from the event.

During the next six weeks or so, I worked very hard to help promote the show that was to showcase Cobb in the main event. Cobb continued to come to our gym and to spar with our boxers. Everyone was working hard for the upcoming summer show. I had posters printed, we did press conferences, radio and television interviews to promote the upcoming event. Everything was going well and ticket sales were brisk. The local fans were excited and it looked like the event was going to be a huge success. Then, about a week before the show, Cobb mysteriously pulled out of the fight even though he was healthy and hadn’t been injured while training. I thought it was bizarre and it really perplexed me. Why was Cobb pulling out of the fight? For the life of me, I didn’t understand it.

I’d invested so much time and money in the show and was worried I might take a financial beating on the promotion. Parker assured me everything would be OK and that we should move forward with the event. Travel and lodging arrangements had been made for the participants on the show so I agreed to carry on as planned.

A couple of days later, the 300-hundred pound Parker and his entourage arrived. Cooper and Gastineau flew into town with their respective trainers. Parker drove to the gym in a two-seat white Mercedes with a girl from a local escort service by his side.

Kenny Merritt, one of the heavyweights in our gym, sparred with the dangerous Bert Cooper. Gastineau’s trainer held the hand mitts and had him hit those but he didn’t allow him to spar with anyone. While watching him train it was evident to everyone in the gym that Mark was a novice boxer. A couple of local pro’s working out in the gym said to me almost in unison, “Kerry, please get me a fight with him.” Mark had a big name and these guys wanted to add it to their boxing resume.

I felt sorry for Gastineau because I could see he couldn’t box and I was certain that his handlers were only using him to land a payday. They weren’t investing the necessary time to build boxing skills.

During those few days Gastineau was in our gym, I got to talk to him one-on-one quite a bit and I really liked him. He had gone through some hard times and had been in a lot of trouble. He told me he had given his life to Christ and was trying to follow Him. I could see he was having some challenges in his walk as a Christian. I remembered how difficult it had been for me, in those early years as a Christian and the slow process of growth I went through. I reflected on my many failures as a believer in Christ and I could tell it was not easy for Mark either. I was saddened to see what he was going through and how his management team used him for its own purposes.

The event was scheduled for Saturday June 18, 1993, at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. Parker privately had arranged for a boxing manager from South Carolina to bring an opponent for Gastineau. Terry Miller was the fighter’s name and his boxing record was 0 wins and 10 losses. Gastineau’s record that night was 14-1 against handpicked opposition.

The crowd roared in excitement as the match began. The smaller Miller was quicker than Gastineau. Miller began hitting Mark with quick, clean punches as he darted in and out while the confused Gastineau swatted at but missed his elusive opponent. Miller easily won the first and second rounds and was handily winning the third round. Gastineau looked like he didn’t have a clue about what was going on and why he couldn’t hit his opponent. It was evident Mark was losing the fight. The crowd was cheering for him and imploring him to fight. Suddenly, without a punch being thrown, Miller abruptly fell down and didn’t get up. I’ve seen fighters lay down before in venues all across America. But it usually was because they were overmatched, scared, taking a beating or completely exhausted, and they didn’t want to get seriously hurt. However, this was shockingly overt since Miller hadn’t been hurt and was sailing to an easy victory. The referee stood above him and counted to 10. Gastineau was credited with another knockout on his record. The auditorium crowd smelled a rat and began harmoniously chanting “bull----, bull----, bull----.”

After the show ended, Parker and I met with Bob Skoney the auditorium manager. Skoney paid Parker for the ticket sales at the gate that night. Parker then paid the remaining bills and the fighters out of the proceeds. He looked at me and said, “You and I will settle up later.” I replied, “OK, that’s fine.” He then stuck the balance of $15,000 into his briefcase. I never saw, heard from or talked to Parker again. But I didn’t care. The thing that was much, much worse to me than not getting my share of the gate was that I had badly tarnished my reputation by being involved with Parker and the promotion. That hurt me more than anything.

On October 4, 1993, Sports Illustrated published an article titled “The Fix Was In.” The article accused Rick Parker of traveling around the country with Tex Cobb and Mark Gastineau and fixing fights in their favor. Although there was no concrete proof of wrongdoing by these guys, suddenly it all made sense to me and I understood why Cobb had pulled out of the fight. In fact, Cobb later won a huge lawsuit that subsequently was overturned on appeal against Sports Illustrated for harming his reputation.

