Don King

[Ring Leader]

The reason fighters would go to Don is because he got you title shots plain and simple.

[joe strong]

the best promoter ever...he gets his fighters big fights.he secures them a few regional belts for rankings then he gets them a title fight. if they don't cash in on those few opportunities then they will be put on the shelf. a fighter should limit himself to a few fights at a time at most. they don't want to be signed longterm with him unless they are putting people in the seats like andrew golota did. thats why he got 4 title fights. he was a huge draw in new york\new jersey area

[Dubblechin]

Why do people still do business with him and fighters sign with him? I’ve never heard anyone ever say a good thing about him.

When do boxers have something nice to say about any promoter?

Seriously. Don King is the best promoter in boxing history. Simple as that. Even at his advanced age, he's great at getting his fighters title shots. He's made more than 100 fighters millionaires. Most recently he got the limited Devon Alexander (who he's promoted from the beginning of his career) on Showtime, HBO and a couple of million-dollar paydays. And there's nothing special about Alexander at all.

For every guy like Tim Witherspoon, who says King ripped him off, there are 10 guys like Devon Alexander who King took from nothing to something.

The problem most boxers have with King is that he views boxing as a business and the fighters don't. But King's a true promoter. He's more about the event than the fighters themselves.

If King thinks you've got something, he'll steer you toward a title shot and great paydays. If he gets you several opportunities and you don't keep winning, he tends to lose interest. If you keep winning, he sticks with you. And the guys he loses interest in all get mad at him.

But if you listen closely to those boxers who complain about him, most were nothing when they signed with King, then they got big paydays, and after he's through with them they don't make as much. So they have to blame someone, so they blame him (instead of themselves, for losing).

King gets burned by fighters too. Let's face it, King got Buster Douglas ranked when nobody else knew who the hell he was. He got him two title shots -- one against Tucker and one againt Tyson. And the moment Douglas won the title, he wanted to dump King (because he felt King wasn't siding with him and was sticking with Tyson). But King was just trying to create a controversy to stir up calls for a rematch. And Douglas probably would've made more if he fought Tyson in a rematch as opposed to Holyfield. Once Douglas broke with King, signed to fight Holyfield, he lost and his career was nothing after that. If he'd stuck with King, it certainly wouldn't have been any worse than it turned it.

Devon Alexander just dumped King, too. And King's been nothing but good for Alexander. Watch and see how great Alexander's career moves now that King is gone.

Frankly, promoters like Golden Boy and the Klitschkos' company are more corrupt than King ever was. Don King was accused of bribing Ring Magazine once in the 1970s for ratings. But Golden Boy outright BOUGHT Ring Magazine. Don King was accused of putting his son Carl in as manager of boxers he promoted so King could act as promoter and manager. But Golden Boy owners like Oscar, Hopkins, Mosley, etc. not only acted as their own promoter and manager, they also served as promoters and managers in fights they competed in. King never did anything that ballsy.

Can you imagine if Don King bought Ring Magazine, rated himself #1 in a division, promoted an event that Don King fought in, paid all the judges and the fighters he was competing against and won the title -- like Golden Boy owners have done?

The reason boxing sucks so much now is fighters became promoters and managers and all they cared about was how much money they could make for themselves, and the overall promotion suffered.

King was focused more on the whole promotion and putting as many big names on a card as he could. It gave fans more value for their buck. Today, the main events are usually the only fights on the card worth watching (and when they suck, the fans go away pissed).

Probably the most entertaining live boxing card on HBO this year, from top to bottom, was King's card featuring Alexander-Matthysse, Cloud-Mack and Styverne-Austin. I was at that show, and the undercard was television-worthy too, with Bundrage-Powell 2, etc. How many Golden Boy cards on regular HBO are so loaded from top to bottom that world title fights appear on the off-air portion of the card?

[edgarg]

I heard this from a former Don King fighter: Don may steal 2 million from you, and pay you 1.5 mill. Other promoters will steal 2 million from you and pay you 850k. Which promoter are you going with?

That's a simplistic and untruthful thing to say. there have been many high profile fighters who have sued him for money owing, not paid, improperly deducted, and plain outright stealing. Most have been settled out of court. The most famous example was Mike Tyson. King, by his encouragement of Tyson into all sorts of excesses was instrumental in his downfall.

