The King Has Left The Building

Slightly late, and I'm sure most of you know but Don King is finally out of World Champions and all out of Prizefighters after Cloud lost his belt to Hopkins. King of course is a very controversial character in the Boxing World, ruined many fighters financially and was probably the shadiest Promoter of all time. However on the flipside there were many great and very memorable fights he gave us, going from The Rumble in The Jungle and The Thrilla in Manila to guiding the careers of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Felix Trinidad, heck, name a big fighter through the late 70's, 80's or 90's and he probably promoted them.

So many lawsuits, so many dodgy dealings makes him one of the most hated Promoters of all time, from underpaying Ali by over a Million dollars, guys like Terry Norris having money stolen from him, the worst case I've heard is what he did to Tim Witherspoon. Tim was meant to make a quater of a million for fighting Greg Page, but wasn't allowed to train anywhere other than King's own training facilities in Ohio, King took off so much money from his purse for sparring partners and tickets for his friends that he only received around $40,000. Same happened against Bruno, Witherspoon was meant to make half a million but walked away with less than $100,000

However as much a scumbag and a convicted murderer he was, he was a huge personality and has earned a massive place among boxing history for better or worse. GBP have drowned him now and he can simply no longer compete, however I'm sjre he has a pretty little pension fund.

Not to mention he's 80-odd. Father time catches up with us all at some point...

"Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength" (Don King)

"If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread" (Don King)

"I'm a promoter of the people for the people and by the people and my magic lies in my people ties. I'm a promoter of America. I'm American people. You know what I mean? So therefore, uh, do not send for who the bell tolls 'cause the bell tolls for thee" (Don King)

"Martin Luther King took us to the mountain top: I want to take us to the bank" (Don King)

"Only in America can a Barack Obama happen. Only in America can a Don King happen" (Don King)

And my personal favourite......

"If a bullfrog had wings it wouldn't bump his behind every time he hopped" (Don King)

No, me neither.

You gotta love Don King. The mischievous charlatan and convicted murderer that he was.

Those quotes are virtually mindless...

Whilst Don’s genius should never be underplayed, anyone who can listen to the first Ali Frazier fight in prison and co promote the third is clearly a man of no shortage of drive, ambition and genius in his chosen field but I for one will not mourn his departure. Whilst he is clearly a brilliant promoter he is also a convicted killer and a man who has ripped off countless number of fighters.

Got to love the automatic piano he has in the Klitschko film though.

Rowley wrote: I for one will not mourn his departure.

I miss those mammoth cards he used to put on with 4 or 5 genuinely good world title fights though. He was the first to really showcase the genius that was Ricardo Lopez as well.

Those were the days I used to stay up till 05:00 in the morning rather than get out of bed at that time. Happy times.

You're wrong about the Page fight being the worst thing he did to Witherspoon.........

Purse was $1.5 million for Bruno and after expenses he ended up with $100,000....Not just that but after suing King he was frozen out of the Heavyweight scene..........

Whereas a guy like Tucker could fight nobodies and land a couple of title shots...Witherspoon beat Jorge Gonzales and the European number 1 and would find himself no higher in the rankings........

Chavez amongst others also fell out with King over financial issues........

Also the racial stuff aimed at Holyfield who wouldn't sign up to him was disgusting. King would shamelessly play the race card all the time whether it was trying to snatch guys like Tyson away from Cayton or Douglas/Holy away from their white managers..........

Of course maybe top of the list was trying to rob Douglas of his titles after his bonafide ko of Mike Tyson.......

The guy is below spit..............

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:You're wrong about the Page fight being the worst thing he did to Witherspoon.........

Purse was $1.5 million for Bruno and after expenses he ended up with $100,000....Not just that but after suing King he was frozen out of the Heavyweight scene..........

Whereas a guy like Tucker could fight nobodies and land a couple of title shots...Witherspoon beat Jorge Gonzales and the European number 1 and would find himself no higher in the rankings........

Chavez amongst others also fell out with King over financial issues........

Also the racial stuff aimed at Holyfield who wouldn't sign up to him was disgusting. King would shamelessly play the race card all the time whether it was trying to snatch guys like Tyson away from Cayton or Douglas/Holy away from their white managers..........

Of course maybe top of the list was trying to rob Douglas of his titles after his bonafide ko of Mike Tyson.......

The guy is below spit..............

Thought that the entire purse for btoh fighters from HBo equated to 1.5 million but Witherspoons end was %00K,, something like that anyway could be wrong.

was meant to say 500K...

For all of King's faults, however, we shouldn't forget that he is akin to Christ himself when compared to those terrible Klitschkos.....Or so Az told me.

King's life story is a fascinating one and it's impossible to deny that he has done some amazing things for the sport. Just the other day I referenced that, for example, a 1994 card of his featured Frankie Randall versus Rodney Moore, Ricardo Lopez versus Yamil Caraballo, Jorge Fernando Castro versus John David Jackson, Julio Cesar Chavez versus Tony Lopez and Felix Trinidad against Oba Carr all on the same night, and that was relatively common for Don at the time.

