Just three weeks after Newfield passed away from cancer, King has filed a defammation suit against ESPN claiming he was portrayed in a false light during a "SportsCentury" programme aired recently.
Most of the material in the programme had been printed or broadcast earlier, but said King at a press conference on Wednesday: "I just felt that this was the straw that broke the camel's back and I can't take it anymore, and I'm going to fight back.
"I seek justice."
King, wearing a garish American flag tie, then quietly stepped back and let his lawyer answer questions.
The suit alleges ESPN accused King of threatening to break the legs of Larry Holmes and of cheating boxer Meldrick Taylor out of $1 million from a fight, then threatening to have Taylor killed.
"It was slanted to show Don in the worst way. It was one-sided from day one," said King's lawyer. "Don is a strong man, but he has been hurt by this."
King served nearly four years in prison for the 1967 beating death of a man who owed him money. In 1954, he killed a man who was robbing a numbers house he operated in Cleveland, but it was ruled self-defence.
His lawyer also argued the programme accused King of being a "a snake oil salesman and a shameless huckster."
Judging by the look on King's face at the news conference, I think the programme got it spot on. Fake, real fake.
