Back at the ring at 91
Stand: 09.06.2023
“If it were a city, it would be Las Vegas. 24 hours of unmanageable hype and everything revolves around the money,” said ex-champ George Foreman once about Don King
Quelle: pa/dmg media Licensing/KEVIN QUIGLEY
Well-known, dazzling, hostile: Although he never fought himself, Don King is one of the greatest legends in professional boxing. Even in old age, the man, who has two lives on his conscience, still organizes fight evenings.
Lfor a long time it was quiet around him. Hardly anyone believed that he would ever return to the stage on which he played an unprecedented role as Hans Dampf for decades. After all, Don King will be 92 years old in just over two months. But this venerable number is ignored by the best-known, most dazzling and at the same time hostile promoter in the boxing business. “Don King is alive. Don King should never be written off. And Don King has other plans, too,” he assured at a press conference in Miami this week. In the second largest city in the US state of Florida, where he also lives, his next event, aptly titled “Return to Glory”, will take place this Friday evening at Casino Jai-Alai.
It will be a historic one when the gong rings for the first of a total of ten fights. There has never been an arranger of an international boxing event as old as Don King. The most famous impresario in the industry, whose graying hair is sprouting out of his head like fine wires, cannot hide a certain pride. “I think it’s great that I’m still writing new boxing chapters, who can say that at my age?” says King and is happy about life.
1997: Impressario King mit Evander Holyfield (r.) und Mike Tyson
Source: pa/dpa/epa AFP John Gurzinski
He dedicates his boxing evening in Miami to the freedom of all Ukrainians. The crowd pullers are welterweight Adrien Broner – the 33-year-old American was a four-time world champion – and Cuban-born Guillermo Rigondeaux. The 42-year-old bantamweight won two Olympic victories and was also a multiple world champion among professional boxers.
He shot one and trampled another to death
King no longer seems quite as dynamic and bursting with energy as he did in the glory days when he promoted heavyweight heroes such as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. Nevertheless, he still knows better than anyone else how to sell prize boxing. Foreman once said of the inimitable doer who, as an ardent patriot, was invited to the White House by three different US Presidents: “If King were a city, he would be Las Vegas. 24 hours of unmanageable hype and everything revolves around money.”
Wherever the greatest entertainer of his trade shows up, he represents the world of this multi-million dollar, albeit questionable, sport. It’s truly a terrific career for the “Only in America” brand, as King himself never tires of emphasizing. In the 1950s, the high school graduate turned out to be a sophisticated gambling figure in the East Side ghetto of his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. “Donald the Kid” was an influential lottery seller, shooting a man dead during an argument in 1954 in what the court found to be self-defense against armed burglary. Twelve years later, however, he trampled his debtor to death in the street, after which he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
In prison, King heard the radio report of the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. She sparked his enthusiasm for boxing. Free again, good friends from the entertainment industry put Ali in touch. Shortly thereafter, in August 1972, King organized a charity gala for the “greatest” with some sparring. Three years later, the “no name” of the shady industry knew how to generate the record exchange rate of ten million dollars for a world championship fight between Ali and defending champion George Foreman from various companies and the Mobutu regime in Zaire. The major global event in Kinshasa established King as a new big player in the business. From then on, almost all great boxers succumbed to its rhetorical charm and promising promises.
Don King staged over 500 duels for championship belts
Feared and loved, admired and hated, loud, shrill, paradoxical and always with an eye for a lucrative business – all this is “Don Dollar”, as the Los Angeles Times wrote. The boxing godfather, who likes to wave stars and stripes flags with the grin of a honey cake horse, not only helped more than 100 fighters to the world championship title. He also made them millionaires. A large number of the champions also reported him for fraud – with King mostly saving himself with fines.
After more than 500 duels for the world title, one would think Don King would have made enough money to retire. With 47 title fights in 1994, he set an annual world record for world championship fights that has not been matched to this day. But the workaholic is far from letting go. Even if his company Don King Productions, DKP for short, based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, which once had more than fifty employees, has now shrunk to a single-digit number of employees.
He also no longer has an exclusive television contract. His fight night in Miami can be watched live for $24.99 on the company’s own streaming platform. “If you move with the times,” says Don King, “there is always a solution to resist the problems.” In any case, he feels confirmed with his characteristic pragmatism in his survival philosophy, which reads: “Boxers come and go. Don King stays.”
