Introducing: Fight Night

On October 26, 1970, Muhammad Ali triumphantly returned to the world of boxing in Atlanta, Georgia. But every national front-page headline the next morning featured the story of the largest black-on-black heist in history. At the center of it all - a hustler named “Chicken Man”. Fans arrived in Rolls Royces delivered from New York City. Adorned in vibrant fur coats and dripping with diamonds, they grabbed engraved invitations then strutted into the arena. The sold-out crowd stood and cheered when the first-round bell rang, minus two empty seats. After the fight, many celebrating the victory, including top black mafia leaders, headed to Chicken Man’s house with invitation in hand. Instead of women and wine greeting them at the front door, each walked into the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. On FIGHT NIGHT, J.D. Hudson, one of the first black detectives in Atlanta’s desegregated police force helped lead Muhammed Ali into the ring. The next day, he was assigned to the robbery by the chief of police. When asked by a journalist years later, “When did the investigation end?” J.D. summed it up perfectly, “When everybody was dead.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So when did the investigation end? You want the truth?
What about was dead? I'm Jeff Keating. This is fight night.
Ali was in exile in the boxing community, stripped of
his heavyweight title. No one would touch him. This fight

(00:24):
represented the brace from Mamma Ali. M every hustler, drug dealer, thief,
number runner, blue laggard, you could take up. They were
coming from everywhere. Why did the press keep following this story?
Ali Castius Claig, There's not one. Number two is? It
was a million all robber. Everybody thought my dad set

(00:47):
that party up. They were gonna kill me and my
little sister. They were gonna kill my mom. They were
gonna kill us. They grabbed them, got the damn money,
they took the damn shotgun. In the month, I would
take back and bids that damned head over. This is
the story about two guys from opposite sides of the street.
A hustler blame for robbing the most dangerous gangsters in

(01:09):
the country like this. I don't have no ideas at all.
I mean, I guess you know this is like this
is a death one for me for something that I
don't even know anything about. And the cop who tried
to save his life. They thought he had robbed a
black mafia. Some of the toughest man in this country,
some of the dead list man in this country. Guys

(01:30):
not hesitated to bow your heir on. This story from Atlanta,
Georgia has been reported for fifty years, but now, for
the first time, you're going to hear what really happened
from the people who lived it. Fight Night premieres on October.
Listen and subscribe to Fight Night on the I Heart

(01:50):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.