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Ray SefoMan Magazine recently interviewed
Ray Sefo. Here's what Sefo had to say (interview by
Martin van Emmen):
Man Magazine: Ray Sefo, very surprising to see you here at a Muay Thai event in the Nonthaburi prison (Bangkwan area) in Bangkok? What brings you here?
Sefo: Every time I'm in Thailand I go to Romdo Gym. I heard that one of their guys (Abdulmalik Gadzhiev red.) had to fight, I think for a tittle or so. That's why I came here to watch these fights. Actually Alexei Ignashov told me about this event, he is more often in New Zealand these days.
Man Magazine: What's your opinion until now?
Sefo: It's awsome bro! I'm on a holiday and one hour ago I didn't have a clue to end up here, but it's fun. I just did some fitness, drove to Romdo gym, and decided to have a look here.
Great ambience, a lot of folks, but a bit too hot in the open! It's remarkable that so many foreigners are present, almost 80% of the visitors I guess!
Even when the entree fee is about 1000 Thai bath (approximately USD$25). To a lot of Thais, it's like a monthly payment, and Frank Sitpholek, who owns a Thaiboxing gym in Pattaya, did very well in organising a promotional campagne.
Man Magazine: Even if you're on vacation, you train in a gym like Romdo gym?
Sefo: No, not usually. During all my holidays I simply do some fitnees to keep my stamina in balance, like all athletes.
Man Magazine: When can we see you back in the ring?
Sefo: Probably that will be on May 28th in Paris. Right now I don't know who will be my oponent, but I'm sure it will be anounced soon.
Man Magazine: Ray, how do you look back at 2004?
Sefo: "Not too bad" I must say. See, losing to Musashi was ridicoulous, furthermore, I'm a happy guy. The match versus Musashi I simply won, in my opinion, oh well.. they ripped me off!! The whole year went well with victories over Sapp, Amada, and Goodrigde. I'm pretty sattisfied.
Man Magazine: Do you think that 'K-1' changed over the past few years?
Sefo: I'm not sure about it... it's like politics. The day after the match, the coach of Musashi, Frank Lionel, gave me a ring and told me that he was convinced I won that match by decision... what can I say!
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The History of the family behind the Ultimate Fighting ChampionshipBY SCOOP MCTROLLBefore reading any further, please read our disclaimer first.In the January of
2001, the ailing reality fighting contest known as
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, was purchased from its founder, the
SEG CORPORATION by
ZUFFA LLC. Three men,
Frank Fertitta III, his younger brother
Lorenzo Fertitta and their
brother in law, the low profile but nonetheless powerful,
Blake Sartini, are the owners of
ZUFFA LLC.
Lorenzo (Far left) and Frank III (Far right) with a friend.The
Fertitta brothers
Frank III and
Lorenzo, take the limelight in this
partnership and have recently become known to millions of people through the reality television show
'American Casino'. As the
CEO and
President respectively, of the
Station Casinos Empire, they appear to be amiable and successful young businessmen.
Las Vegas residents may know of Frank III through his involvement in many charities and community projects, including Catholic Charities, Opportunity Village and the Las Vegas Chapter of the I Have A Dream Foundation. They may know of
Lorenzo Fertitta from his time on the board of the
Nevada State Athletic Commission, or as the chairman of the
Nevada Resort Association. The two millionare brothers donate
hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to the
Republican Party and they are an integral part of the
Las Vegas A-list social scene. Many people have wondered just
how they came to be so
successful at such relatively young ages and where they came from. Our in depth report
'The Z-Files' will explore these issues and attempt to throw some light on the
history of the
family behind
The Ultimate Fighting Championship. I hope you enjoy reading
The Z-Files; it is the result of several months of research.
Part 1
It is
1993 in
Galveston, Texas and a relative to the
Fertittas, 89 year old
Vic Maceo has just shown how business is done in his family. The aging alleged
mobster had walked into the
Galveston Post Office, pulled out a
.38 calibre revolver and started
firing at postal worker
Pete Miller, whom
Maceo believed owed him money.