That long-standing rivalry for supremacy between King and Arum really forced their hands and, as such, we got some beautiful fights which we'd probably never get today. Having them competing against each other drove the pair on.

You can't take it away from King that he worked unbelievably hard to get to where he did, and that he had that certain 'something' about him. As the likes of Thomas Hauser and Kevin Mitchell have said, when you spend time with King you can see instantly how he had the knack of making people feel good about themselves and getting them to believe in his ideas and methods, even if they were pushing the boundaries somewhat.

They also, however, stated that, as much as he tried, he could never hide that dark side of him for too long and that he had the ability to turn from jovial and charming to enraged and menacing almost instantly. In 'Jacobs Beach' there's a chapter in which Mitchell talks about the time he spent in New York with King, when Don suddenly began thumping the table in a restaurant and yelling at the top of his voice to all and sundry how he's had to spend his whole life as the underdog and how the high-brow have always been out to get him; Mitchell argues very convincingly that he actually felt scared for his well-being, as if King could potentially do anything at any moment. There are also the stories of him screaming to Octavio Meyran after the 'long count' of Tyson-Douglas, "You're going to get my man beat, I promise you!"

That'd only be scratching the surface, of course. And then there's his shameless, blatant larceny with regards to many of his fighters' purses.

If indeed this is to be King's bow, then it comes with a mix of emotions. I'm glad we no longer have a convicted killer and huge shyster dictating much of what happens in the sport. At the same time, it's another link to boxing's golden age which has been broken, and the sport will likely be the poorer for it in some ways.

Such a polarising figure.

Boxing will miss King. It i already. Boxers is another matter. He gave the fans the fight they wanted. For me he is easily the best promoter boxing has ever seen. We will never see another promoter like him. He also took Warren to the cleaners which isn't all that bad in my book.

He may have been a shyster, but now we are left with a series of shysters running the sport, forever short changing fans with extremely poor cards and one decent fight.

King was good for boxing.

He was not a murderer. He was convicted for manslaughter. He served his time.

I recall reading an episode where he went into a New York restaurant and publicly abused and insulted John Gotti. He must have been very confident in the level of "backing" he had.

He beat a man to death over a gambling debt Az, it was plea bargained down to manslaughter, funnily enough by a judge who King later supported financially when he run for political office.

Well you seem to know more than the US court system. Are you suggesting that it was corrupt so that a poor black man could buy a rich white Judge? Or that the judge had so much faith in King that he knew he would be a success after his prison release?

Pull the other one mate.

King was hardly poor at the time he was convicted, he was probably the premier numbers czar in Cleveland at the time with more than enough money and influential friends to throw money at such a situation

So you're saying that the judge was bought and that he also knew King would be a billionairre and bank roll him later.

Wonderful speculation. You should be an journalist. They make shyte up all the time.

No I am saying him and his powerful friends used their influence and money to bargain the case down from the murder it clearly was to a manslaughter charge. Have never suggested anyone knew King would go on to be a billionaire but that King certainly did not forget those who had helped him out in his hour of need.

Oh and stop trying to get round the swear filter.

The suggestion is that the US justice system was corrupt. Don't let Truss hear you say that. Or it could be that the case didn't stand up and merit a first degree murder charge.

Was King that benevolent? This is a man accused of ripping off every boxer he managed. Probably buying influence and tax deductible gifts.

I'm not trying to get past the filter. I used the word deliberately. If I wanted to say that sh word I would have written s**t.

Well if we want to go strictly on what he was convicted off some years after he was released and was a wealthy man the acctual charge was changed down to accidental death, am sure this was on a reassessing of the evidence and to expunge a clear miscarriage of justice from the record and in no way related to King being in a position to support various politicians campaigns.

I have read Newfield's book on King and plenty about the circumstances of Garretts death and as far as I am concerned if you kick a bloke to death you have murdered the bloke.

I've read the book also. But I'm certain the authorities had all the information and more so that Newfield to decide what charges to press.

I read a book that it was the Corsican Separatists who killed Kennedy. They also had very compelling evidence. In fact there was a TV doc about it later also.

Scewed more black men than Little Richard, as they say.

Interesting article.

He also shot someone but that was "justifiable homicide".

John Bloody Wayne wrote:Scewed more black men than Little Richard, as they say.

Interesting article.

He also shot someone but that was "justifiable homicide".

The person broke into his house. In USA you are permitted to use lethal force to defend your property.

There is plenty of evidence to claim King was an A1 shyster to other boxers without making stuff up about his convictions.

I believe the issue lies in King shooting the man in the back as he fled though, Az. That's all I'll say as I'm sure any more from me will result in some vitriol from your good self!

I'm not making anything up. The quotation marks maybe made look as if I was hinting it wasn't all on the straight and narrow, but that's not how I meant it.

John Bloody Wayne wrote:I'm not making anything up. The quotation marks maybe made look as if I was hinting it wasn't all on the straight and narrow, but that's not how I meant it.

The making stuff up was a general comment and not aimed at you.

He was convicted of manslaughter. People writing above are calling him a convicted murderer.

Ah, I get you.

He has killed two people in differing circumstances. Once with a gun and once with his foot. We can all agree on that.