In Defence Of Don King??

[billeau2]

Bill, what is cleveland like? If you watch the second half of this video the man danny green fighting the mafia. Was and is cleveland very dangerous? It seems to come across as bombs and killings regular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHmAt4Fph3M
if you see the irish danny green who fought the italians it makes cleveland ohio seem extremely dangerous. is it still today like that?

Lol I tell people to just think if the city of Baltimore was cloned . Obviously that does you no good so let me try to describe Cleveland. There was a time when the cities on the 3 lakes in the US were considered very nice. Detroit was to some the Paris of the Muricas, and millionaires row where many moneyed families, including the Rockefellers settled was the envy of the midwest. But then the cities like Cleveland and Buffalo became industrial. Westinghouse was in Cleveland. And then when the Rust Belt recession in the late seventies, or so came, the cities became a nightmare.

Today there are large swaths of the city totally abandoned. Literally houses crumbling. People show this is Detroit but per capita it might well be worse in Cleveland. Certainly I have seen similar in Baltimore but Cleveland strikes me as worse. When King was raised up the city had a mix of hardscrabble communities, a large middle class community and a crime empire run by Dutch Schultz. Dutch came from the old J ewish networks, in the big cities the J ewish contingency originally provided the muscle, for example "Murder Incorporated." But Cleveland had been spoken for at the times when large gangs controlled the rackets, and Dutch Schultz emerged. The mob would not go near Cleveland... As other groups emerged, including Irish factions and mob factions, to challenge Schultz, much like in places like Harlem, Black criminals handled the g hetto games and numbers was the biggest game in town. That was how King got started. This is also why you now see so many lotteries state run... Criminals actually paid winners, unlike the states and federal gov which takes a good deal of the winnings back in taxes.

Today? Cleveland is dangerous because of the abandoned landscape and poverty induced crimes. In places like Baltimore's Leekin park, and Cleveland's many abandoned areas, it is easy to dump bodies, abduct people, etc. All these cities, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland... have had an influx of Gentrification as well. So you have the classic split: Well connected areas with wealth and g hettos with nothing for people. In places like this you make sure you do not go to certain places. As far as organized crime? RICO decimated all such activities in this country. You have foreign drug cartels, local gangs that are well organized, but no real mob connected activities these days.

[max baer]

Lol I tell people to just think if the city of Baltimore was cloned . Obviously that does you no good so let me try to describe Cleveland. There was a time when the cities on the 3 lakes in the US were considered very nice. Detroit was to some the Paris of the Muricas, and millionaires row where many moneyed families, including the Rockefellers settled was the envy of the midwest. But then the cities like Cleveland and Buffalo became industrial. Westinghouse was in Cleveland. And then when the Rust Belt recession in the late seventies, or so came, the cities became a nightmare.

Today there are large swaths of the city totally abandoned. Literally houses crumbling. People show this is Detroit but per capita it might well be worse in Cleveland. Certainly I have seen similar in Baltimore but Cleveland strikes me as worse. When King was raised up the city had a mix of hardscrabble communities, a large middle class community and a crime empire run by Dutch Schultz. Dutch came from the old J ewish networks, in the big cities the J ewish contingency originally provided the muscle, for example "Murder Incorporated." But Cleveland had been spoken for at the times when large gangs controlled the rackets, and Dutch Schultz emerged. The mob would not go near Cleveland... As other groups emerged, including Irish factions and mob factions, to challenge Schultz, much like in places like Harlem, Black criminals handled the g hetto games and numbers was the biggest game in town. That was how King got started. This is also why you now see so many lotteries state run... Criminals actually paid winners, unlike the states and federal gov which takes a good deal of the winnings back in taxes.

Today? Cleveland is dangerous because of the abandoned landscape and poverty induced crimes. In places like Baltimore's Leekin park, and Cleveland's many abandoned areas, it is easy to dump bodies, abduct people, etc. All these cities, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland... have had an influx of Gentrification as well. So you have the classic split: Well connected areas with wealth and g hettos with nothing for people. In places like this you make sure you do not go to certain places. As far as organized crime? RICO decimated all such activities in this country. You have foreign drug cartels, local gangs that are well organized, but no real mob connected activities these days.

thanks bill. it is fascinating to me to learn the way america has evolved over the last 50 years.
With regards to king, is there literally no boxers that will thank him for their success. The reason it baffles me is that how can king exploit every fighter and business and still be at the top of the pile for 40 years or more??? Surely he couldn't for 40 years rip off everyone. Surely if he was doing that no one would sign for his help. How is it that king ruins every single boxer since the early seventies and still boxers are signing with him. It doesn't equate in my mind.
there must be boxers who will defend him and praise the help he gave them.
I have never heard of a business man who is hated by everyone and rips off everyone and yet 40 years later he is still getting tv contracts and signing deals etc. it just doesn't make sense.
surely there must be many men who he helped and benefited or else he would have been totally black balled by the movers and shakers of the fight game. No???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAAB8CHhOIQ

[billeau2]

thanks bill. it is fascinating to me to learn the way america has evolved over the last 50 years.
With regards to king, is there literally no boxers that will thank him for their success. The reason it baffles me is that how can king exploit every fighter and business and still be at the top of the pile for 40 years or more??? Surely he couldn't for 40 years rip off everyone. Surely if he was doing that no one would sign for his help. How is it that king ruins every single boxer since the early seventies and still boxers are signing with him. It doesn't equate in my mind.
there must be boxers who will defend him and praise the help he gave them.
I have never heard of a business man who is hated by everyone and rips off everyone and yet 40 years later he is still getting tv contracts and signing deals etc. it just doesn't make sense.
surely there must be many men who he helped and benefited or else he would have been totally black balled by the movers and shakers of the fight game. No???

My take? As much as I despise King, he is but a representation of human nature. People get greedy and self serving. Pure promoters are the absolute perfect example of Karl Marx's vision of the Capitolist in the evolution of human beings. The descriptions for both are identical: "A middle man that contributes nothing to the product, yet takes so much of the profits, thus alienating the worker/boxer from owning the fruits of their labors."

And just as with Marx, people are brainwashed. Fighters look and see a relatively brutish, not particularly bright, certainly not handsome, guy like the scamming Paul Brothers... see that if these two cavemen can do it, almost anyone could... and still refuse to abscond from the King's of the world. Oscar De La Hoya was so charismatic that he lifted Floyd, and when I would host fights the wives would all show an interest when Oscar was fighting... But now with social media? These young guys could manage the sport paying a set fee to a promotional marketing company to sell tickets and give notice... But instead they turn a blind eye as two guys (my wife described the Paul Brothers as the type of guys you stay away from in High school/College) who have no charisma, no real looks, no real intellect to speak of make a fortune, AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THEIR MANY MANY SCAMS!

But truly very few promoters are viewed favorably. King was worse than most of them except Bob. King did things like employ his very slow son... giving him a handsome amount of payola out of a fighter's take, for doing nothing. King ripped off fighters sometimes giving them no return for a fight...

[Willie Pep 229]

"It's better to deal with Arum, he will only rob you." – Steve Wynn of The Mirage