On Saturday April 25 at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York, a professional Boxing show unfolded into shameless robbery when the events Promoter Derick Gramling and reputed associate Clay Harris bounced a series of checks to the unknowing fighters that were appearing that evening, to the tune of $80,000, in truth, all of the paychecks assigned to the respective fighters were bad. As it appeared, the event failed to be financially productive with ticket sales crashing with an estimated 1,800 tickets sold in a 10,000-seat venue. The disastrous ticket sales left the promoters with over $100.000 of debt. It was later revealed that payments and commission checks to fighters and officials bounced had bounced in bad faith.The headline on the show was Syracuse’s Bryce Mills v Florida based Julio Rosa. Mills, managed by the esteemed Hall of Famer Russell Peltz. Both headline fighters were manipulated out of $45,000 between them.
The bond, posted by the promoter was the bare minimum allowed under the regulations of the New York State Athletic Commission at $20,000.
The Monroe County District Attorney’s office is presently doing their pre-indictment due diligence to charge at least Derick Gamling, & possibly Clay Harris with serious felony criminal charges.
In a shameless twist to this, Gamling & Harris started a public GoFundMe account, released across social media and in the local Rochester tabloids suggesting to the Rochester locals that the blame lay with local people of the area for not supporting the show.
This situation is still ongoing as of May 18, 23 days after the show.