BoxRec

I Want To Know What People Think About Don King

I'm giving the devil his due. King is thr greatest promoter of all time and the sport of boxing and his fans were off with him than without him.

Otyson wrote:I Want To Know What People Think About Don King

I don't really have a strong opinion of him either way, unlike most people.

Overall I think he's been bad for the sport, though one can't overlook the fact that he has done many good things as well. His cards have been for the most part entertaining over the years and I've always preferred his fights/fighters to Bob Arum.

I've always been of the opinion that it's not the promoters that are destroying the sport, but the ABC Organizations. In boxing there should be 1 World Title Belt and some regional title belts. That's it. Remember, promoters have been promoters since the beginning of prizefighting. They have been seedy since the beginning. It's not the promoters that do a lot of damage to the sport. Ever since the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council created separate title belts for the heavyweight division (they had previously created them for other divisions), the sport as a whole has been on a steady downward spiral.

Best promoter of recent times

King is thr greatest promoter of all time and the sport of boxing and his fans were off with him than without him.

Jeez, it looks like I was typing with my toes. It should read:
King is the greatest promoter of all time and the sport of boxing and its fans are off with him than without him.

One thing I will say for Don King , when he was in the joint, he didnt serve time, he made time serve him. He educated himself and certainly came out of there with a plan.

Obviously he is a very shallow person in terms of feelings and loyality towards his busness associates and fighters, but he does get the blame for a lot more than he actually is to blame for.

It is popular opinion that King ruined the heavies of the 1980s, but that's not true. Greg Page was notoriously lazy way before he met King. Tony Tubbs had an eating disorder going back to his childhood. Tim Witherspoon was never the shrewdest businessman to begin, something his blowing of over a million dollars on fast living proved after he won his case against King, and Michael Dokes and Pinklon Thomas had dabbled with drugs in their early teens.
Fact: All these guys would never have made anywhere near the kind of money they did if it wasn't for King.

Larry Holmes said once "I made 20 million dollars by fighting for King. If that's getting screwed, please, screw me again."

Yes, King took advantage of his fighters and helped himself to large chunks of thir purses by deducting "expenses", but as Holmes said "King took an unfair percentage of my purse, but I was still left with more than I would from any other promotor." Food for thought.

I'm not saying King is a good person and a fair businessman, he isn't, but he is not as bad as he is made out to be either.

-KOKid-

Well nobody does a better job of promoting than Don King. I don't know if I would say he was the greatest promoter ever, but he is certainly right up there with the best.

He has promoted a lot of great fights but also treats most of his boxers like scum, uses them up and discards them like old condoms... but he is not alone in this... his treatment of fighters like Ali, Gerald Mcclellen, Iran Barkley among others lend a strong argument for the instigation of Communism..... 8)

He did call McClellan a dog as he lay on the canvas a few yards away in a critical condition.

Ezzard wrote:He did call McClellan a dog as he lay on the canvas a few yards away in a critical condition.

I've heard that he said it in the hospital too... since then King has done little to help Mcclellan...

The fact that he did not get all of Tyson's belts back for him on the night Douglas cheated his way to victory has always troubled me. Well....at least Don tried very hard to do the right thing. I wonder why he came up short?

BoxBuzz wrote:The fact that he did not get all of Tyson's belts back for him on the night Douglas cheated his way to victory has always troubled me. Well....at least Don tried very hard to do the right thing. I wonder why he came up short?

How did Douglas cheat his way to victory?... he punched the hell out of Tyson!... King then harassed Douglas for months to such a degree the Douglas was relieved in the end to lose the title and be left in peace.......

King is inhuman... or maybe just very human. A fault in democracy: it starts eating himselfe up and womiting new destorted behaviours as it goes. In the end you get KING. Tortured fucked up clueless bastard of this dimension. What bothers me is why his stature and the comfort he has created for himselfe demand respect? And why does many respect him? Cose he can switch out all that makes us human. Some cry this out to be a total freedom and ... well it's really the opposite. As these people multiply there is no more room for anything else and soon you all beleave him rather than your hart because otherwise you just won't survive.

props to the bastard.. . be a switcher... start today.

Boxing is a buisness...and that is what Don King treats it like, I think he is good for boxing, he makes the fights and sells the shows.

Like most, if not all top buisness people he can be totally ruthless and selfish in his pursuit of his next project.

