Did ya watch the Mayweather-McGregor fight? Seriously, it can’t beat the fight above from the summer of 1989 between duking Dems Mario Testa and Mike Rizzitelli.
By way of background it was the Democratic endorsement for mayor. Democrats in the city’s 133rd District were fighting for control following the death of long-time District Leader Paul Macciocca. Committee members elected former State Rep. Mario Testa, (yes, the same Mario Testa now party chairman) as the new leader over the objections of crusty committeeman the late Mike Rizzitelli who’d been fighting Mario for years.
Rizzi claimed the vote was illegal. Mario told him he was full of crap. Rizzi was your classic smoke-filled-room operative who’d fight anyone, anyplace even at age 66.
Community activist Cecil Young, for our historic-preservation benefit, served as videographer for the evening. Cecil dropped the camera trying to break up the fight. The guy at the lectern John D. Guman Jr. was town chair.
You decide, Testa-Rizzitelli or Mayweather-McGregor.
Loved catching Jim Callahan in the background, his perceptive and typical amused visage smoking his cigar. Also a young Brian Williams in front row.
I remember it as if it was yesterday