Just to play devil's advocate, was Don King really this evil garbage?

This is an interesting basic ethical question. If someone ends up doing good for individuals even though they are relentlessly abusive, a shameless exploiter, indeed have NO conscience-what credit, much or any, should you give the man?

To my mind absolutely NONE.
The question posed was basically, is Don King Evil?

TRUE King made many rich.
Although these men deserved that for being the warriors willing & able to fight at the top levels & risk everything.
Many made more with him than if a theoretical lesser promoter guided the sport-some maybe many even subtracting what King ROBBED from them.

But how does that mitigate any assessment of the man's decency?
Guys only benefited-when it was a net gain-due to it being good for King:
If he could steal every last dollar from them & (if it was to his advantage) leave them brain damaged & homeless-I mean assuming King could get off scott-free, no jail time (& he killed TWO people), no hit to his career success...

He would do it.

Fans got exciting cards?
Yes, & if others were able to make matches any other-or the same, or overlapping-matches would have been made.
And others would have a CHANCE to thrive instead of an endlessly corrupt Bigfoot.

But even IF we had more fun than in a more fair alternate universe where a few others put on fights...
Ask yourself if it is fine or exculpates, oh say Hitler, if the public is more entertained?

Don King was & is a Monster.
A classic Sociopath; & though no expert, I see no reason to find a latent conscience, so if that is the wrong diagnoses...

It is only because in actuality he is a Psychopath.
Perhaps the "King" of Psychopaths.

 

This. It wasn’t King’s fault that some fighters were reckless with their money. Plenty of fighters worked with King and didn’t have any money problems.

As for Tyson he had money problems even before he ever started working with King and continued to have money problems after he split with King, so Tyson himself was the reason he went bankrupt.

King also invested a lot of money in Holmes when nobody else was interested. Without King’s support Holmes would’ve never achieved what he did.

 

Tyson had an annuity set up by Jacobs and Cayton that would have paid him IIRC $1M a year starting at age 50. He cashed it in as soon as they left him because despite all his big purses he was spending it faster than he could make it.

 

Your point is taken, but he wasn’t Hitler. C’mon.

 

I respect your experience but please show me you are really a Saint!
Seriously though, how were those cards not built to benefit him?
That each individual bout or even day of fighting would not enrich him does not obviate the fact that he needed to do that as the best way for HIM to get rich & obtain Glory.

That in the short term it did not pay as well OR how good it was for fans like you does not obviate the fact of his Evil.
EDIT: I mean in the long term whoever else it helped, hurt or destroyed was incidental to his intentions: he only did anything that was in his perceived & total, eventual, self-interest.
Does not mitigate the offenses, manipulation, theft, & lies-of the Warriors he continually Victimized.

Was Letterman Naive to call out King on National TV for being a "weasel" for coming to Kingston with Frazier, sidling closer to Foreman as the results became devastating for Smokin' Joe...
And then entirely abandoning him after such a gallant effort but terrible loss, waving his flag in the ring during the post-fight interview with Big George.

Some got a net benefit from him & little Trauma: only if that was what King needed to do to profit.
I give no moral points for not being able to avoid helping some-that is, unable to hurt them to gain something more.
But he did that numerous times anyway.

King is an unmitigated Monster.

 

Yes of course not.
Because Hitler caused exponentially more harm to the whole world. That is not remotely comparable.

But in terms of ethics & intentions...what is identical about those two...Is neither of them cared at all about anyone.
Both have no Love, no Empathy, no Guilt, no Shame.

Many Psychopaths never kill anyone. Most of them, especially if "only" a sociopath.
But if not, if not dominating or destroying the world...
It is only because they are not interested in that. Or they are unable to achieve that-due to their skill level & the level of resistance they could encounter.
Or the consequences are such that it is not worth it to even try.
And/or it does not benefit them, practically or psychologically to do so.

King while not in the same ballpark as the Greatest Monsters of Human History in Evil committed...
Is no better than them in terms of Basic Decency.

 

And? So we're supposed to ignore the people who exposed King for the scumbag he was just because he made boxers some money (which he stole, proven in court numerous times)? How about Tim Witherspoon, who King and his son blackballed into a practical enslavement contract? How about how he collaborated with Terry Norris' manager to steal millions from him? And when he threatened Larry Holmes and Meldrick Taylor (accusations that King couldn't even disprove in court)? But nooooooo, this is anti-King propaganda!

Also, Don King contradicted himself numerous times in court about his murder of Sam Garrett. Even despite that, and his 30,000$ bribes to witnesses of his murder, Don King is still responsible for that murder. He even had a gun on him ffs, if that doesn't say anything about how far he is willing to go for that money, then nothing does. Don King was fully willing to kill on that day.

Please stop defending this POS, there's so many people out there who are actually worth defending. This mob-ridden, two faced murderer isn't one of them.

 

You can be evil without being Hitler. Don King definitely fits the definition of evil. He took lives, threatened lives, stole millions, exploited fighters and placed many of them in enslavement contracts. Sure, they could say no, but then that means you go absolutely nowhere in the boxing world. Without Don King, there was no title shot.

 

No, Don King isn't a psychopath. Don King loves money. And if people/boxers don't have any respect for money, he basically sees it as a waste of money to give it to them and tries to figure out a way to keep it. That's really it. He doesn't do it to everyone. That's why people just repeat the same handful of names over and over again. Lots of people worked with King and are totally fine with him.

When you see guys who have sued Don King, and they settle with him, and then all the money they get is gone right away, that's basically why he didn't want them to have it to begin with.

He sees money as extremely important. If you don't, then he'll just figure out a way to keep yours.