The critism of King has gone on for years, yet people in the boxing buisnes (boxers included) are more than eager to do buisness with him...why?

tonyevs wrote:Boxing is a buisness...and that is what Don King treats it like, I think he is good for boxing, he makes the fights and sells the shows.

Like most, if not all top buisness people he can be totally ruthless and selfish in his pursuit of his next project.

The critism of King has gone on for years, yet people in the boxing buisnes (boxers included) are more than eager to do buisness with him...why?

Most boxers who deal with him do so because they have no choice, they either deal with him or are frozen out. Look at what happened to Tim Witherspoon when he dared stand up to King, he was frozen out for the rest of his career, while fighters who weren't half as good as him got title shots....

silkov....so it's ok to hit? then never mind.


(did you really not get the sarcasm? up late last night maybe? I thought it was great drama that King sort of postured himself to "bring the belts back to Mike" when this all took place, it was one of the stupidest laugh riots of all time in boxing)

BoxBuzz wrote:silkov....so it's ok to hit? then never mind.


(did you really not get the sarcasm? up late last night maybe? I thought it was great drama that King sort of postured himself to "bring the belts back to Mike" when this all took place, it was one of the stupidest laugh riots of all time in boxing)

I took you for one of those Tyson followers who really believe that Tyson was robbed of his title and is just gathering himself before he decides to rule the boxing world once more!... 8)

tonyevs wrote:Boxing is a buisness...and that is what Don King treats it like, I think he is good for boxing, he makes the fights and sells the shows.

Like most, if not all top buisness people he can be totally ruthless and selfish in his pursuit of his next project.

The critism of King has gone on for years, yet people in the boxing buisnes (boxers included) are more than eager to do buisness with him...why?

king is a damn dictator, how that hell is he good for boxing. He's attitude inspires other promoters to do the same cose otherwise there goin down.

I am sort of curious as to why a fighter has to deal with King or not get a fight. Must be becuase their are not many promoters out their. That being the case would that not leave the door open for other promoters to get in the game and create a balance giving fighters more options of promoters to deal with?
I would think that would be similar to having a town of one hundred thousand people and let's say only one car dealership. In a free market system other would be dealers would recognize this and soon step in and fill the void offering the consumer more options.
This sounds a bit naive but how would boxing be such where it is a monopoly and a fighters choices are limited to dealing with so few people? I guess I never really took the time to look behind the scene to view the inside workings of the fight game.

kick asner wrote:I am sort of curious as to why a fighter has to deal with King or not get a fight. Must be becuase their are not many promoters out their. That being the case would that not leave the door open for other promoters to get in the game and create a balance giving fighters more options of promoters to deal with?
I would think that would be similar to having a town of one hundred thousand people and let's say only one car dealership. In a free market system other would be dealers would recognize this and soon step in and fill the void offering the consumer more options.
This sounds a bit naive but how would boxing be such where it is a monopoly and a fighters choices are limited to dealing with so few people? I guess I never really took the time to look behind the scene to view the inside workings of the fight game.

Because boxing is now such a minor, and many times unprofitable business, there are few people that want to get involved. Too much risk with limited returns. And yes, I am aware of the money made on many of the PPV's. But for every PPV that makes money there are many more fight cards that lose money for the promoter. In fact, many (probably most) of Kings own promotions lose money, but he bankrolls them anyway in order to generate interest in his fighters. And no I don't think he does that for the fighters benefit, but he needs to generate the interest in order get the big money PPV's.

Thanks for ansering my question. That pretty much leaves a fighter in a weak position. That would make boxing not only a tough sport from a physical standpoint, but also from a business perspective.

Decagon wrote:Shit, you can make $100 in one hour as a boxer. At the club level, it's like being a hooker. Sure, you're sore afterwards, but you have $100.

What a stupid statement, I bet you've never been near a gumshield let alone actually fought in a boxing ring........

silkov wrote:

Decagon wrote:Shit, you can make $100 in one hour as a boxer. At the club level, it's like being a hooker. Sure, you're sore afterwards, but you have $100.

What a stupid statement, I bet you've never been near a gumshield let alone actually fought in a boxing ring........

Yes, even for Decagon this is an incredibly ill informed statement. Plus, he again doesn't seem to be able to follow the posts, because I was talking about the promoter having trouble making a buck, I never mentioned anything about the boxer. Of course, there are hardly any boxers who actually make a living in the game. Most have to work as well as box, although there are rare instances where a fighter can do pretty good as a sparring partner, but these opportunities are also becoming less common.

Great promoter, screwed over many people, but in all fairness, some of them should've known better.