Maceo's aim was a little off since his hey day but he still managed to hit
Miller in the right arm,
shattering the bones and bringing him to the ground, wincing in
pain.
When the
Maceos and the
Fertittas ruled the town a few decades prior, this was the way disputes were settled in
Galveston, Texas. In this case
Vic Maceo had sold a house to
Pete Miller for
$45,000 in 1968 and when Miller sold it in 1991, he sold it for
$180,000. Naturally Vic felt that some of the profit should have been his.
Miller had once worked as a busboy at the
Maceo-Fertitta controlled
illegal casino known as
'The Balinese Room' and
Vic C. Mateo, who was also known as 'Little Vic' to distinguish him from his cousin
Vic A. 'Gigolo' Maceo, could not cope with the fact that a busboy had seemingly gotten the better of him.
As
Vic Maceo attempted to make his escape in his sports car,
police apprehended him. He gave himself up willingly and when approached by the police, he said in a defiant and firm voice,
"When you look a guy in the eye and tell him he owes you forty grand and he tells you, 'Let me get the file,' you know that the son of a bitch is lying." As the police slapped
handcuffs on him he retorted with
"You don't handcuff a gentleman in this town!" Such was the power that the
Maceo and
Ferttita gang once wielded in
Galveston
Fertitta In-Law 'Big' Sam Maceo, The 'Barber of Galveston'It all began in the early 20th century when two
Sicilian barbers arrived in
Galveston from
Sicily via
Louisiana.
Rose and
Sam Maceo were soon to build an
illegal gambling empire from simple
bootlegging roots and become known as
Papa Rose and
Big Sam. Along with their relatives the
Fertitta family, they would control the black economy, the
organised crime and the politics of
Galveston for many years. One of their more well known
illegal casinos was
'The Balinese Room' but by the mid 1930's, and the time that
prohibition ended, they had built up an entire city block of
illegal casinos and
gambling dens in
Galveston. Many people feel that they created the
Vegas format before
Vegas ever existed.
Sam Maceo organized for all the big name singers and bands of the time to appear at his casinos, including
Frank Sinatra.
The Balinese Room in Galveston Texas.
A gaming chip from the illegal casinoThe
Maceo-Fertitta gang was responsible for funding many things in the Galveston community and despite obvious connections to the
New Orleans mob; no one dared to complain about the criminal benefactors of the town. In fact those that did complain usually ended up sleeping with the fishes, according to local legend.
The
Maceo-Fertitta gang wielded great power and most of the other mobsters knew better than to tread on their turf. The Chicago crime czar
Al Capone had heard about the lucrative gambling and bootleg empire that the
Maceos and
Fertittas had built in
Galveston and he wanted some of that action. He planned to at first become a partner with them and then muscle them out of the picture once he had his hooks firmly embedded.
Al Capone sent his main man
Frank Nitti to
Galveston to intimidate the
Maceos into allowing
Capone to
"invest" in their businesses. The
Maceos received word of
Nitti's impending arrival and they decided that they would flat-out refuse any offers from
Nitti on behalf of
Capone to take a piece of their
illegal gambling pie.
They decided to call on the skills of the most
ruthless member of their family's gang, Maceo In-Law,
Anthony Fertitta. Nitti arrived in town and was introduced to the
Maceos and to
Anthony Fertitta, Fertitta told
Nitti that they needed to talk and he took
Nitti for a drive in his car. The two men were
gone for
several hours and it is not clear what events took place during that time. All that is known is that
Nitti was dropped at the
city limits very late that evening, he appeared to be shaken but alive and well. No one knows what took place during the car ride but when
Nitti made it back to
Chicago, he told
Capone that the
Fertittas were no pushovers and it would require an all out
war to move in on their territory.
Capone never pursued it any further.
Rose Maceo was suspected of many
gangland killings during the 1930's. Including his first wife and her lover, but no Maceo was ever convicted of a felony.
