IMO Don King Really Didn't Respect Or Like Boxers

There were worse figures than King in the 1980s and they tended to line up to malign King as he was different to them.

I mean take this example of Tony Tucker who in 1987 Don King secured a purse of $1,900,000.

Let's see how this $1,900,000 was sliced up after Don King had administered it.

The actual fighter Tony Tucker got only $600,000 ( before tax)

His previous promoter number 1 Levine and Josephine Abercrombie contractually claimed and got $350,000

His previous promoter number 2 Cedric Kushner contractually claimed and got $350,000.

His Previous Promoters number 3 Kornberg and Rappaport contractually claimed $252,000 and went to court to get a bigger slice.

Emannuel Steward who very early on co trained Tucker at the Kronk contractually claimed $120,000

Tuckers father Bob who trained him claimed $228,000.

So after tax and no doubt promotional ' expenses" Poor Tony Tucker was lucky to clear $250,000 out of a purse of $1,900,000 and Tucker didn't have the hangers on and entourage of a Tim Witherspoon flown over to London.

Is it any wonder Tucker didn't fight again for almost 3 years.

Don King is not a good man far from it.Indeed he came up in the Cleveland ghettos and kicked a man to death over a numbers dispute for which he did prison time.

He exploited fighters but I surmise the other Promoters at the time were just as bad.Some worse. Boxing had some very colourful shysters in the 1980's.

Shelly Finkel and Butch Lewis treated fighters relatively well but that era was cutthroat. Look at Bill Cayton who liked to play the good guy and malign King.

Cayton inherited Jim Jaconbs 33.3% promotional share to go with his own 33.3%.after Jacobs died and when he got rumbled only than with King circling did he suggest he take a flat 20% cut

With regard to King a lot of his fighters were not financially savvy or educated in money or contracts . Many would ask him for advances and spend recklessly on jewellery, cars ,partying and women....many just gave their money to hangers on.....yes King should have been fatherly and guided them but instead he exploited them.

A Shelly Finkel set up Mark Breland on a $100,000 per annum annuity for life just after the Olympics.

Holmes was the only one smart with his money under King . Ali had his nation of islam leeches/ hangers on bleeding him dry plus divorces. Although post 1996 Atlanta his estate made a lot of money.

A lot of fighters had divorces and legal issues.

Holmes, Michael ,Spinks ,Ray Leonard,Hagler and Tommy Hearns were the financial success stories of the era.

No King was not a good man but a lot of other Promoters were as bad and worse.

 

A successful promoter who is a great guy is highly unlikely. Like being a successful billionaire or politician. Traits associated with good people, like decency, humility, kindness, they don't really go along with these outcomes at the highest level. King is terrible, Arum is terrible. But Arum puts a professional face and voice and look to it that people will accept and by pure image, tone and decorum alone, they will not be able to understand how depraved his moral code actually is. Aside from coming up in a violent criminal background, Arum is just as bad as King, to me. I've even heard fighters associated with both at different times say something to the effect that if you want to be spoken to with respect but still be cheated, go with Arum, but if you can get disrespected to your face while getting a lot of cash, King is better. Something like that. It was something supportive of my feeling that Arum can simply come across better while still sodomizing your exit hole, metaphorically.

Oscar is more curious. I think he does respect fighters in a way the others couldn't even if they tried. But let's keep in mind he's had a pretty depraved world around him fueled by drugs and claims of sexual assault by at least three different parties, at least two different times and likely has some mental health issues that skew his behavior that the other two also don't have. He might be just as bad overall as these other two, in different ways. I don't think he's as bad in his purely official capacity as a promoter but I may not have followed it as closely as some of you, as it pertains to his promoter conduct. I'm sure I haven't. But never underestimate how the most successful people are often incapable of using standard but inhibiting moral codes of conduct. Untethered to mores, you can step on anyone and use them as rungs on a ladder, to reach your ever-higher destinations. King and Arum are pretty demonstrable of that. And I think they assume it's all fair in love and war with business being perhaps both.

 

What you spelled out for Tucker has nothing to do with King. He got his promotional fee (which is in the contract) and then you’ve got five different people/entities to whom Tucker sold a piece of his future earnings BEFORE HE SIGNED WITH KING who came to claim their shares.

I’ve seen this up close more times than I can tell — boxer has a contract with one manager or promoter, and then he sells a percentage of his future earnings to another, who gives him some cash he’s desperate to have right now. In Tucker’s case, he kept on doing it. How is that anyone’s fault but Tucker’s?

How is Don King the bad guy here but Emanuel Steward, who hasn’t had anything to do with Tucker for years, isn’t criticized … yet it’s Don’s fault that Manny got something he was guaranteed because Tucker signed something with him years ago?

I know a couple of names that I won’t mention of boxers who basically did like Tucker and disappeared from the scene for a few years because they sold MORE THAN 100% of their future earnings for a quick buck here and there. And none of those people knew the others had a piece … they all think they’re the sole manager, and now they’re fighting to reclaim pennies on the dollar for money they invested in a fighter who completely bilked them.

Do you think Don King wanted to give money to all those other people? Of course not, but they held contracts WITH TUCKER so they were entitled to their shares. That’s completely on Tucker.

 

He wasn't blaming King for the Tucker situation.

 

What I ' spelled out for Tucker' wasn't even mentioned with Don King in the same paragraph. So Im left scratching my head sir at your claim that I blamed it on King. In fact I blamed Kushner,Abercrombie,Rappaport and the others. Don Kings name doesn't even appear in the same paragraph.

You're a very exceptional poster but for once you've got it all upside down here.

Regardless your apportioning blame wholly to Tucker is harsh. I doubt a young Tucker willingly signed anything away to any of those Promoters or had legal representation or competent management or advice when he did so. I doubt Tucker had a clue at the time he was being grossly exploited. Hardly an uncommon scenario in the 80's.I guess European law and ethics are/ were greatly advanced from the ambulance chasing ' OBJECTION!!!" shysters that masqueraded as lawyers in America at the time at least if TV or the apparent litigation culture were to be beleived.I guess that's why heavyweight fighters in Britain of the same era such as Bruno,Lewis and Hide did not get ripped off,abused and violated like this.
If the Promoters I mentioned were ethical Tuckers situation wouldn't have arisen.It is easy enough to check if others hold a contract already for a fighter and if indeed the contract they have shoved in a unknowing fighters hands is legally binding. Such legal courtesies were cast aside by these people. They treated many of these fighters appalingly I felt very sorry for Tucker a deeply religious man at the time.

With respect Pat I think you need to go and reread my post again. Perhaps my understated style didn't spell it out loudly enough but Im not blaming Don King at all. I'm principally blaming the other Promoters whilst also many paragraphs later seperately taking a snide aside at King who made out he was a father figure to his fighters like Tucker. There's a big difference between what Im saying and what youre accusing me of .. I am also having very much having a dig at Emmanuel Steward by citing his extortionate cut.

If youre not aware of the dubious practices of Rappaport and some of the others I mentioned Im sure you'll find it very stimulating to discover some of his antics. He actually tried to get the Tucker-Tyson fight postponed so he could have a larger cut of Tuckers purse than the $350,000 he and his partner took.

 

Tucker says his dad did it without his full knowledge.

Tucker went back to King after Tyson and had some good paydays, so that tells you something.