Don King

[edgarg]

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

Wikipedia article "Don King Boxing Promoter" gives a fair account of King's career. It reminded me, (which I'd forgotten) that King was actually sentenced to life imprisonment for the second murder, where he "stomped" atiny employee to death. He later used the usual crap dispensers like Jesse Jackson and company to get the sentence reduced to 15 years and got out in 4. There's no getting around it, he is a double murderer walking around free and honoured on the streets.

[edgarg]

Wikipedia article "Don King Boxing Promoter" gives a fair account of King's career. It reminded me, (which I'd forgotten) that King was actually sentenced to life imprisonment for the second murder, where he "stomped" atiny employee to death. He later used the usual crap dispensers like Jesse Jackson and company to get the sentence reduced to 15 years and got out in 4. There's no getting around it, he is a double murderer walking around free and honoured on the streets.

We can only guess what it cost him in "palm greasing" undercover cash.

[joe strong]

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".

he speaks the truth...i use to watch all the old king vision PPV & there was always 2 or 3 titles fights & at least 2 heavyweight fights.his PPV were the best **** for your buck.

[Dubblechin]

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..

No need to apologize. You haven't offended me. I'm not a young kid. I'm 47. I've been a boxing fan since the Ali-Lyle fight. I know all about Don King and Jack Newfield and the books and the life King took and everything else. If Jack Newfield was still alive, I'm sure he'd have a different opinion of King as well. Because the stuff people railed against King forin the 70s and 80s .... like trying to serve as both promoter AND manager ... like trying to secure promotional ties with all boxers ... for taking boxers from other promoters ... has swung so far to the other extreme that King looks like a choir boy in comparison.

But the same people who still badmouth King for things that happened four or five decades ago ignore what's going on now. They just keep reciting the same mantra, even though King has done more "good" for boxing than he ever did bad. And the promoters today are doing exactly the same "negative" things King was accused of doing back then TIMES TEN ... and nobody says a word.

Like I said earlier, can you imagine if Don King bought Ring Magazine like Golden Boy did? Would anyone on earth have accepted that back in the 70s and 80s or even the 90s?

Can you imagine if King also decided to fight as a heavyweight himself, got himself rated by Ring (which he -- in this scenario -- purchased and owned) and cried foul after a round and a half like Hopkins did (in a fight he was promoting and in a fight that was for the RING belt -- a magazine Hopkins' company owns.)

If, back in the 70s and 80s, King got in the ring and did what Hopkins did two weeks ago, the U.S. Congress would've investigated him.

Also, "Soapy" Hopkins (nicknamed as such when he tried to **** a guy in prison and the guy got away because he was cover in soap) did a long stint in prison. Hopkins has been accused of raping people in prison. De La Hoya was accused of raping a girl and she was paid off to settle. De La Hoya is a coke head. The Golden Boy promotional team isn't exactly made of up "salt of the earth" types.

King was married to his wife Henrietta for more than 50 years until she died last year. He adopted her children and gave them all jobs in his organization.

What kind of family man is Oscar?

The Klitschkos insist fighters agree in the contract not only to a rematch (should one lose), but the other fighter must agree to defend against the other brother as well, and the fighter must agree to the lesser money in those "defenses" as well.

King never did anything like that. EVER. If a guy beat one of his champs, he'd get options. But he wouldn't insist the winning fighter "had" to fight a certain guy in his next two fights and take the short money on top of that. Jack Newfeld was OUTRAGED that King got options on fighters if they won a fight on a card he promoted. How outraged would Newfeld be today about what the Klitschko brothers are doing? Or about Soapy Hopkins refusing to fight on against Dawson or a coked up Oscar in drag photos paying off people to keep his escapades quiet (including RING, which never reported on any of it. Wonder why?).

What's going on now is insane.

Golden Boy has been around for well over a decade now. How many boxers have they taken under their wing from early in their careers and promoted them from nothing to millionaires in that time? Saul Alvarez. Victor Ortiz. That's about it. And the wheels seem to be coming off both their careers already (with Alvarez being accused of assault).

What fighters has K2 groomed for greatness, aside from the brothers themselves?

Don King was and still is the best promoter boxing ever had. Hands down.

