Don Kings Vision

I was reading The Black Lights, a book written by Thomas Hauser which goes into detail about the inner workings that make boxing tick. It contains many fascinating stories and no behind the scenes boxing book would be complete without Don King. King unsurprisingly does not come off well in the book but one of the more amusing tales about him which highlighted the lengths he would go to get what he wanted.

It was late 1977 and the heavyweight division was at the end of its golden period. The ranks were thinning, contenders hard to find and Ali as the champion was ageing. Foreman had retired to start life as a preacher but with the division starting to slip King felt it would be best if Foreman came out of his retirement to bolster it and provide some more interest. His plan was to appeal to the newly awakened religious side of Foreman.

A close fried of Foreman, Hayward Moore, had recently died and shortly after the funeral Foreman received an urgent phonecall from King. King claimed he had experienced a vision. A dream-like vision that was surely a message from God. In it, King claimed that he, Big George and Georges recently departed friend were making their way to the ring again. George was adorned in robes and shorts sporting religious crosses. This was surely a sign that Georges destiny was to return to the ring.

King is undoubtadly a man of great vision but unfortunately for him on this occasion Foreman was not sold (although ironically he would re-enter the ring about a decade later as the punching preacher). But one of the more amusing stories about King out there.

Interesting stuff and I can believe it!!

funnily enough King got the beter of nearly all his fighters "financially" (diplomatically put huh!!) Holmes, Witherspoon, Chavez......

However perhaps the dumbest he had... was the only one who "got" the better of him...

Clever Trevor Berbick came out a couple of weeks before the Tyson fight and told King...Cooney's people had been on the phone and he was leaving the Unification tournament to fight Cooney for twice the money!!

King said and rightly so that he'd sue him till kingdom come....Berbick said "he didn't care" and King knowing Berbick knew this was probably true!!

Anyway Berbick came back and said you give me all my purse ($2.1m I believe) with no deductions...(King had a habit of hugely deducting expenses a la Witherspoon-Bruno) and I'll fight!!!

King agreed!!

There was no phonecall from the Cooney camp..........

Sounds about right. Nice story, Manos, typical King really.

Totally unsurprising. Don King typifies everything wrong with boxing nowadays. A vile, corrupt individual who gets fat off the boxers he manages and then leaves them with nothing. He also bribed the judges in the first Lewis v Holyfield fight I am convinced of it. There is no way a competant judge could score that a draw. I am not surprised in the slightest he would stoop to a low trick like this to try and get Foreman to come back so he could rip him off and take his money!

Don't knock the guy he is a hustler.

He put on some of the greatest shows in boxing. Yes he is a snake but when he was on top, boxing was on top.

Not sure if this is 100% true but for Benn Eubank II, King had an agreement in place with Warren that would make him the promoter of both the winner and loser. Unfortunately for King, the result was a draw so Warren held on to Benn and Heran held on to Eubank.

There's a scene in the Klitschko documentary where King invites the brothers over to his mansion after Wlad won the Olympic gold, with a view to signing them up. He tried to impress them by going over to his piano and playing some classical music, "How many promoters can do this! Look at me, I'm clever!" kind of thing, only for Vitali to notice that it is one of those automatic plays itself pianos. Thus proving King to be untrustworthy, and thence the brothers didn't sign with him.

Union Cane wrote:There's a scene in the Klitschko documentary where King invites the brothers over to his mansion after Wlad won the Olympic gold, with a view to signing them up. He tried to impress them by going over to his piano and playing some classical music, "How many promoters can do this! Look at me, I'm clever!" kind of thing, only for Vitali to notice that it is one of those automatic plays itself pianos. Thus proving King to be untrustworthy, and thence the brothers didn't sign with him.

That's when they first realised King may not be trustworthy? Cool story though..

paperbag_puncher wrote:That's when they first realised King may not be trustworthy?

They had spent most of their lives kick-boxing and playing in radioactive puddles up to that point, so had probably never heard of him.

Some set of balls on King I'll give him that.

Has King ever promoted a fighter who hasn't sued him ?

You may laugh at that story but think about what King would have done with them 2 especially Vitali marketing wise.

Just think.

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:You may laugh at that story but think about what King would have done with them 2 especially Vitali marketing wise.

Just think.

Got to agree with King behind them there would be no reason the brothers would not be able to fill football stadiums when they fight, if only.

rowley wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:You may laugh at that story but think about what King would have done with them 2 especially Vitali marketing wise.

Just think.

Got to agree with King behind them there would be no reason the brothers would not be able to fill football stadiums when they fight, if only.

Rowly you are far too clever for me mate.

Can't tell if you are agreeing with me or being sarcastic?

Sarcastic mate, no offence meant just thought it was amusing and to be honest I do have a bit of an issue with the oft repeated theory the brothers either do not draw or are anonymous, they are massively popular, just not in the places fighters in the past have been popular.

Just noticed that Union and Jeff have swiched roles. For the benefit of us mere proles, what's the difference?

superflyweight wrote:Just noticed that Union and Jeff have swiched roles. For the benefit of us mere proles, what's the difference?

Union knew what he was doing.

Is Jeff acting like a child again and being sarcastic!!!

Seriously we do appreciate you onetwo..we just have our different ways of showing it!!

I remember the Foreman Frazier fight where King was hanging on to Frazier at the start of the fight and six minutes later he was all over Foreman like a rash. He was in boxing for himself and nobody else, ask Tyson and many others he robbed. He did put some good shows together though

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:You may laugh at that story but think about what King would have done with them 2 especially Vitali marketing wise.

Just think.

yep, he could have made them as broke as each other

rapidringsroad wrote:I remember the Foreman Frazier fight where King was hanging on to Frazier at the start of the fight and six minutes later he was all over Foreman like a rash. He was in boxing for himself and nobody else, ask Tyson and many others he robbed. He did put some good shows together though

Just like Oscar after the Khan/Garcia fight.

azania wrote:

rapidringsroad wrote:I remember the Foreman Frazier fight where King was hanging on to Frazier at the start of the fight and six minutes later he was all over Foreman like a rash. He was in boxing for himself and nobody else, ask Tyson and many others he robbed. He did put some good shows together though

Just like Oscar after the Khan/Garcia fight.

beat me to it Az, the smile on DLH's face after the fight when he is next to Garcia is cringe worthy.

They're all after the money. But in fairness, Richard Schaefer seems to have a lot of time for Khan. I wonder if it all talk for the TV.