Don King... good or bad for boxing?

[billeau2]

When you are screwing your fighters you can put on some great shows with their money. Just because you put on some good fights this way, does that mean you have been good for boxing. He was only good for boxing if you ignore all the damage he did and all the slime he coated its reputation with. Oscar is indeed a slime ball, too, but he was not out there personally killing off the opposition by shootings and slamming their faces into concrete curbs.

When practically every fan knows that pure feces is spread all over the sport they always proclaim loudly to love, I do not see that as being good for it, just because some good fights are made in the process. We all know why he was able to make such fights. No matter how much we approved of some of the matchmaking and its entertainment value, it seems ridiculous to proclaim him good for boxing. His kind always leaves the sport in the doldrums for an extended period, just as it is now.

Point well taken.

[buddyr]

Great for boxing


Not so good for fighters..




Don king brought us so many stacked cards and great fights, it's foolish to think he was bad for the sport.

exactly. He jerked his fighters, but he didn't jerk the public. His cards were stacked!!!. When Tyson got out of prison, he fought a lot of bs competition, but the undercards were great. Hopkins fought Lipsy on the Bruno/Tyson undercard. Tito and Norris both fought on Tyson/Seldon in preparation of of a future fight between the 2 that was being discussed. Julian Jackson fought on Chavez undercards. The Hopkins/Joppy undercard was stacked. Tyson/Mcneely undercard. U had the Murphy/Gonzalez controversial decision and melee in the ring afterwards. Seldon/Hipp and Taylor/Jackson. U had a mw, jww, and hw title fight on an undercard and these were all 3 of the TOP fighters in their division.

Arum and De la Hoya really started screwing the public over with their undercards of rubbish leading up to the main event. The past 5 years, those 2 guys have had some of the worst undercard fights for big time evens I've ever seen

[buddyr]

When you are screwing your fighters you can put on some great shows with their money. Just because you put on some good fights this way, does that mean you have been good for boxing. He was only good for boxing if you ignore all the damage he did and all the slime he coated its reputation with. Oscar is indeed a slime ball, too, but he was not out there personally killing off the opposition by shootings and slamming their faces into concrete curbs.

When practically every fan knows that pure feces is spread all over the sport they always proclaim loudly to love, I do not see that as being good for it, just because some good fights are made in the process. We all know why he was able to make such fights. No matter how much we approved of some of the matchmaking and its entertainment value, it seems ridiculous to proclaim him good for boxing. His kind always leaves the sport in the doldrums for an extended period, just as it is now.

simple question, were King's ppv's enjoyable? Now we all know he was a POS. That's not debatable. But the real question is, when he had a stable of champions, did we see a bunch of *****footing around as we do now in the divisions? King loved unifications. The only time I can remember not making the best fights in a division was the mw division during the mid to late 90s. He had a stable of Joppy, Holmes, and Hopkins(who were the 3 champs. this was pre-wbo main title era). He had planned Tito to go from 147 up the ranks. So after taking out de la hoya at ww(in a fight I thought he lost), he moved up to jm and took out Reid and Vargas. Moved up to mw in which he destroyed Joppy(I always wondered if he would have beat Holmes) and then he was a 3-1 favorite that was destroyed by hopkins. If King and Arum could make a fight like De la Hoya vs Trinidad, and that itself was a miracle that they agreed on terms, I have no idea how Joshua vs anyone not over the age of 40 or with a pulse is so hard to make

[ShoulderRoll]

Arum and De la Hoya really started screwing the public over with their undercards of rubbish leading up to the main event. The past 5 years, those 2 guys have had some of the worst undercard fights for big time evens I've ever seen

Very true. I detest the Bob Arum "crappy PPV undercards" model and I hate that Oscar has copied it as of late.

But Don King is a gigantic piece of **** nonetheless.

[Eff Pandas]

King was good for boxing, but bad for boxers...like a lot of higher level promoters.

[Eff Pandas]

When you are screwing your fighters you can put on some great shows with their money. Just because you put on some good fights this way, does that mean you have been good for boxing. He was only good for boxing if you ignore all the damage he did and all the slime he coated its reputation with. Oscar is indeed a slime ball, too, but he was not out there personally killing off the opposition by shootings and slamming their faces into concrete curbs.

When practically every fan knows that pure feces is spread all over the sport they always proclaim loudly to love, I do not see that as being good for it, just because some good fights are made in the process. We all know why he was able to make such fights. No matter how much we approved of some of the matchmaking and its entertainment value, it seems ridiculous to proclaim him good for boxing. His kind always leaves the sport in the doldrums for an extended period, just as it is now.

Good point. Pretty airtight argument that King was a net negative for boxing at large. I mean you are one of the main reasons if not reason number 1 for politicians to sign a bill into existence that says a lot about your legacy in your respective field.

[lightsout_finit]

I actually read somewhere that King is regarded as one of biggest innovators and influences to what we know as the modern era of boxing.

He should be

[The Old LefHook]

Good point. Pretty airtight argument that King was a net negative for boxing at large. I mean you are one of the main reasons if not reason number 1 for politicians to sign a bill into existence that says a lot about your legacy in your respective field.

That is funny and a great point I forgot about.

[OctoberRed]

Dont forget that without King we wouldnt have the saying "ONLY IN AMERICA!"

[Quiksilva]

He has a tarnished reputation of ripping off his fighters for the sake of greed. Not just the Mike Tyson' story but other fighters also.

Though I don't know much of him, many big fighters today probably wouldn't dare to sign with his promotions. All of the big fighters today are either under their own banner, Golden Boy or Top Rank, they are the most powerful promotion companies in boxing today on the western side.

Over in Europe you got Matchroom Boxing, Frank Warren's promotions, K2 and many others I haven't listed.