If Don King promoted Adrien Broner and saw Broner lighting $100 bills on fire ... he'd be sure and keep as much of Adrien Broner's money as possible.

Going back to him being a psycho, Don King, when his partner was killed, took care of his partner's family. He ended up marrying his former partner's wife, Henrietta, who was older than him and he adopted her son (Carl). And he loved them both. His run as a big-time promoter actually ended around the time his wife died. She was a major part of his running the business. People really liked her. And King was distraught after he death.

King grew up in a violent Cleveland when mobsters were blowing each other up right and left. Read about Danny Greene. King knew Greene very well. Greene blew up the guy King used to work for, Shondor Birns, ABOUT FIVE DAYS after King brought the Ali-Wepner title fight to Cleveland.

King was one of the very few people from that gang-fueled era to actually live, and escape and make something of himself.

He's not a psychopath at all. He escaped a neighborhood in utter chaos where cars and homes were blowing up around them, and through his own hard work, made his fortune.

Don King wasn't an international drug dealer and murderer wanted in countries all over the world, like Tyson Fury's current promoter Kinahan. When it comes to criminal behavior, King is small potatoes by comparison. Hell, King wasn't even a boss in his own neighborhood.

He was a guy who got out of a deadly situation and made something of himself. He's no saint. But he's certainly no psychopath.

 

Get over yourself. It's a boxing board. He was arguably the greatest promoter of the 20th century.

He kicked a guy in the head. Shakur Stevenson pummeled a guy in the head during a street fight. The only difference was the guy didn't die. That's it. **** happens when people are fighting in the street.

You can watch people hitting and kicking each other in the head all day on YouTube. People getting punched or kicked and convulsing on the ground.

The people doing it all don't rehabilitate themselves and become the greatest ever in their new chosen professions.

I feel like some of you guys aren't up on people like Daniel Kinahan. You're still rehashing stories from the 1960s and 1970s. Kinahan is involved in making fights RIGHT NOW. Fury-Usyk ... fights like that. Big ones.

 

That's as if evil people are incapable of affection, empathy and love. That's wrong. Just because Don King is capable of forming bonds with other human beings doesn't make him any less of a scumbag. Some of the most evil people in history have had very close and empathetic relationships with other people, but it doesn't take away from what they did. Don King is included on that list.

And about King's connections to the mob? Let's hear from FBI Agent Joe Spinelli's 11 year long investigation into King's crime connections:

“Acording to Spinelli,” wrote Anderson, “An undercover agent using the name Victor Quintana pretended to be a multimillionaire drug dealer who hoped to launder money as a boxing promotional partner. Quintana met with King early in 1983 after being ushered into the promoter's office by Michael Franzese, then a capo in the Colombo crime family, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who acknowledges having been a FBI informant later but not at the time of the meeting. Shortly afterwards, Spinelli recalls, the FBI abruptly canceled its investigation. Two months earlier, South Korean lightweight Duk Koo Kim died after being knocked out by Ray Mancini in a title bout. According to Spinelli, the FBI office in Washington did not want to risk being involved in a boxing promotion that could possibly result in a boxer's death. Two months later, Quintana met Danny Pagano, a Genovese crime family soldier. When Pagano found out that Quintana had met King through Franzese, Pagano said, ‘What did you go to Michael for? King’s with us.’”

 

When did I deny that he was the greatest promoter in boxing history? I literally said it. Also, I literally could not give less of a **** about what's on YouTube (as if it justifies brutally stomping on a man numerous times and nearly shooting him if not for police intervention). If you do that to someone, you deserve way more than 4 years in prison. Especially for something as petty as 600 dollars. Saying that 'oh it always happens on the street' doesn't justify it because IT'S STILL MURDER. If people on YouTube stomp on people repeatedly and nearly shoot them over 600 dollars, lock their asses up too.

Both Kinahan and Don King deserve the noose.

 

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You don't understand, the anti-King establishment paid them to say this to disgrace the great Don King!

 

I will be happy to consider the actual EVIDENCE that Don King was not a psychopath.
Let's say what you wrote about his partner & his ex & her son is correct.
Someone can be generous to people because it

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them.
Like King taking the jury that acquitted him of one of his numerous offenses to a vacation-the Caribbean, if memory serves.

He could be upset when someone dies due to losing a source of security, practical benefit, comfort...
He could have cared for her because he wanted her for himself.
I await any links to evidence that he actually acted out of conscience-or love.

But one thing that is not POSSIBLY true is that he only stole because people did not respect money?!?
I know you have convinced yourself of that, but it makes the other things you say suspect.

King stole from everyone whenever he could!
Did Ali-with all his contradictions loving & extremely generous-not "respect money" when King manipulated a sick/end of career Ali into signing away 7 figures due to him for a small pittance?

Did Holmes, who Ali warned "you will not have anything left when King is done with you" a shrewd businessman who did so well post retirement-not respect money when fooled by King in an old trick of his, showing a ton of money & knowing someone who grew up without much might reflexively grab the suitcase rather than know enough to wait for the many times that OWED to them later if they just waited?

That some guys due to unfamiliarity with money, success, being foolish, drug problems...Lose their money mean Don King's CRIMES are justified?
Plus you rip off a rough guy who may be fragile in some ways, is he not more LIKELY to go into a perhaps drug-fueled tailspin after a trusted older man/mentor & advisor robs him blind?


PLEAEAEASE rethink the odious fiction that Don King was some kind of Cousin of Robin Hood...
Robbing only those who sare not "worthy" to be treated with any sort of Humanity.
More like...Robbin' anyone, especially those who may have escaped from the 'Hood!

 

You make some great points.
But I am unaware that King IS capable of empathy, bonds that go beyond benefiting him, or real love.