I could say that he was bad for his fighters but good for boxing. The only one I can recall who did well with him was Trinidad, who, after his contract was up, was smart enough (or his father was) to refuse to fight for him unless he got a flat $10 mill per fight. other than Trinidad I don't know of anyone else, although there may be a few...if they were lucky.
If there was any genuine justice in the USA King would have been behind bars for life, genuine life, instead of for just a few years, after kicking that little guy (about 120 lbs) to death. I believe his defence (fabricated, according to witnesses) was that the guy attacked him (6'4" 250 lbs) And he has another killing on his ledger as well. Yet, he's allowed to walk around free...........

I recall well (I have it) the 2 hour video which detailed the whole sordid story of how King seduced Hasim Rahman away from Cedric Kushner with a bag full of a half mill dollars in cash, which he emptied on the bed, whilst Kushner, who had just led Rahman to the heavyweight title, was waiting in his apartment for a Rahman who never showed up.

A tragic, sordid and disgusting tale, showing boxing dirt in all it's degeneracy, part of King's modus operandi.

I'd better stop- a disgusting subject to talk about.

[edgarg]

When do boxers have something nice to say about any promoter?

Seriously. Don King is the best promoter in boxing history. Simple as that. Even at his advanced age, he's great at getting his fighters title shots. He's made more than 100 fighters millionaires. Most recently he got the limited Devon Alexander (who he's promoted from the beginning of his career) on Showtime, HBO and a couple of million-dollar paydays. And there's nothing special about Alexander at all.

For every guy like Tim Witherspoon, who says King ripped him off, there are 10 guys like Devon Alexander who King took from nothing to something.

The problem most boxers have with King is that he views boxing as a business and the fighters don't. But King's a true promoter. He's more about the event than the fighters themselves.

If King thinks you've got something, he'll steer you toward a title shot and great paydays. If he gets you several opportunities and you don't keep winning, he tends to lose interest. If you keep winning, he sticks with you. And the guys he loses interest in all get mad at him.

But if you listen closely to those boxers who complain about him, most were nothing when they signed with King, then they got big paydays, and after he's through with them they don't make as much. So they have to blame someone, so they blame him (instead of themselves, for losing).

King gets burned by fighters too. Let's face it, King got Buster Douglas ranked when nobody else knew who the hell he was. He got him two title shots -- one against Tucker and one againt Tyson. And the moment Douglas won the title, he wanted to dump King (because he felt King wasn't siding with him and was sticking with Tyson). But King was just trying to create a controversy to stir up calls for a rematch. And Douglas probably would've made more if he fought Tyson in a rematch as opposed to Holyfield. Once Douglas broke with King, signed to fight Holyfield, he lost and his career was nothing after that. If he'd stuck with King, it certainly wouldn't have been any worse than it turned it.

Devon Alexander just dumped King, too. And King's been nothing but good for Alexander. Watch and see how great Alexander's career moves now that King is gone.

Frankly, promoters like Golden Boy and the Klitschkos' company are more corrupt than King ever was. Don King was accused of bribing Ring Magazine once in the 1970s for ratings. But Golden Boy outright BOUGHT Ring Magazine. Don King was accused of putting his son Carl in as manager of boxers he promoted so King could act as promoter and manager. But Golden Boy owners like Oscar, Hopkins, Mosley, etc. not only acted as their own promoter and manager, they also served as promoters and managers in fights they competed in. King never did anything that ballsy.

Can you imagine if Don King bought Ring Magazine, rated himself #1 in a division, promoted an event that Don King fought in, paid all the judges and the fighters he was competing against and won the title -- like Golden Boy owners have done?

The reason boxing sucks so much now is fighters became promoters and managers and all they cared about was how much money they could make for themselves, and the overall promotion suffered.

King was focused more on the whole promotion and putting as many big names on a card as he could. It gave fans more value for their buck. Today, the main events are usually the only fights on the card worth watching (and when they suck, the fans go away pissed).

Probably the most entertaining live boxing card on HBO this year, from top to bottom, was King's card featuring Alexander-Matthysse, Cloud-Mack and Styverne-Austin. I was at that show, and the undercard was television-worthy too, with Bundrage-Powell 2, etc. How many Golden Boy cards on regular HBO are so loaded from top to bottom that world title fights appear on the off-air portion of the card?

