Was Don King good for boxing?

I've seen copies of the two cheques.The music industry has jack **** to do with was Don King good for boxing.
King is a ****.

 

Let's face it, the whole sport reeked of corruption

He was just one cog in the wheel of corruption. A huge cog, but a cog nonetheless.

Some smart fighters and or fighters with proper independent magagement got rich and/or avoided getting ripped off by him - Leonard, Holmes (to some degree), Hagler.

Tyson was, simply, a moron to let King acquire absolute control of him.

 

That's how I remember it too. Witherspoon brought a huge entourage to the UK with him too. I don't know what it cost to feed and clothe them all after paying their flights and hotels in London but if you were in London in the weeks running up to that fight you could not miss a crowd of Witherspoons posse out shopping all dressed in the same uniform track suits. All out of Tims gross purse.

 

I attended a public training session at the Festival Hall in Basildon and as you say, huge entourage.
Ali was there, along with the 6 o'clock show cameras and about 3,000 members of the public.
After the event Ali went walkabout outside to meet people and i have never seen a crowd react to any person the way they did to Ali.
The man was quite simply very, very special.

 

Wow that sounds correct. i remember it being reported that Ali was a paid part of the team, there were daily reports in the national newspapers and some alarm that Ali had even spared Tim. Witherspoon had a huge cast of advisors to the advisors, assistant to the assistants, chefs of the chefs and barbers to the barbers ...just so many people. My dad was a London Taxi driver and I would show him the reports in the paper when he came home and he would say, "I've just seen a load of them in their track suits stopping traffic again when I was down Mayfair" or where ever it was that day. Every day he saw them. And they were just sight seeing and chanting songs. All on Witherspoons dollar.

 

He didn't "MAKE" any boxers millionaires. They fought,bled and entertained. He was not satisfied with what he was due for his services as the promoter stole, defrauded and tarnished.

 

Perhaps we should at least acknowledge he was a major cog in corruption and not try to argue that he was good for boxing!

 

Don King honored Ali by tricking an ailing, bed ridden Ali into accepting a fraction of what he was owed for fighting Larry Holmes, a fight for which Ali paid a high price.

I am guessing that some will place the blame on Ali for being vulnerable.

 

**** me we agree on something!

 

I find it very revealing that while don king was portrayed as a thief and black slavemaster in the 1980s the true slavemasters like barney eastwood , terry lawless and mickey duff are never mentioned...

 

All fair except don king paid far far better than white

 

I'm not sure it is a black and white thing as to how Don paid more. I think it's a green thing.

A promotion can lose money. Even a huge show with a full house. After a promoter pays every one, the sanctioning fee, the commission, the officials, the publicist, and the backers get their money back there might not be much left.

Some promoters use their own money, Typically a promoter raises money by getting backing or sponsors to cover costs. So technically who's doing the paying, the backer to the promoter or the promoter?

Promoters look to bid the most to stage a fight. they have to win the bid. Once winning that bid because they work hard to enlist options on a lot of fighters they then can build a card of fights from that total.

 

What Ali had was a rare combination for any athlete

All time unique ability
Charisma
Ability to communicate
Looks

He drew great crowds wherever in the world he went. You could not help but love the guy although he had many detractors early on.

 

Incredible heart and bravery was the other key thing...=it meant hecwould back his words to the death

 

Humour/charm too......he made the brutal sordid old game appear more noble ,more appealing....thus he bought in a whole new demographic...