DK and controversy

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off the top of your head, can you give me an example of a fight which ended in controversy, and Don King's fighter is on the bitter end of it?

right now i cannot

note: the many cases in which DK had an option on the next fight of the other fighter obviously dont count. I am interested in cases in which the bad decision actually damaged don king's interests

[sleazyfellow]

tyson/douglas in 1990, after the fight dk claimed douglas was on the canvas longer than 10, even replayed the video while tysons ppl were all counting how long he was actually down lol sorta stopped dons plan of a tyson worldtour right there

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tyson/douglas in 1990, after the fight dk claimed douglas was on the canvas longer than 10, even replayed the video while tysons ppl were all counting how long he was actually down lol sorta stopped dons plan of a tyson worldtour right there

i think the only ppl who considered that controversial were dk and tyson's fans.

But it's still the best i can think of. thank you

[hitman215]

i think tim witherspoon threw the second bonecrusher smith fight to get away from king and his tournament to have one heavyweight champ. how else do you explain getting dropped three times by a guy he handled with ease the year before.

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i think tim witherspoon threw the second bonecrusher smith fight to get away from king and his tournament to have one heavyweight champ. how else do you explain getting dropped three times by a guy he handled with ease the year before.

I was thinking more of stuff like tyson-douglas, where controversy comes from refs or judges.

getting in the ring in place of the fighter is the only thing he cannot do.

(as for the episode itself, I am not aware of what was going on between DK and witherspoon, but if you want to drop a fight wou can do it in less blatant ways.

what I am looking for is something like chavez-taylor 1, pea-chavez, oscar-tito, but DK gets screwed

[GEOFFHAYES]

There was a lot of controversy between King and Eubank circa '93/'94. I can't be bothered to go into it..

[Dynamite76]

Probably Witherspoon-Smith ll, and Page-Witherspoon

[Mr. Ryan]

tyson/douglas in 1990, after the fight dk claimed douglas was on the canvas longer than 10, even replayed the video while tysons ppl were all counting how long he was actually down lol sorta stopped dons plan of a tyson worldtour right there

The Buster Douglas incident was the first time in the 20th Century that someone tried to enforce the Fugitive Slave act, and it was Don King a black man who tried to use it on Douglas.

The fight was simple, Mike Tyson got knocked out in the 10th when the ref reached the count of 10. Don King tried to undermine the referees discretion and protested that Tyson should've won in the 8th on a knockout when Tyson dropped Douglas for a 9 count with an uppercut. Of course, the rules state that only the ref can say that it was a 10 count or not.

The sanctioning bodies, which have forever been in Don King's pocket, upheld the recognition of Douglas as champion so that King could go on with his bull****. Funny thing was that at a press conference, WBC chairman Jose Sulaiman addressed the press with his bull**** reason for not recognizing Douglas as champ and Mike Marley of Fightnightnews.com, but then a writer for the NY Post asked "So then shouldn't we reinstate Mike Tyson as champion again?" The notion was so preposterous that the only reaction elicited was hysterical laughter from the ranks.

When Douglas tried to sign elsewhere with another promoter who wasn't trying to **** him out of his belts, Don King slapped him with a lawsuit claiming breach of contract with the illegal options he had on him. Truth is, who the **** would want to work with King after some **** like that, huh?

Well, they went to trial and King squared off with Las Vegas casino and hotel mogul Steve Wynn for the rights to Douglas' fights. King's argument was that he was trying to incite interest for the rematch with controversy, when in reality he was just trying to protect Mike the meal ticket.

In the end, King got some form of compensation for Douglas to fight other wheres and got the **** beaten out of him by Holyfield. Touching story about the douche with the funny hair.

[Mr. Ryan]

i think tim witherspoon threw the second bonecrusher smith fight to get away from king and his tournament to have one heavyweight champ. how else do you explain getting dropped three times by a guy he handled with ease the year before.

Witherspoon didn't want to fight anymore for Don King, he just wasn't there with his heart anymore after the bull**** that Don King pulled in the Frank Bruno fight. King was horrible to all of his heavyweights in the 80s, treating them like property. Thats why they are called the lost heavyweights because they were destroyed by out of the ring bull**** brought on by Don Kings mistreatment of fighters.

[GEOFFHAYES]

Eubank-Benn II and Eubank-Ray Close in Belfast.

Eubank (and the system surrounding him) didn't just get one over on King, but got two over on King!


Eubank never wanted to be tied to Don King, but was pretty much forced to to get the Benn fight on (King simply didn't like Eubank because Eubank was the highest-paid non-heavyweight in boxing yet non-American, not fighting in America and not fighting the best American's, and I don't think King liked that - his precious America and all that), both the winner and loser (of Eubank-Benn II) would be tied to Don King for three fights each - but a draw was never put into the contract and that was Eubank's escape route!

(Eubank openly admits that politics were in his favour in his career and insists that fights are fixed)

King didn't like being screwed, so made sure he won the purse bids for Eubank's fight with Close in Belfast, and with Eubank on the very verge of securing a £10million 'World Tour' with Sky Sports, King wanted to try to make sure Eubank lost which would wreck his big plans. King, along with Frank Warren (who also hated Eubank and Barry Hearn), tried bribing the judges with five-star hotels and made sure Eubank had no ice or towels in his changing room (which was a cramped disabled toilet). They even paid a Leprechaun to throw dust/sparkly **** over Eubank's back beforehand to try to unsettle him.. fight was held up for around 15 mins because they had to brush it all off Eubank and sweep it all out of the ring. I'll never forget King and Warren that night, roaring exaggerated approval if Close landed a punch and punching the air after every round - just to try to sway the judges. Eubank had refused to do any publicity work for the fight (ie trying to make King and Warren as little money as possible). It was all very political, business-esque, and egotistical. Funny stuff.

There was an article in Boxing News that predicted (from inside info, no doubt) King and Warren were going to do everything in their power to get Close the win, then use Close for a laughable unification bout with the equally average Steve Little (with the loser being dumped, no doubt). King and Warren wanted hold of the WBA and WBO titles so that Eubank couldn't get another world title shot (let alone wreck his TV deal) because they already had Benn (WBC) and Nigel didn't want to give Eubank another pay day either.

So, if King and Warren succeeded, the paper, Boxing News, mentioned that Eubank would have to have a really tough fight whether he liked it or not, and these were the options: James Toney, Mike McCallum in an eliminator, Dariusz Michalcewski in an eliminator, Virgil Hill in North Dakota or Henry Maske in Germany. All lossable fights, you'd agree, and if he had two losses on his record Eubank's career would be a little ****ed.