You must be King's grandson or something. One of the most talked about things re King was the uncanny way he could insinuate himself into the inner circles of the winner.It was a well circulated comment as wll as being documented on video, that he would walk into the ring with the champion, and, if he lost, walk out with the new champion. Time and time again this was noticed, and the consensus was that he'd already dome some "preliminary" "work"........... presumably a euphemism for, "bribery for the future".

[Dubblechin]

That's a simplistic and untruthful thing to say. there have been many high profile fighters who have sued him for money owing, not paid, improperly deducted, and plain outright stealing. Most have been settled out of court. The most famous example was Mike Tyson. King, by his encouragement of Tyson into all sorts of excesses was instrumental in his downfall.

I could say that he was bad for his fighters but good for boxing. The only one I can recall who did well with him was Trinidad, who, after his contract was up, was smart enough (or his father was) to refuse to fight for him unless he got a flat $10 mill per fight. other than Trinidad I don't know of anyone else, although there may be a few...if they were lucky.
If there was any genuine justice in the USA King would have been behind bars for life, genuine life, instead of for just a few years, after kicking that little guy (about 120 lbs) to death. I believe his defence (fabricated, according to witnesses) was that the guy attacked him (6'4" 250 lbs) And he has another killing on his ledger as well. Yet, he's allowed to walk around free...........

I recall well (I have it) the 2 hour video which detailed the whole sordid story of how King seduced Hasim Rahman away from Cedric Kushner with a bag full of a half mill dollars in cash, which he emptied on the bed, whilst Kushner, who had just led Rahman to the heavyweight title, was waiting in his apartment for a Rahman who never showed up.

A tragic, sordid and disgusting tale, showing boxing dirt in all it's degeneracy, part of King's modus operandi.

I'd better stop- a disgusting subject to talk about.

I have the same video. It was recorded entirely from Kushner's point of view. If you recall, Rahman's contract with Kushner was up ... and King gave Rahman cash to sign with him -- which Rahman gladly did because he wasn't making any money with Kushner. Kushner just assumed Rahman would resign with him, and he didn't.

King wanted Rahman to fight Brian Nielsen in Japan in his first defense (for an easy payday), then Tyson (who most would say was way past his prime in a mega fight) and then Lewis. But Lewis sued, and Rahman fought Lewis again and lost.

After that, Rahman got a high-profile fight with Holyfield on HBO (which Rahman was also losing badly until he got butted). King also got him a high-profile rematch with Tua on HBO. He got him a shot at John Ruiz for a vacant title (which Rahman lost against a beatable Ruiz in a truly awful performance). Then he put Rahman on a PPV undercard against Kali Meehan (which Hasim finally won outright) and got Rahman a shot at Monte Barrett for a vacant WBC title (when Vitali retired) which Rahman won. He then defended against Toney and he lost to the ancient Maskaev (a guy Rahman should've beat).

How did King hurt Rahman at all? Is giving someone $500,000 cash and handing him one high-profile fight after another, against beatable opponents -- even when Rahman underperformed badly -- being a bad promoter?

[Dubblechin]

You must be King's grandson or something. One of the most talked about things re King was the uncanny way he could insinuate himself into the inner circles of the winner.It was a well circulated comment as wll as being documented on video, that he would walk into the ring with the champion, and, if he lost, walk out with the new champion. Time and time again this was noticed, and the consensus was that he'd already dome some "preliminary" "work"........... presumably a euphemism for, "bribery for the future".

I'm not King's grandson, I just make up my own mind and I don't regurgitate stuff other people tell me.

King doesn't enter the ring with any fighter and leave the ring with another in a fight he is promoting. If he has, please let me know ALL those fights when that occurred and I'll be sure to watch them. (Because I've seen them all.)

King is always IN the ring when the fighters enter and he's always the last to leave the ring when the fight is over. He's done that forever and still does.

That's because King is the promoter OF THE FIGHT.

If he's standing by the champion during introductions and standing by the winner at the end, it's because HE PROMOTED THE EVENT. It's about the promotion. That's what a promoter does -- promote events.

That's what's wrong with boxing. Promoters today promote ONE fighter ... and they try to grab it all for ONE guy to the detriment of the entire card.

King promotes events. He promotes THE SHOW.

Watch video from a King promotion. During the prefight conference, he calls up each guy and hypes them all equally and talks about how great each fight will be.

Go to a Golden Boy or a K2 press conference, and the promoter- who is usually fighting that night himself -- praises all the PROMOTER'S fighters and calls the other boxers -- who are usually getting the short end of the stick -- names and ridicules them.