Al Capone came off second best when he tried to muscle in on the Fertittas.Sam Maceo, was the brain behind the Maceo-Fertitta empire and he was directly under the control of
New Orleans mob boss
Carlos Marcello, who later would be linked to the
assassination of JFK. Sam also helped the pioneer Vegas hotelier,
Moe Dalitz to get a gaming licence for The
Desert Inn Las Vegas's
first casino, not very long before his
death.
Papa Rose and
Big Sam had both passed away by the 1950's and many of the remaining
Maceo's and the dealers who worked in their
illegal casinos moved out to
Las Vegas.
The Galveston gambling empire was under the control of mob boss Carlos Marcello, who would later be implicated in the JFK assassination.The
Fertittas, who were
related to the
Maceos by marriage, took
control of the
Galveston gaming empire, where they honed their skills in the
casino and hospitality fields, a legacy that would remain lucrative to the family for generations to come. Unlike the socially more adept
Maceos, who flaunted their success despite its illegality, the
Fertittas did not take too kindly to publicity.
The August 1955 edition of Time Magazine that exposed the Fertittas as thugs.In
1955, a
Time magazine LIFE reporter visited one of the
illegal Fertitta casinos in Galveston. In an article entitled
'Thugs vs The Press', he reported the following in the
August 1955 edition of
Time Magazine. " Many a mug on the edge of the big time thinks there is a formula for dealing with newsmen: intimidate or bribe. In Galveston, Texas, where vice and crime abounds, Gambling Boss Anthony Fertitta tried that formula in an effort to prevent LIFE from getting pictures of his illegal operations. It did not work.
After LIFE Photographer Joe Scherschel and Reporter Hank Suydam took pictures (with a concealed camera) in one of Fertitta's gambling houses, the boss and two henchmen followed the LIFE men to their hotel. Photographer Scherschel took his film upstairs while Reporter Suydam encountered Fertitta and his two strong-arm men in the lobby. Fertitta demanded an explanation of what Suydam and Scherschel had been doing, suddenly smashed Suydam in the face. By the time Suydam had picked himself off the floor, Fertitta had switched tactics, tried to stuff a $20 bill into the reporter's pocket.
Last week, just before LIFE published "Wide-Open Galveston Mocks Texas Laws," Gambling Boss Fertitta was tried for simple assault in the Galveston justice court. After Fertitta pleaded "not guilty" and then refused to take the stand, Justice J. L. McKenna found Fertitta guilty, gave him the maximum punishment: a $25 fine. The conviction was much more important than the small fine. In Galveston, where gang leaders like Fertitta have long tried to pose as legitimate businessmen, the criminal conviction reported on Page One of Texas newspapers helped to expose these "legitimate businessmen" for the thugs they are."Partially in light of the adverse publicity that they began to attract and partially due to the more
conservative political climate of the mid to late 1950's, the Galveston
gambling empire began to slowly
crumble. Many of the
Fertittas also began to migrate to Las Vegas and it all finally came to a crashing halt in Galveston in
1957 when the
Attorney General Will
Wilson, along with the
Texas Rangers, smashed the
Fertitta's illegal gambling racket. The
glory days for the
Maceos and
Fertittas were
over in Texas, for the moment at least.
With
no choice but to shut up shop and leave town, a mass exodus took place. With the vast experience the owners and employees had gained in Galveston by running or working in the biggest chain of
illegal casinos and live entertainment restaurants in the country,
Las Vegas seemed to be the natural place to migrate. A pilgrimage from Galveston to Vegas of
mobsters, card dealers, croupiers,
hores and gamblers began. In those days
Vegas was not as heavily regulated as it is today and offered the lure of an
easy buck to such
dregs of society.
In 1960, a 21-year-old man named
Frank Fertitta Jr would arrive in
Las Vegas and find work at a
Casino as a
bellboy. With him are his wife and newborn son,
Frank III.
The fun for him, was just beginning.
(That was Part 1 of Scoop McTroll's new series 'The Z-Files'. Watch this page for part 2, coming to FS 24-7 soon.)
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