Gastineau knew he wasn’t fighting the toughest guy in the world, but I honestly didn’t believe he knew Parker was paying his opponent to lay down that night. However, the Sports Illustrated article reported that he was aware of what was going on in his fights.

Things did not end well for Rick Parker. On April 28, 1995, Tim “Doc” Anderson a professional boxer that Parker had formerly managed and allegedly poisoned before a boxing match against Gastineau, confronted Parker in a Florida hotel room. Anderson said an argument ensued as Parker began yelling and cursing at him, including making threatening comments about his disabled sister Erin. Anderson pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot Parker to death.

The trouble between Parker and Anderson had started several years before in 1990. Parker originally was Anderson’s boxing manger until he picked up Gastineau and Cooper. According to Anderson, Parker had stolen his earnings from boxing matches on the pretense of putting it in an escrow account for him. Reportedly Parker had spent $150,000 of Anderson’s money on cocaine.

As noted earlier Parker began building Gastineau in anticipation of a huge payday against George Foreman, but Gastineau was having trouble beating the opponents that Parker was handpicking for him. After Gastineau had won nine professional fights, Parker secured a fight for him on USA’s Tuesday Night Fights. He needed a safe opponent for Gastineau and he allegedly offered Anderson $500,000 to lose to Gastineau on television June 6, 1992. Anderson refused and gave Gastineau a beating that night.

To get Gastineau back on track, Parker needed a win over Anderson. He talked Anderson into a rematch and again asked him to take a dive but Anderson again refused. Anderson and Gastineau fought again in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on December 3, 1992 where Parker supposedly paid a corner man in Anderson’s corner to place poison in Anderson’s drinking water. Anderson became very ill during the fight and was knocked out by Gastineau in the sixth round. The effects of the drugs never wore off. Anderson was sick and bed-ridden for much of the next couple of years. He constantly was vomiting and would bump into walls while walking and fall down.

Parker then reportedly had Anderson beaten with a baseball bat by two masked thugs who also threatened to kill his sister and her two children if he didn’t stop the allegations about his poisoning and Parker’s fight fixing. Anderson’s sister had been paralyzed in a diving accident and when the goon’s told him that Parker knew his sister’s address he took it as a personal threat against her and that was the thing that drove him to meet with Parker.

Anderson said he took a pistol with him because Parker was known to carry a gun and he was afraid to meet him without a weapon. I’ve never met Anderson but everything that I’ve read or heard about him is that he is a decent guy who only wanted to protect himself, his sister and her children. His biggest mistake in life was to have been associated with Parker.

Steven Canton wrote an article about Anderson titled, “The Story of an Unfair Trial.” In it he said – “Tim “Doc” Anderson was convicted of a crime he did not commit. He was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and has been incarnated since April 1995 in a Florida prison, serving life with no chance for parole. Yes, Tim Anderson did shoot and kill his former promoter on that fateful day, but it definitely was not premeditated. If he had been convicted of anything less, he would have already served his time and been a free man.”

I’ve made many mistakes in my life by being involved with people that I shouldn’t have been with. Fortunately, we never attempted to kill anyone. Sadly though, there were times in my life when I was a bad influence on others. I encouraged others to do wrong. Thankfully, the Lord protected me during those sinful years. I wish I could go back and correct those things. I wish that I could take back the hurt that I’ve caused others. But I can’t. All I can do is learn from my past mistakes and to be loving, gentle and kind to those who cross my path today and every day that I have left.

The Bible teaches Christians not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). In this scripture the Bible asks the question: “What does righteousness and wickedness have in common?” The answer is nothing. Those who are wicked will do evil things and although those who are righteous will try to avoid them they will be a party to the evil because they are unnaturally yoked or partnered together with the unbeliever.

After I became a Christian, I shouldn’t have partnered with unbelievers. There’s nothing wrong with helping someone who doesn’t share your belief or value system, if you aren’t helping them to do evil. However, if you are a partner with someone who is an unrighteous person and they do something unethical, illegal or even wicked it will reflect badly on you as well, even though you may be totally innocent. People who don’t share your belief system always will try to get you to compromise your standards.

My dreams and aspirations clouded my judgment and like a fool I rushed right into numerous bad situations. Fortunately, the Lord protected me from danger and led me down a righteous path – a path that I strive constantly to follow to the best of my ability.