If King promoted Hopkins-Dawson, he'd have stood there while both guys said their piece and then talked to Max Kellerman afterwards about the need for a rematch to determine who really is best. Because that's what an event promoter would do. Build on the controversy of one event to hype the next EVENT.

Instead, we got Hopkins and Schaefer (the promoters) badmouthing Dawson and Dawson and his promoter badmouthing Hopkins and both sides saying they'll never fight again.

It's ridiculous. King is the best at what he does. All the others could take lessons from him.

[Nonitard]

fighters dont have a choice, a pro fighter has only slightly better odds of getting big money than winning the lottery. its hard out there and Don King gives em the title shots to make the big money

[edgarg]

I'm not King's grandson, I just make up my own mind and I don't regurgitate stuff other people tell me.

King doesn't enter the ring with any fighter and leave the ring with another in a fight he is promoting. If he has, please let me know ALL those fights when that occurred and I'll be sure to watch them. (Because I've seen them all.)

King is always IN the ring when the fighters enter and he's always the last to leave the ring when the fight is over. He's done that forever and still does.

That's because King is the promoter OF THE FIGHT.

If he's standing by the champion during introductions and standing by the winner at the end, it's because HE PROMOTED THE EVENT. It's about the promotion. That's what a promoter does -- promote events.

That's what's wrong with boxing. Promoters today promote ONE fighter ... and they try to grab it all for ONE guy to the detriment of the entire card.

King promotes events. He promotes THE SHOW.

Watch video from a King promotion. During the prefight conference, he calls up each guy and hypes them all equally and talks about how great each fight will be.

Go to a Golden Boy or a K2 press conference, and the promoter- who is usually fighting that night himself -- praises all the PROMOTER'S fighters and calls the other boxers -- who are usually getting the short end of the stick -- names and ridicules them.

If King promoted Hopkins-Dawson, he'd have stood there while both guys said their piece and then talked to Max Kellerman afterwards about the need for a rematch to determine who really is best. Because that's what an event promoter would do. Build on the controversy of one event to hype the next EVENT.

Instead, we got Hopkins and Schaefer (the promoters) badmouthing Dawson and Dawson and his promoter badmouthing Hopkins and both sides saying they'll never fight again.

It's ridiculous. King is the best at what he does. All the others could take lessons from him.

But I think you are pretty young, and didn't know King in his hey day, when what I said was exactly what he did. It was a well known and much talked about circumstance at the time and after, whenever King's "qualities" came up. It may have been exaggerrated abit, but not by much. His Tyson scandal is also well known. I was around for his whole career and have seen, read or heard about everything I have said.

It has been said that King's "Only In America" schtik was because only in America could a double murderer get off with a "slap-on-the-wrist" with faked "evidence" as he did. Especially, according to him, as he was black, and the black man always got the worst of any legality.The Rahman Kushner robbery is documented on TV and is well known to all experienced boxing hands. There's much more, but I advise you to read a critical biography of King and his ruthless and murderous track through life.

From what you write, you seema sort of innocent kid, so I suppose you'll get a rude awakening. I don't care a grain of dust for all the promoters who ever lived, including a late uncle of mine, so i have "no axe to grind". But I can distinguish fact from wishful thinking.

I apologise if I've offended you..

[edgarg]

But I think you are pretty young, and didn't know King in his hey day, when what I said was exactly what he did. It was a well known and much talked about circumstance at the time and after, whenever King's "qualities" came up. It may have been exaggerrated abit, but not by much. His Tyson scandal is also well known. I was around for his whole career and have seen, read or heard about everything I have said.

It has been said that King's "Only In America" schtik was because only in America could a double murderer get off with a "slap-on-the-wrist" with faked "evidence" as he did. Especially, according to him, as he was black, and the black man always got the worst of any legality.The Rahman Kushner robbery is documented on TV and is well known to all experienced boxing hands. There's much more, but I advise you to read a critical biography of King and his ruthless and murderous track through life.

From what you write, you seema sort of innocent kid, so I suppose you'll get a rude awakening. I don't care a grain of dust for all the promoters who ever lived, including a late uncle of mine, so i have "no axe to grind". But I can distinguish fact from wishful thinking.

I apologise if I've offended you..

The book by Jack Newfield entitled "Only in America, The Life and Crimes of Don King", may be interesting to you.