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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3326
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 02, 2007 - 04:50 pm: | 
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Even at 75, Don King is at the top of his game when it comes to hyping fights, pleasing crowds
By Josh Robbins
February 2, 2007
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The man of the hour was 38 minutes late when a silver Rolls-Royce Phantom finally pulled up to Courthouse Square on Wednesday. Politicians, camera crews and boxing fans lined up on the sidewalk, craning their necks to see the guy who brought championship boxing here.
The back right-side door opened, and Don King emerged. He held miniature U.S. flags and smiled widely.
"Mr. King," a television reporter said, "would you please speak some words in Spanish?"
"Te quiero mucho el pueblo!" King obliged, his voice rising to a scream. "Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!"
Even at 75 years old, the world's most famous -- and, to some, infamous -- boxing promoter still can work a crowd. With bankable stars now at a premium, and with Mike Tyson all but finished, King is almost certainly the sports' most recognizable active figure.
His gray-and-black hair still stands straight up, a feature that he said comes from God and from "laying in the bed with my beautiful wife, Henrietta and, all of a sudden, my head went to rumbling -- PING! PING! PING! -- and the hair started standing up by itself."
King launched into promoting Saturday night's fights at Silver Spurs Arena -- three title bouts, in all -- saying that God lured him here.
It's yet another gamble in a controversial career filled with big risks and dizzying successes. He's a millionaire umpteen times over and Forbes once reported that he has, at times, kept $70 million in his checking account.
King's company has promoted seven of the 10 largest pay-per-view events in history, and 16 of the top 25 highest-grossing live gates in Nevada history, according to figures provided by his company.
"You've got to understand, Don is not on a mission to improve boxing," said Jay Larkin, the former head of Showtime's boxing department. "To his credit, he never claims to be. There's a lot of people in boxing who get in there on their high horse and say they're going to save boxing and revive the sport. Don hasn't taken that position.
"Don has been accused of doing a lot of harm to the sport, but you can't look at that in a vacuum. He's also done tremendously positive things for the sport. In a time when boxing is facing shrinking audiences and an aging fan base, Don more than any one promoter has done more to keep it in front of the public."
In 1974, just two years after his first boxing promotion, he orchestrated "The Rumble in the Jungle," the fight in Zaire between then-heavyweight champ George Foreman and Muhammad Ali.
He promoted other huge fights in the years since: the "Thrilla in Manila" between Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975, the first meeting between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran in 1980 and the two fights between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
If the suit fits
King's been sued countless times -- often by rival promoters, sometimes by the fighters he's promoted -- and parodied as a leach and a liar on The Simpsons and in movies such as Rocky V.
Yet, on the day he arrived in Kissimmee to start promoting the card, people embraced him.
King stood on the stage wearing Statue of Liberty suspenders and a jean jacket with red and white stripes on the forearms, Mt. Rushmore on the right breast and his catchphrase, "Only in America," on the back.
When American fighters stood at the podium, he smiled and waved U.S. flags -- one in each hand.
With Mexican fighters, he waved Mexico's flag. When WBC light heavyweight champ Tomasz Adamek from Poland rose, King waved Poland's flag.
King never met a camera he didn't like.
He even agreed to go inside a courthouse and pose as a judge for publicity shots. He sat there in a robe, with a gavel in his hand, smiling the entire time.
A long journey
The moment oozed irony. In 1966, King stomped a man to death who was said to have owed King several hundred dollars.
King, a former numbers runner who said he was acting in self-defense, was convicted of manslaughter and served almost four years in prison.
That past is at odds with the kind, grandfatherly image he often portrays.
How does he explain the difference?
"When you're instrumental in the fatality of a fellow human being, you suffer deep contrition," he said, sitting in the back of his Rolls-Royce. "That's frustrations of the ghetto, I call it then and I call it now, expressing themselves. You never know it's going to end up being a fatality because you're in a street fight. You have 10,000 street fights a day in the ghetto. Mine was misfortunate."
Taking a punch
King's reputation took a massive hit when Tyson imploded, ultimately filling for bankruptcy protection. Tyson sued King for $100 million. The suit eventually was settled for $14 million.
"Tyson, when he left me, owed nobody no money," King said. "He got him a couple of hundred million in the bank and no debt.
"I like Tyson, man. I want to see Tyson do well. He's his own worst enemy," he continued. "My heart breaks. I grieve. That's part of the hype and the propaganda for me, because they thought I had a Pope-like quality of absolvement.
"Everything Tyson did when he was with me, I was to blame. But when Tyson left me and went to the white guy [Shelly Finkel], everything Tyson did, he [Tyson] was to blame. They don't understand the hypocrisy every day."
About an hour later, King returned to his hotel suite.
He had no more public appearances, just a phone interview for an afternoon sports radio show. He took off the four rings on his hands and the eight necklaces -- his "gaudy do-dads," he called them -- as well as his jean jacket.
His assistants stocked his room with Diet Coke, ginger ale and his favorite liquor, Grand Marnier.
King reached into his bag, pulled out 10 books, including The Quest Study Bible, the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass, a collection of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches and We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends.
He loves to read, and he's blessed with a near-photographic memory, especially for numbers. In the span of several hours, he quoted a range of writers from Thomas Carlyle to Khalil Gibran to Victor Hugo.
"Nobody can say I'm lazy or shiftless," King said, his voice now quiet. "But I'm catching hell with that `lying, cheating and stealing' thing."
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-0702020265feb02,1,2661356.story
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3558
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 10:32 am: |
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In a just society he would be on Death Row.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3329
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:40 am: |
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And you would choke on a chicken bone  |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3566
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:45 am: |
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He has personally killed more n***as than crack cocaine and ripped off more boxers than them hookers that get em drunk and run out of the motel rooms with their pants and wallets.
The only reason he is walking around is that he is doing all this for the Mob-- |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3330
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:50 am: |
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And what do YOU know about hookers getting anyone drunk and running off with their pants and wallets?  |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3568
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:53 am: |
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One of the n***as he killed back in Cleveland was over something like twenty dollars. He beat and pistol whipped him to death.
This was when he was raking it in as the biggest Number's runner in town--
Honestly. I get smack for defending poor blacks and you sit here and praise a murderer and rip off artist.
Your morals are in the gutter. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3331
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:56 am: |
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I'm not praising anyone. I asked you how you know about hookers getting anyone drunk and running off with their pants and wallets. Answer me that and stop trying to change the subject. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3570
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 11:58 am: |
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I know all things. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3332
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 12:05 pm: |
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Right. Sounds like you're the trick who got robbed at the Motel 6 by a hairychestedtransvestiteprostitute 
So what happened exactly and how much money was in your wallet?
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8257
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2007 - 02:57 pm: |
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Chris,
I heard or read somewhere that as he was being stumped to death by Don King, the last words he uttered were, "But, Don! I PROMISE I'll pay you your MONEY!!!" |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3578
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 06, 2007 - 02:41 pm: |
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hairychestedtransvestiteprostitute
When did YOU move to St. Louis? |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1765
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 06, 2007 - 11:20 pm: |
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"He has personally killed more n***as than crack cocaine and ripped off more boxers than them hookers that get em drunk and run out of the motel rooms with their pants and wallets."
True......
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