In his first 12 years at the helm of Golden Gloves boxing promotions, Rodney Berman failed to produce a world champion. Every one of his fighters who tried was beaten.
Then, in 1989, to his own surprise, he signed up Brian Mitchell, already holder of the WBA junior lightweight crown.
But there was the fear that this bad luck would rub off onto Mitchell as he headed to his first showdown against Jackie Beard.
"We were nervous," recalled Berman, who has now completed 40 years in the business, during which he has staged 255 world title bouts. "There was a perception that Golden Gloves couldn't produce world champions, maybe we were bad luck - everybody had lost with us."
As they drove together to the venue, Mitchell's then wife, Kathy, was reading his horoscope. "She told him: 'Brian, it says that whatever you do today is going to turn to gold. This is great.'
"Brian turned around: 'Kathy,' he replied, 'You do realise Jackie Beard and I share the same star sign [Virgo]?'" recalled Berman with a laugh.The 74-year-old seems like a piece of the furniture in South African boxing these days, yet he got into the sport by accident, as a struggling attorney. "And I mean struggling," he said.
He took on a client who wanted to sue Maurice Toweel, a promoter who owed R10,000 he had borrowed for a tournament featuring then top local heavyweight Mike Schutte.
"People were reluctant to take on the Toweels then because there was a perception they were like the mafia," said Berman. "I needed the work."
The Toweel boxing family were major players in South African boxing, having staged the first black-versus-white bout between their own light-heavyweight star, Pierre Fourie, and black American world champion Bob Foster in 1973.
But a few years later Toweel's Springbok Enterprises was in trouble.
Berman and Toweel became friendly during the legal action, and the lawyer offered to put him into sequestration to end his massive debt woes.
Toweel had one misgiving. "I have this fighter," he told Berman. "His name's Charlie Weir and I don't want to lose him."
Berman raised money from friends to put on his first fight in 1977, between Weir and Bushy Bester. He did it under the name New Springbok Boxing Enterprises, but soon afterwards changed it to Golden Gloves, with Toweel as his matchmaker.
Weir, an explosive junior middleweight, proved to be the biggest crowd-puller Berman has ever promoted, with heavyweight Johnny du Plooy second.
Berman staged Weir's fights on Monday nights, which clashed with the popular TV series The Villagers. "Everybody said I was dilly, but we sold out every show," said Berman, who still speaks affectionately about Toweel and Weir.
"Maurice taught me more about life than anybody," he said of the wheelchair-bound Toweel, who had polio as a child. "His positivism - he was always positive.
"And Charlie, anybody would pay anything to have him, and he chose to stick with me."Berman remembers one moment during late-night negotiations for Weir's 1982 challenge against WBA champion Davey Moore; he, Weir and the boxer's trainer, Billy Lotter, were up against Moore's promoter, Bob Arum, and sponsor-cum-promoter Sol Kerzner, then head of Southern Sun.
"Kerzner had summoned us - he didn't call you. It was 11pm, midnight, and Charlie turned around and asked to speak to me alone."
Weir was going to get a purse of $100,000.
"Charlie, don't you like the purse?" asked Berman.
"It's fine," replied the boxer. "I want to know, are you happy with the deal?"
"What do you mean?" asked Berman.
"We've been in this together. If you're not happy with the deal we can do a world title fight another time," Weir said.
Berman remains stunned by this gesture.
Berman's first world champion was Welcome Ncita. He and his mostly Jewish partners accompanied Ncita on his quest to Tel Aviv, Israel, where he challenged Fabrice Benichou for the IBF junior featherweight crown in early 1990.
"We were a group of mostly Jews going to Israel hoping a black kid beats the s**t out of a Jew."
Berman was so nervous by the time the opening bell sounded, he couldn't watch, and instead hid near the rest rooms with the equally stressed wife of Ncita's manager, Mzi Mnguni.
Ncita won on points and Berman and Mnguni went on to enjoy a lengthy relationship, producing other stars, namely Vuyani Bungu and Mbulelo Botile.
They never had a contract. "We did it on a handshake," Berman said.
When boxing opened up after international isolation, Berman was loath to give token world title opportunities to lesser-skilled black fighters who would be nothing more than cannon fodder.
So he refused when his US-based partner, Cedric Kushner, suggested in 1994 putting Bungu in with Kennedy McKinney, who had dethroned Ncita for the IBF title two years earlier.
"I didn't think Bungu could beat him. Cedric phoned Mzi and Mzi asked me."
Berman still refused, but Mnguni kept badgering and eventually Berman softened.
"I asked him: 'Mzi, can he go four, five rounds?' He said: 'Rodney, he'll win the fight' ... Mzi Mnguni was a genius."
After four rounds Berman was satisfied that this wasn't the mismatch he had feared. After five he realised Bungu was actually winning, and after the sixth he couldn't watch anymore and left the arena.
Bungu won on points over 12 rounds. "That is the finest victory by a South African," said Berman. "McKinney was an Olympic gold medallist and an unbeaten world champion."
Berman's fighters, not all of them South African, have enjoyed some sensational victories over the years - Hasim Rahman beating Lennox Lewis, Harry Simon edging Winky Wright, Corrie Sanders blitzing Wladimir Klitschko, Sugar Shane Mosley defeating Oscar De La Hoya, and Sugarboy Malinga dethroning Nigel Benn, one of the stars of the English ring in the 1990s.
Berman recalled how Malinga, a religious man, had called asking to meet him before the fight. "He arrived at my office and he asked do I mind if he prays. I said no, go ahead. He prays and then says: 'God came to me and says Berman is not paying the right purse.'
"He was getting a decent purse and I couldn't afford to pay him more, but I said to him: 'Look, if you win, I'll pay you R50,000 extra.'
"He prayed some more and then he turns to me and says: 'I'm talking to God and he says it's OK.'"..