Was Don King good for boxing?

He probably did more good than bad.

 

He was the first promoter to guarantee $5million. To both Ali and Foreman with the fight in Zaire.

He was the first promoter to pay a fighter $10 million. Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980 to defend against Duran.

 

The fact that even in his later years, pretty average boxers like Tavoris Cloud and Devon Alexander could become millionaires fighting for Don King shows you are probably correct.

 

It wasn't King's money

I suggest you read . The Life And Crimes Of Don King.

 

Of course not. He's a promoter.
He got the deals made and got the fights on.

 

Yes and No. He gave boxing an interesting personality, with his hair and verbose nature. He made great undercards, okay, understand that. But he also ruined boxers through his background running numbers. If he was smart, he could have made 80's heavyweight boxing the greatest if ever been. But his ego got in the way.

 

I think that's a question best left to the boxers that he promoted. If you asked Tim Witherspoon, he'd definitely say no. Ask Andrew Golota who got three title shots in a row and was signed by King when no other promoter would touch him with a ten foot pole and he'd say yes.

 

I don't think that he was good for the sport on any level.

I think that he prevented far more key fights from being made than he facilitated.

I think that he was very much the author of the fragmentation of the titles.

I think that every era where he was the dominant force, was characterized by fragmentation, and key fights not coming to fruition.

 

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Some unexpected praise for Don King from a unlikely source and criticism for fellow boxers.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/...-care-for-disabled-ex-boxer-gerald-mcclellan/

 

Again you make a good point and hard to argue with, however if Tim had better representatives then he would not have been getting the fights to begin with. Don would have froze him out of the picture. Now, in this particular case im not quite sure how he would do it seeing as Tim was champion, but im sure Don would have thought of something. Either way, this case is just 1 particular example out of, and im guessing here, hundreds. Its just we are a bit more aware of this one than the many others that god knows what Don did. But i do take your point.

 

I think most of the bad press professional boxing gets is owed to the interpretation of middle class sports reporters trying to make comparisons between the financial set up of pro boxing and other professional sports that have a completely different financial structure and class of participants.

There are a lot of wild and crazy champions out there. Fools and their money are easily parted before you get to the promoyer. I guess a boxing lord is eager to make sure a diva with a crazy entourage is paying for those people and not him. He knows the less a fighter is left with the more likely he will want more fights.

There are no laws to stop boxing czars doing what they do. There is not much evidence of sensible people being ripped off.

 

Good post. Points well made, which are mostly spot on.

But regardless how much money he made fighters compared to other promoters is bye the by when he still looked to short change them at the end of it.

It seems he's getting a pass for being a (insert appropriate word here) though, which doesn't sit well.
"What you see is what you get with him" I don't go along with. We see the person King wants us to see. It was a persona. The bombastic personality, the wordplay, the constant fake smile. It's all fake, nothings genuine with him, a fraud, all in aid of his own gains. I get it, that's how he operates and was successful with it for a long time. A very good salesman, but an unscrupulous one with no moral fibre (a typical salesman then lol).

Let's also not give him a pass because he invented 'trickeration' a vague admission he was the crook we thought he was.

I like many liked his loud personality in boxing at one time like I'm sure many did on here (depending on age), it seemed a good fit. I'm sure the casuals back in the 80's and maybe early 90's felt similar. Which goes back to the main question of the thread. Was he good for boxing?

Thinking about it at one time yes, maybe he was. But holding belts to ransom, freezing fighters out, the endless politics, cosying up with organisations, short changing fighters, big fights not happening etc etc. all became tiresome even to some hardcore fans. To the casuals it was a big confusing and dishonest turn off and in the process boxing lost support and became a niche sport. Admittedly King wasn't the only culprit but he was the main one.

I would sooner see our beloved sport watched by the massses like yesteryear but the damage to the casual fan was irreparable. King was a large part of this and for this reason I say again, no, overall he wasn't good for boxing. He harmed the sport far more than he done good in it.

 

No he wasn't. Not at all.

Don King very much believed in keeping the title 'whole.' Over the past 50 years, he's the only promoter to stage unification tournaments at heavyweight (twice) and middleweight.

He was the brainchild behind and promoted the HBO unification tournament that ran from 1986-1988. He was the promoter who unified the titles again with Tyson, Holyfield, Moorer and Lewis from 1996 to 1999. He promoted the middleweight unification tournament that crowned Hopkins. He was the promoter of the Chavez-Taylor unification at super lightweight. He was the copromoter of the Trinidad-De La Hoya unification at welterweight. Among many other unifications.

The titles were fragmented, first, by boxing commissions (like the NY State Athletic Commission and the British Boxing Board of Control) and by boxing organzations (like the National Boxing Association ... which morphed into the WBA ... the World Boxing Council, the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Organization, the International Boxing Organization, the World Athletic Asssociation, the International Boxing Council, and the list goes on and on.)

Once King would work with the fighters, the managers, the promoters, the television networks, etc. to put titles together, the orgs would break them apart.

 

Read it. I suggest you read about and speak to the 100 or so fighters who he made millionaires.

The author of that book at various times blamed everything from Muhammad Ali's physical condition to Tim Witherspoon's weight problems to Mike Tyson's financial problems and Tyson's **** conviction on Don King.

Yet, Tyson went to jail before he met King. Tyson went to jail after he worked with King.

Tyson was always rich when he fought for Don King. When Tyson went to prison, he was a millionaire many times over. The day after Tyson got out of prison, he had $30 million in the bank courtesy of a deal King signed with the MGM Grand. And Tyson immediately went on a spending spree. Tyson received the highest purses of his career fighting for Don King. Tyson only filed for bankruptcy when Shelley Finkel began managing his money because Tyson blew his money the moment he got some.

Tim Witherspoon was fat when he wasn't fighting for King. Tim Witherspoon admitted to taking dives when he wasn't fighting for King. Tim Witherspoon admitted to taking drugs before fights when he wasn't fighting for King. Witherspoon admitted to blowing all his money when he wasn't fighting for King. Witherspoon was an idiot all the way around.

And the author never blamed Ali's managers or his trainers for Ali taking PEDs before the Holmes fight. The author never blamed Ali's team for Ali signing to fight matches when he should've been retired. The author never blamed Ali's wives for allowing him to fight matches when he should've been retired. Hell, Ali's wife Veronica sat next to Ali after the Berbick fight (with John Travolta) and told Ali she thought he won and not to listen to the reporters.

Don King didn't promote the Ali-Berbick travesty. Don King didn't promote Ali-Shavers, or any of the Ali-Norton fights, or any of the Ali-Spinks fights ... when Ali was old. Don King didn't promote the Ali-Inoki embarrassment that resulted in Ali getting clots in his legs.

Don King promoted Holmes-Ali ... the fight where Ali and his camp took PEDs and cut corners to get in shape, where his trainer Dundee knew Ali was in terrible shape (physically and mentally) and did nothing, where the Nevada commission did nothing to prevent an ill (and drug cheating) fighter from competing, where his manager (Herbert Muhammad) allowed Ali to be sacrificed so Herbert could get his 50 percent cut of Ali's purse ...

Yet Don King (the promoter) was to blame for Ali's condition?

Instead of regurgitating the opinions of one writer and one book, think for yourself.