Don King... good or bad for boxing?

[Elroy The Great]

good for the sport, horrible to his fighters

[JK1700]

I’d say bad but not as bad as The Bobfather.

[Dynamite76]

October that is a known fact beyond dispute. What is in dispute is if the Sesame Street Puppet from Henson, Roosevelt Franklin was based on King, or not.

LOL, Roosevelt Franklin was cool, and no joke. But it is possible. I think Don King was good for boxing in the sense of his charisma, but like stated before, bad for fighters. He could have made the 80's heavyweight division special, but he screwed that up.

[billeau2]

LOL, Roosevelt Franklin was cool, and no joke. But it is possible. I think Don King was good for boxing in the sense of his charisma, but like stated before, bad for fighters. He could have made the 80's heavyweight division special, but he screwed that up.

I sure do miss his cards. He was a great instigator also.

[LITTLE JOE]

As much as I hate to admit it because of the way he ripped off some fighters in his stable, I do miss the Don King influence on the sport. He put on some great fights. The bottom line is the man produced and the boxing fans reaped the rewards of his efforts. As stated before the man was clearly no saint by any means but my opinion is that boxing has suffered since King has faded away.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Disclaimer: What I am about to offer on Don king does not apply to the Tim Witherspoon situation/suit - that was different. (In that case King was an out and out crook.)

I have kicked this around in my head for two decades now and I am still not sure how I feel about it.

Hypothetical: (but the numbers are actually close)

1. Dan Duva (promoter) offers Livingstone Bramble $600,000 to defend against Tyrone Crowley, and then pays Bramble $600,000.

2. Don King promises Livingstone Bramble $1,000,000 to defend against Edwin Rosario but then only pays him $800,000.

3. Who is ripping Bramble off, Duva or King, or both?

There is in my mind almost a perverted sense of street honestly in King's behavior; King was ripping Bramble off the way people always get ripped off on the streets, straight up.

The whole Duva relationship comes across more like a wealthy white guy taking advantage of an immigrant fighter he knows can deceive/fool at the negotiating table, and then come out of it looking honest.

Am I being racist?

Like I said, I really can't wrap my head around it. But I do now think if I was a fighter back then I would go with Don King, not Dan Duva, knowing full well I will never get what King promises, but in the end will likely get more money from King than from the Duvas.

It is for this reason, I believe fighters over the years, despite all that they heard about Don King, still kept signing with King anyway.

God help a fighter who has to negotiate with Bob Arum, or worst yet, HBO's lawyers. Both of whom I am sure would have (under) paid the fighter every cent they promised.

Again, don't apply this argument to the Witherspoon case, there King was and out and out thief.

[ShoulderRoll]

Disclaimer: What I am about to offer on Don king does not apply to the Tim Witherspoon situation/suit - that was different. (In that case King was an out and out crook.)

I have kicked this around in my head for two decades now and I am still not sure how I feel about it.

Hypothetical: (but the numbers are actually close)

1. Dan Duva (promoter) offers Livingstone Bramble $600,000 to defend against Tyrone Crowley, and then pays Bramble $600,000.

2. Don King promises Livingstone Bramble $1,000,000 to defend against Edwin Rosario but then only pays him $800,000.

3. Who is ripping Bramble off, Duva or King, or both?

There is in my mind almost a perverted sense of street honestly in King's behavior; King was ripping Bramble off the way people always get ripped off on the streets, straight up.

The whole Duva relationship comes across more like a wealthy white guy taking advantage of an immigrant fighter he knows can deceive/fool at the negotiating table, and then come out of it looking honest.

Am I being racist?

Like I said, I really can't wrap my head around it. But I do now think if I was a fighter back then I would go with Don King, not Dan Duva, knowing full well I will never get what King promises, but in the end will likely get more money from King than from the Duvas.

It is for this reason, I believe fighters over the years, despite all that they heard about Don King, still kept signing with King anyway.

God help a fighter who has to negotiate with Bob Arum, or worst yet, HBO's lawyers. Both of whom I am sure would have (under) paid the fighter every cent they promised.

Again, don't apply this argument to the Witherspoon case, there King was and out and out thief.

There is some truth in what you say.

King would rip you off but you knew (or should have expected) that it was coming and in the end you likely still made more money with him than you would have with others.

With the likes of Bob Arum you don't expect to be ripped off because he is supposedly "legit." But then you get to the fine print in your contract and you realize that you're the victim of a slick, highly educated, white collar criminal.

[mexicanstyle]

I have mixed opinions. On one hand King ****ed nearly every fighter he had signed. Even Tyson and Chavez Sr. Poor Tim Witherspoon went to England as the WBA champ to defend vs Frank Bruno. Bruno took home 600K and after King took his cut Spoon took home 90K as the champ and winner. On the other hand, I sure miss those PPVs with five or six championship fights on them.

never again will we have cards where 4 good championship and unification fights on the same card i remember when he did the chavez card in mex.city over 100,000 fans to see chavez live really no need to stack the under card but he did anyway javing a prime terry norris fightin maurice blocker when blocker was a 147 champ going up to 154 and thr 2 figbts b4 that one were championsip fights he knew how to give u a very entertaining card where any of the undercard fights would be main events during this 1 good fight ppv era.

[RickLinus]

Overall he had a net positive effect.

[RickLinus]

Like someone said earlier, great for boxing, but most of his issues have been behind the scenes with boxers.

Basically the same as Dana White in MMA.