Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 8:21 a.m.
In the early 1960s ex-light heavyweight boxing champion Joey Maxim was driving a cab in Florida to make ends meet.
He picked up a woman, who, after seeing his hack license on the dash, asked, "Maxim, the fighter?" Maxim, flashing a wide grin, said yes.
After a short pause, the woman said, "So, what happened to all the money you made fighting?" Maxim responded: "Oh, I squandered it on fast women and good times."
The woman sat back fully satisfied by the answer that could not have been further from the truth.
It was a lot easier to concoct an answer that everyone would believe than painstakingly explain that, despite being one of the greatest fighters of his era, his purses were small.
Joey Maxim, the only fighter ever to knock out legendary middleweight champ Sugar Ray Robinson and a longtime Las Vegas culinary and gaming employee, died Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla., four months after suffering a stroke. He was 79.
Maxim, who was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1975 and was a longtime member of the Veterans Boxing Association of Las Vegas, will be buried Thursday in Florida. A memorial service for the Las Vegas resident of 20 years will be Saturday in Maxim's native Cleveland.
"He was a sweetheart of a guy -- everything a champion should be," said VBA Ring No. 711 President Joey Curtis of Las Vegas, a friend for more than 50 years. "He never complained about any of his setbacks in life. He always took things as they came."
The VBA will toll the bell 10 times in Maxim's memory at its annual meeting at Vacation Village on Sept. 19, Curtis said.
For his most noted victory, Maxim credited the horrible conditions -- not his fighting skills -- for knocking out Robinson at Yankee Stadium on June 25, 1952, to retain his 175-pound crown.
"Robinson knocked himself out," Maxim said in a 1979, interview. "It was over 104 degrees in the ring that night. He got tired. There was really no one punch on my part."
For that major fight, Maxim collected his largest purse ever -- just $81,000. Maxim said his cut after deductions was less than a third of that amount.
After his boxing career ended in May 1958 following eight losses in nine fights over three years, Maxim took cab driving jobs. Later at Las Vegas casinos, including the Nevada Palace, Frontier, Dunes and Aladdin, he dealt the wheel of fortune, often under a gaudy banner urging tourists to place bets and pose with the former champ.
Born Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli on March 28, 1922, Maxim won the Golden Gloves amateur title in 1939 and began his pro career in 1941. It would take him eight years, including a stint in the Army during World War II -- where he won 14 of 15 service bouts -- to attain the No. 1 world ranking.
On Jan. 24, 1950, the 6-foot-1-inch Maxim knocked out then-champion Freddie Mills in the 10th round in London to win the title. Maxim then attempted to move up to the heavyweight division, losing to champ Ezzard Charles in 1951. Still, Maxim kept his light heavyweight crown, managed to make the weight limit and defeated Robinson the next year.
In Maxim's third title defense, on Dec. 17, 1952, he lost a 15-round decision to Archie Moore in St. Louis. Maxim was paid just $80,000 for that fight and would go on to lose two more times to Moore in efforts to regain the light heavyweight title. Maxim called Moore the greatest fighter he ever faced.
During his storied career, in which he went 82-29-4 with 21 knockouts, Maxim also defeated ex-heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott and future heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson.
On May 7, 1983, Maxim, then a casino host at the Ambassador Hotel, was honored by the Veterans Boxing Association with a dinner, ironically at the Maxim hotel.
Maxim is survived by his daughters, Charlene Bagnall and Maxine Murphy, both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; his 97-year-old mother, Henrietta Berardinelli of Cleveland, and six grandchildren, three brothers and a sister.
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