Ryan Cormier

The News Journal

Fifteen years after the film "Fight Club" starring Brad Pitt was set in Wilmington depicting brutal underground bare-knuckle fights, life is imitating art in Delaware's biggest city.

A recent "60 Minutes Sports" report on Showtime uncovered organized, underground real-life brawls happening in Wilmington, run by a New York filmmaker and actor who is a former gangster with Mafia ties.

The night of fights took place last spring in a Wilmington neighborhood. It drew more than 60 beer-drinking spectators, but did not catch the attention of Wilmington police.

Danny Provenzano – who has appeared on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" and is the nephew of the late Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, a former captain in the Genovese crime family in New York – told The News Journal that he has been organizing fights in the region for for about a dozen years.

Provenzano, 50, of Harlem, says he has hosted multiple bare-knuckle boxing events in Delaware without the approval or sanctioning of state boxing regulators.

Up until the Sept. 2 airing of "60 Minutes Sports," an hour-long sports-themed news magazine program on the cable channel, these fights were known only to those who fought or paid $100 to watch and gamble on the matches, typically held in vacant buildings around Northeastern cities.

Now, Provenzano wants to bring his sport out of the shadows. He is attempting to legitimize the fights so he can stream them online on a new entertainment website he has launched. It's called Genco.tv, named after the olive oil company Vito Corleone uses as a front in the film "The Godfather."

His goal is to take the fights, which are even grittier than the hugely popular televised UFC mixed martial arts fights, into the homes of Americans – airing the matches for free to people who have registered on his sponsor-driven site.

"One of the reasons I did '60 Minutes,' and one of the reasons I would talk to you, is that we are currently trying to get this sanctioned – and it's in a state pretty darn close to where you are," Provenzano told a reporter. "We are actively speaking to this state to sanction one fight."

The only clue he would offer is that the potential site is not in Delaware or New Jersey.

While Provenzano would not flatly disclose that the Showtime fight was held in Wilmington, he leaves little to the imagination when discussing why the city is a good location for his events:

"Maryland has a big gypsy population, so we draw from that," he adds. "There are other factors as the reason why we were in Delaware, but guess what? We're in Delaware this weekend, somewhere else next week."

Provenzano obviously does not abide by the rule famously repeated by Pitt in the 1999 cult favorite: "You do not talk about Fight Club."

LOCATION SPOTTING

During the 13-minute "60 Minutes Sports" segment, journalist Armen Keteyian agrees not to identify the location of the fight other than to say it is happening in the Northeast. But anyone familiar with Wilmington can spot sights in the city as Provenzano and Keteyian drive up and down Pennsylvania Avenue while the promoter makes calls to line up the fights.

The fight was held last spring at the old Wilmington Blue Print building on Third Street near Greenhill Avenue. Scores of spectators filmed the action with their cell phones in a vacant second-floor room above Blueprint Motorsport, an auto body repair shop owned by John Tamar.

There was no boxing ring, just masking tape on the cement floor to mark where bare-knuckle boxers square off. Fighters cannot bite, kick or hold their opponents. And once an opponent drops to the floor, the punching must stop.

One of the fighters was retired Canadian boxer Bobby Gunn, who had a 21-6 record during his professional career. He lost to boxer James Toney in 2012 before eventually calling it quits. Keteyian reported Gunn won $40,000 in the Wilmington fight.

Gunn's winning punch knocked his over-matched opponent to the ground. Showtime aired the blow in slow motion as the man's nose exploded in blood and a single contact lens flew from his eye.

David Mangler, director of the state's Division of Professional Regulation, says fights like those shown on the Showtime segment are determined to be "combative fighting" under Delaware Code.

It is outlawed in Delaware and subject to criminal prosecution.

"All participants in a combative fighting event, including, but not limited to contestants, promoters, managers, matchmakers, seconds, judges, timekeepers and referees, shall be subject to prosecution," the law states.

Mangler says it is rare to get a complaint about illegal combative fighting in the state. "This is not something that is common that we know about."

Debbie Caputo, who lives near the Wilmington Blue Print building, was surprised to hear about fights being held not far from her front door.

"It's kind of odd that you live here and don't even know something like that is going on," she says. "It's a problem just waiting to happen."

