Verdell Smith, a.k.a. Tommy Bowles, a.k.a. Tim Brooks (born November 1, 1963, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

) was a professional boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 in the light welterweight

Light welterweight

-Professional boxing:The light welterweight class is a weight division in professional boxing that has a limit of 63.5 kg or 140 pounds...

 (140 lb

Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

) division. Smith, a journeyman fighter, appeared on the front page of the May 10, 2004, edition of the The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, as he was the focal point of a lengthy article in the Times's sports section on alleged fight fixing.

Professional career

Smith turned professional in 1988 and fought the majority of his fights in Oklahoma and other Midwest states, under his birth name and other boxing aliases. In the article, Smith explained that fighting under assumed names "is what we needed to do, [in order] to get paid", and was also quoted as saying: "None of my fights are fixed. I just don't like getting hurt, and I'm not going to risk my brain and my kids to prove anything."

Among his notable fights, Smith lost to Jesse James Leija

Jesse James Leija

James Leija , is a retired professional boxer from Texas.-Amateur career:Leija had an amateur career that spanned three years, going 23-5 during this time. He won the San Antonio Golden Gloves in 1988...

, Julio César Chávez

Julio César Chávez

Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer.He is a six-time world champion in three weight divisions, and for several years he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world...

, and Jorge Páez

Jorge Paez

Jorge Adolfo Febles Páez is a Mexican boxer, actor and circus performer. Páez is the former WBO and IBF Featherweight champion. Paez is nicknamed " El Maromero", in honor of the acts he performs at the circus. Paez has been a circus performer in his northwest Mexico hometown since he was very young...

. The fight with Paez was the subject of a 2004 FBI investigation against promoter Bob Arum

Bob Arum

Robert "Bob" Arum is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. He also worked for the US Attorney's Office for the southern district of New York in the tax division....

 for fight fixing.

Fight fixing allegations

Smith is perhaps best known for his role in the government's attempted crackdown on fight fixing in 2004–2005. Smith, along with colleagues Buck Smith

Buck Smith

Buck Smith is a professional boxer in the cruiserweight division. Although Smith has never been considered more than a journeyman fighter, he is one of boxing's all-time knockout kings with 120 KO's....

 and Sean Gibbons

Seán Gibbons

Séan Francis Gibbons was an Irish politician who sat as Cumann na nGaedheal TD in the 1920s and as a Fianna Fáil TD in the 1930s...

, were called upon to give testimony. The crew were nicknamed the Knucklehead Boxing Club, and traveled throughout the Midwest making frequent appearances on fight cards.

External links