[TintaBoricua]

I might get it, Just finished DLH's book.

Ugh...I read that one, too. Didn't like it after having read other boxing books. Is it "An American Son"? It was an ok read, but didn't like it that much. For some reason, I haven't enjoyed boxing books as much after having read Ali: "His Life and Times" by Thomas Hauser. It's like all boxing books pale in comparison.

However, I'd give a Don King's book a decent review. It's a good book and you're told all the **** that's gone on backstage with King and some of his fighters, as well as Witherspoon. I really like the chapter with The Lost Generation of Heavyweights.

I'd recommend anything by Thomas Hauser as well. That guy is #1 in boxing literature in my opinion.

[Dubblechin]

he speaks the truth...i use to watch all the old king vision PPV & there was always 2 or 3 titles fights & at least 2 heavyweight fights.his PPV were the best **** for your buck.

I ordered them all, too, and for the most part they were all great. (Especially compared to what passes for PPV now.)

Every King card I have attended as been great.

I was just looking at a program I bought at the Lamon Brewster-Andrew Golota fight in Chicago five or six years ago.

Devon Alexander fought on the undercard. Carlos Baldomir fought Miguel Gonzales to see who got a crack at Zab Judah (Baldomir beat Gonzales and beat Judah). Alejandro Garcia beat Roshii Wells in a war. Guillermo Jones destroyed former cruiserweight champ Kelvin Davis. Tomasz Adamek and Paul Briggs fought in their first classic war. That was followed by Brewster and Golota. There were 20,000 people on their feet screaming for hours, and HBO only showed the main event. It was an incredible card, and they missed it all.

Most of the fight cards he puts together would be great PPVs. And many of them never even get aired, or some networks will pick up one or two fights from the show. It's a shame. Because the promoters they do give air time to deliver ****ty shows by and large.

[brently1979]

I might get it, Just finished DLH's book.

What did you think? I've also read it.

[Dubblechin]

Ugh...I read that one, too. Didn't like it after having read other boxing books. Is it "An American Son"? It was an ok read, but didn't like it that much. For some reason, I haven't enjoyed boxing books as much after having read Ali: "His Life and Times" by Thomas Hauser. It's like all boxing books pale in comparison.

However, I'd give a Don King's book a decent review. It's a good book and you're told all the **** that's gone on backstage with King and some of his fighters, as well as Witherspoon. I really like the chapter with The Lost Generation of Heavyweights.

I'd recommend anything by Thomas Hauser as well. That guy is #1 in boxing literature in my opinion.

I like Thomas Hauser too.

Black Lights is my favorite. I also like his bio on Ali.

What's funny is, Hauser doesn't like King. But the stuff he says to try to paint King as evil in those books is laughable compared to what's going on now.

King tries to get Billy Costello to defend against the ancient Saoul Mamby, after Costello's original opponent falls out, to save a televised boxing date on CBS. But Costello doesn't want to fight Mamby, because he was training to fight a guy with a different style. His team is afraid to fight Mamby. So King calls Sulaiman and tries to get Sulaiman to pressure Costello to DEFEND HIS TITLE AGAINST A 40+ HAS-BEEN ON NATIONAL TELEVISION FOR SIX FIGURES.

Costello finally agrees and wins, but it's supposed to make King look EVIL.

Jesus. Yes, that was so evil of King to give Costello an easy defense and a six-figure payday on national television 30 years ago.

Hell, champs TODAY could kill for a fight on CBS television for six figures now ... forget that with inflation the payday that Costello got would be worth to close to a million dollars now.

But Hauser felt is was so evil of King to "force" Costello to defend his title against a 40-year-old late sub.

My god.

[edgarg]

No need to apologize. You haven't offended me. I'm not a young kid. I'm 47. I've been a boxing fan since the Ali-Lyle fight. I know all about Don King and Jack Newfield and the books and the life King took and everything else. If Jack Newfield was still alive, I'm sure he'd have a different opinion of King as well. Because the stuff people railed against King forin the 70s and 80s .... like trying to serve as both promoter AND manager ... like trying to secure promotional ties with all boxers ... for taking boxers from other promoters ... has swung so far to the other extreme that King looks like a choir boy in comparison.