For his part, Blueprint's Tamar says he agreed to let the fights be held at his business after a friend called asking for a favor because the first location fell through.

He says the night was more of a hassle than he anticipated with spectators having to walk through his showroom to use his bathrooms, passing Maseratis and Ferraris under the watchful eye of Tamar's employees.

The owner was on site the night of the fights, and can be spotted briefly in the Showtime episode – a cameo that resulted in calls from people who recognized him or his shop.

Tamar declined to host a second fight when asked again earlier this year.

"My lawyer called me saying, 'If you're not too busy putting together illegal fights, maybe you can come pick up my car?' " Tamar says.

'DELAWARE IS NOT A TARGET'

Wilmington police say they are unaware of any organized, illegal bare-knuckle fighting within the city.

"We have no complaints or arrests in reference to such activity," Sgt. Andrea Janvier said after viewing the "60 Minutes Sports" segment provided by The News Journal. "I can't confirm the [fight] location is even in our city limits. They definitely drive through on the way to the event."

In the segment, Keteyian reports that fights among spectators have broken out and that weapons have been pulled at past Provenzano events. But the promoter insists that his fights are safe, noting that fans are patted down for weapons by his security team.

"We run a very respectable operation," Provenzano says. "We monitor outside. We have doctors on premises. And we've never had to carry anyone away in an ambulance. I think the police think, 'What the [hell]. If this is the way they want to have fun, OK.' "

Provenzano says he hosts matches in different locations all the time. "We find a good spot and just get in and get out," he says.

Even so, he says Delaware isn't some bare-knuckle fighting capital just because it happened to be where he was when Showtime came calling.

"Delaware is not a target. It's not like we're like, 'Oh this is the greatest spot,' " he says.

On the night of the fight filmed by Showtime, Provenzano says he originally had 300 people who had reserved spots to witness the fights. But after he sent out a text message warning them that Showtime cameras would be on site, all but around 60 dropped out – not wanting to be seen on camera at an outlawed fight.

LIVING ON THE EDGE

A year before before going to prison on racketeering and tax evasion charges in 2003, Provenzano released "This Thing of Ours," his filmmaking debut as a director and writer. The Mafia-themed film co-starred Oscar-nominated actor James Caan, along with "The Sopranos" alum Frank Vincent and Vincent Pastore. He had also appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

After his release from prison, he returned to the entertainment world, landing a recurring role in the second season of Bravo's "Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Now his focus is on his new website, which also hosts an acoustic music performance program hosted by Aerosmith's Joe Perry, along with a mob-themed sitcom and animated show, both written by George Anastasia, former longtime Philadelphia Inquirer organized crime reporter.

Anastasia and Provenzano met years ago when Anastasia was still covering the mob for the Inquirer. Anastasia's byline was atop the article in September 2003 that reported Provenzano's racketeering sentencing.

These days, Anastasia has gone from covering the man known as "Danny Pro" to working for him.

He took on the freelance gig with Provenzano to write shows like "Wiseguys & Whackjobs" after closing out his extraordinary 38-year run with the Inquirer in 2012.

"I think Danny Pro epitomized what has happened to the American Mafia. It's become a brand and he's trying to cash in. Like Dolce & Gabbana or Prada, there's Mafia," Anastasia says. "To his credit, he's found a way, hopefully legitimately, to carve out a career based on who he was."

It's that legitimate part that Provenzano is still working on, especially in reference to the bloody brawls he runs.

As Anastasia puts it, "Danny, like a lot of these guys who have supposedly left [organized crime] and turned their lives around, likes to live on the edge. I think he gets an adrenaline rush from being the rogue, the bad boy.

"Yes, it is a crime, but it doesn't rise to the level of the other stuff he was doing when he went [into prison]. Bare-knuckle boxing is his way of still living on the edge."

That edge was on display when Provenzano was asked by Keteyian what would happen to him if authorities caught him running the illicit fighting ring.

A smiling Provenzano responds: "Have I ever looked into how much trouble I could get in for doing this? No because then maybe I wouldn't do it."

Contact Ryan Cormier at (302) 324-2863 or rcormier@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/ryancormier.