NEWARK, N.J. -- First, Cedric Kushner said, he convinced IBF founder Robert W. Lee that his organization should rank South African fighters despite that nation's apartheid policy. A short time later, the boxing promoter said, he learned there was a price.

Longtime IBF ratings chairman C. Douglas Beavers approached Kushner after his 1987 presentation to Lee and members of the powerful sanctioning group and demanded $20,000, Kushner testified Monday at Lee's racketeering trial.

Kushner said he agreed to pay only $10,000, and that payoff became the first of periodic payments that he made over the next eight years that were divided among Lee, Beavers and other IBF officials.

Kushner, a native of South Africa who became an American citizen and gained fame in the 1970s as a promoter of rock 'n' roll concerts before turning to boxing in 1982, is the fourth major promoter to testify against Lee.

All said payoffs were required to do business with the East Orange, N.J.-based IBF. As one of three major sanctioning bodies for boxing in the world, its rankings and decisions play a large role in the purses earned by boxers, of which managers and promoters get a cut.

Of the three, the IBF and the WBC would not rate South African fighters in protest of the now-scrapped apartheid policy that relegated blacks to second-class status.

Kushner, who promoted some black fighters from South Africa, protested.

"I thought it was double punishment to the fighters. They were discriminated against in their country and then they didn't get (championship) opportunities," Kushner said.

In undercover FBI tapes made by Beavers and played for the jury, he and Lee referred to Kushner as the "fat man."

The heavyset promoter, sporting his trademark walrus mustache, was not asked about the nickname, but corroborated testimony by Beavers on how the payoffs were done.

Three to four times a year, from 1987 through 1994, Beavers would drive from his home in Portsmouth, Va., to Kushner's home in East Hampton, N.Y., and get cash ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, Kushner said.

"You don't have to be too smart to realize it will impact you if you don't pay," Kushner said.

The visits would be preceded by a call from Beavers, who would say, "The boss wants to know when we're getting together again," Kushner testified.

"He might say, 'There are 5,000 reasons I have to come and see you,' " Kushner said. The implication was clear: he had to pay $5,000, Kushner said.

Beavers would deliver shares to Lee and Bill Brennan, then the IBF championship committee chairman, Kushner said.

The money was never for a specific favor, Kushner said.

Kushner is expected back on the stand Tuesday, where he is to discuss a $100,000 bribe other witnesses have said he funneled to the IBF for a rematch between heavyweight champion George Foreman and Axel Schulz.

Lee and other IBF officials are accused of taking $338,000 over more than a decade in exchange for favors and rigged rankings, but the bulk of that money stems from the machinations regarding Foreman and Schulz.

Lee, 66, of Fanwood, N.J., and his son, Robert Jr., 38, of Scotch Plains, N.J., are the only defendants on trial. They face multiyear prison terms if convicted of conspiracy, racketeering, fraud and tax charges.

Brennan, 86, of Warsaw, Va., past president of the U.S. Boxing Association, a group that became the IBF, was severed from the trial because of ill health.

The IBF's South American representative, Francisco "Pacho" Fernandez of Colombia, remains at large.