But the same people who still badmouth King for things that happened four or five decades ago ignore what's going on now. They just keep reciting the same mantra, even though King has done more "good" for boxing than he ever did bad. And the promoters today are doing exactly the same "negative" things King was accused of doing back then TIMES TEN ... and nobody says a word.

Like I said earlier, can you imagine if Don King bought Ring Magazine like Golden Boy did? Would anyone on earth have accepted that back in the 70s and 80s or even the 90s?

Can you imagine if King also decided to fight as a heavyweight himself, got himself rated by Ring (which he -- in this scenario -- purchased and owned) and cried foul after a round and a half like Hopkins did (in a fight he was promoting and in a fight that was for the RING belt -- a magazine Hopkins' company owns.)

If, back in the 70s and 80s, King got in the ring and did what Hopkins did two weeks ago, the U.S. Congress would've investigated him.

Also, "Soapy" Hopkins (nicknamed as such when he tried to **** a guy in prison and the guy got away because he was cover in soap) did a long stint in prison. Hopkins has been accused of raping people in prison. De La Hoya was accused of raping a girl and she was paid off to settle. De La Hoya is a coke head. The Golden Boy promotional team isn't exactly made of up "salt of the earth" types.

King was married to his wife Henrietta for more than 50 years until she died last year. He adopted her children and gave them all jobs in his organization.

What kind of family man is Oscar?

The Klitschkos insist fighters agree in the contract not only to a rematch (should one lose), but the other fighter must agree to defend against the other brother as well, and the fighter must agree to the lesser money in those "defenses" as well.

King never did anything like that. EVER. If a guy beat one of his champs, he'd get options. But he wouldn't insist the winning fighter "had" to fight a certain guy in his next two fights and take the short money on top of that. Jack Newfeld was OUTRAGED that King got options on fighters if they won a fight on a card he promoted. How outraged would Newfeld be today about what the Klitschko brothers are doing? Or about Soapy Hopkins refusing to fight on against Dawson or a coked up Oscar in drag photos paying off people to keep his escapades quiet (including RING, which never reported on any of it. Wonder why?).

What's going on now is insane.

Golden Boy has been around for well over a decade now. How many boxers have they taken under their wing from early in their careers and promoted them from nothing to millionaires in that time? Saul Alvarez. Victor Ortiz. That's about it. And the wheels seem to be coming off both their careers already (with Alvarez being accused of assault).

What fighters has K2 groomed for greatness, aside from the brothers themselves?

Don King was and still is the best promoter boxing ever had. Hands down.

I have no intention of taking part in a dispute about such a piece of Drek as Don King and must respectfully bow out. You do not accept facts and I can't make you. And, in fact I have no reason to want to make you. I can only say that I'm surprised that a 47 year old man can look at Don King's record in busines and approve, because he used to put on good boxing shows. The fact that most of them didn't get the money they'd signed for seems immaterial. He's swindled everyone he's been able to, and when the going gets hot, he settles for a lump sum out of court, like Mike Tyson's $14 mill. What about Ali's $1.2 miil calim which he settled for #40,000 byb getting an Ali close friend to approach him WITH THE MONEY when Ali was very ill in hospital, and "talk" to him. What about Larry Holmes mess, what about Tim Witherspoon's tragis story. And this is all only the tip of the iceberg. I'm surprised, but you yourself chose what you want to think.

[Thread Stealer]

King is a snake in a world filled with snakes. He's scum but he didn't make boxing any more sleazy or corrupt than it was previously. Ever read about Jim Norris, Frankie Carbo, and the IBC?

Can't knock the PPVs he's put on, especially the ones in the 90s. They were great. Fighters worked with him because he's been such a major figure in boxing and it's difficult to reach the level they want without a King or Arum or DLH being involved.

Oh, that "Soapy" thing was a joke article. That writer, Zeferino Jackson, writes bizarre (but hilarious) articles with gems such as "George Foreman lost to Ali because he was too tired from having a lot of **** sex with hookers sent by Ali", "Watch Michael Jackson in the Beat It video and you can tell he would have made a great fighter", and "Oscar got the Golden Boy nickname by peeing on people he'd beaten up and hated blacks because blacks were responsible for the death of his pet rat Gonzo".