Don King. Would you vote him into the IBHOF?

Depends on how far you're willing to go. If you are just judging his impact on the sport, then yes. If you are going to judge him for stomping a man to death on a Cleveland street for a gambling debt and then serving only a couple of years for it because he was politically connected, then no.

 

It is hard to know where to draw the line on denying people any HOF due to character.
Certainly if it relates to corruption in a sport, like fixing ballgames, definitely deny them.
And then you gotta decide if someone's eveil nature should be considered relevant...
But if so it must be extreme, since are we gonna deny all those who were lousy people such as wife beaters, take SRR, Monzon & The Raging Bull out of the HOF.

But when someone combines these evil actions in roles where they manage, promote &/or control the career & sometimes life fortunes of athletes they hurt or *ruin* in the sport, then regardless of their success & fame, I believe they should be denied.
Don King fails on all counts.

He has deceived, punished, robbed & cheated numerous fighters.
He has clearly fixed fights & bought judges even in championship fights.
That they may have done well for a time because he created big events does not mitigate the constant exploitation-the heartless & literal crimes.
He has rewarded a jury who exonerated him with a vacation!

Don King is an irredeemable sociopath.
Likely a psychopath; there is no indication of any compassion or conscience.
It is fitting that Trump hosted many of his promotions.

Also I am surprised nobody noted not only the absolutely exhaustive crimes of Don King...
But that he is guilty of more than one unrelated & brutal *murders*.
He got off completely on one murder & for beating & stomping a much smaller man to death served less than 4 years. Can anyone believe he acted in any kind of necessary self-defense, rather than had the connections to utterly corrupt the system?

Also King never or took any responsibility whatsoever or expressed a shred of remorse.


"In 1954, King shot a man in the back after spotting him trying to rob one of his gambling houses; this incident was ruled a justifiable homicide. In 1967, King was convicted of nonnegligent manslaughter for stomping one of his employees to death. For this, he served three years and eleven months in prison".
Born: August 20, 1931, Cleveland, Ohio
Profession: Promoter, Actor
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Apr 30, 2020 - Hillary Brown. In 1954 Don King ran an illegal gambling establishment. One evening he walked in to find a man named Hillary Brown allegedly ...

 

In a word: No

At some point, regardless of what he may have done for the sport - his character as a human being is part of the equation. I recall the story of when Leon Spinks met him for some business matter after he'd lost the championship to Ali. Spinks needed to catch a train from Penn Station to Pennsylvania. King had a limo at his beck and call and could have easily offered Leon a ride, but put him out on the street to try and catch a taxi at rush hour. From all accounts, Spinks was a decent, guileless guy. No doubt King earned many thousands of dollars from promoting him in whatever capacity, but couldn't be troubled to ask a limo to drive him home ... King promoted Ali vs Holmes despite knowing damn well about Ali's debilitation. Human scum. He made some fighters some good coin, but that doesn't negate the harm he caused ... the fighters may disagree, as is their wont. He stole from Ali and many others, and I don't think it balances out. Not telling them they're wrong, but from the outside, he was scum.

 

Great story man.
It would take a book (& it has been done) to cover all most of the damage King has done.
See my post before your here-& I did not try to cover even the HWs he robbed, damaged & betrayed.

Youtibe can show us all a Don King appearance where David Letterman describes him arriving with Joe Frazier in Jamaica, then sidling closer to Foreman as he began to dominate, then of course he abandoned his fighter & sucked up the camera attention at ring center!

Letterman called it "weasel" behavior & King had no way to debate this.
Of course he has done much worse.

 

King is undoubtedly a horrible human being.

The most revolting slime to ooze out of the bottom of the spit bucket.

However, that was not traditionally a problem in this sport!

 

H ha! Tragically true.

 

Good Lord. Might as well let King in then. Panama Lewis too while we're at it !

 

And yet... Monzon is in...

 

I don't know why people think Don King killing people in 1954 and in 1967, when he was a numbers racketeer in Cleveland, should have any bearing on his career in boxing business from the '70s onwards, where there's no evidence that he killed anyone to further his position ...... and, in fact, he was never again imprisoned or found guilty of a crime in a court of law once he'd become a boxing promoter, despite all the attention the press threw on him.

Like it or not, he seems to have at least mostly 'reformed' and 'gone legit'. Why use the crimes of his former life against him ?
He was about as crooked as the other boxing promoters. That's crooked indeed, but why single him out ?
Several fighters have said he ripped them off. Several fighters have said he made them more money than they'd ever have got elsewhere, and several have said he saved their careers and delivered the big fights.

 

He put together some good fight but someone else would have if he didn't. Research what he did to G-man and Tyson.

 

Yes. He played a big role as a promoter. The boxing hall of fame is liberal, and they generally do not consider conduct outside the ring as a qualifier.

King ( age 88 now ) by the way once hit on a girl I was dating from Cleveland. A real con man with charm, he out snaked the snakes and could talk jive with the best of them. No one ever said he was a bad promoter or business man.

With little time left, he's going to need all the charm he can muster to get a pass on his life.

 

Even serial killers can end up immortalized by their infamy.

 

No he rigged the rankings so fans had put up with fighters like John Ruiz and Bruce Seldon. Ruined Tim Witherspoon's career. The Lewis/Holyfield 1 fight.