I didn't say he was responsible for Ali's condition.The reason King didn't promote those Ali fights is because he had earlier tried to steal Ali from Herbert Muhammad and they became anti King.King stole Holmes from Ernie Butler and became his NY manager . Ive read plenty about the boxers King has ripped off and the opinions of him from such Holmes ,Witherspoon,Mickey Duff,Frank Warren ,Mike Jones,Butch Lewis,Alex Wallau,Flash Gordonetc. I find I can think very well for myself smart a*se , and I think King is a scumbag and you are an unnecessarily rude c*nt!
I think he was. Try to imagine the sport w/o DKP and all we would have been left with for decades was Bob Arum. Yikes. Anyone really think that guy is going to offer a superior product without any competition? Or imagine Arum even considering putting on a deep card. When did he ever have a deep card? DKP just paid guys similar to what the music industry did to people at the time & the previous decade. No worse and actually, he paid better to boxers. But I do not like the thought of considering what the sport would have been like without him. He sure did put on a ton of big and great fights, didn't he?
I think lots of guys grossed a million dollars with him. Net is what counts anyway and I sure don't think anyone had a good net from DKP. You disagree. So who paid out more and made all the big players with money then....Arum? Kushner? Duff? Who? All King had to do was pay 1 or 2 guys a year since he arrived on the scene as a force in 1973. 3 paydays of 350k over a career and there's the $1 million gross. He always had a big stable of guys & a hard say 35 years of promoting fights.
NO. Don King is a blight on boxing. You can't abuse fighters as regularly as a business practice and be good for the sport. He ruined lives and caeers. No one who loves the sport can logically think he is a positive. Nothing illustrates boxing's inherent element of self loathing than his election t a boxing hall of fame. Besides ripping off anyone with whom he did business, manipulated ratings and organizations resulting in title fights being earned by payola and cronyism rather than merit robbing fans of the chance to see the best available. He scarred the sport by his connections to organized crime. He undermined it's fragile integrity by being the pupateer of the wbc casting the doubt upon the ratings an fight results alike. His 1977 tournament scandal shook the sport to its foundations was deemed by many to be it's death knell. His self serving control of the wbc also ushered in the end to the 15 round championship fight under the laughable guise of protecting fighters. Don King is roundly regarded as a criminal and to not acknowledge that he harmed more than he helped is asnine.
It seems to me all promoters are out for themselves. Not just King. I wonder if there is some discrimination going on. And I am not talking race. If King had a college background, a law degree or something (rather than all the shady stuff he put behind him) I am not sure he would have been quite so demonised. I am not so sure Jim Norris, Mike Jacobs, Jimmy Johnstone were any different. They all liked creating monopolies, had mob connections and liked freezing people out. But I don't see the same uniform demonisation of them. A lot of boxers live notoriously reckless lives and it is interesting to me it only seems to be these ones, the ones who would waste their money anyway, that are the ones getting ripped off by promoters or managers.
The fact that there are other murders doesn't make Charles Manson less guilty. King is the one being dicussed. Applying moral relativism is bizarre. Perhaps if he didn't curb stomp someone to death he would be looked at differently. Is the argument they had it coming? Someone else would have victimized them anyhow is also not a valid argument. Larry Holmes had a pretty good head on.his shoulders and he had to sue. Did Ali have it coming when King took advantage of him when he was ailing?
I think if the rule was only nice people should promote professional boxing we would not have any professional boxing. That might just be the sad truth of it.
NO, but on a more philosophical note, it's Not Don King, Ali, Roy Jones Jr or Mayweather types alone... it's the 'Spirit of the Age' = Narcissism and the Love of Self - put down, exploit and disregarding of others that is the Problem, you know Evil. rife everywhere and the arrogance of these types knows no bounds, even on boxing sites. so it's not simply money grabbing exploiters that are the worry. it's far deeper and it both effects all of us, and we all will likewise make account of such Blackened Heart behavior. God Bless us and Save us and all the victims of our sinful hearts!
That is DKP accounting. Witherspoon's gross was higher than that. That was his net. His gross includes the payments he received as salary before the fight when he was inactive. Advances. Cars. Jewelry. And then training expenses are deducted. Those costs get Tim's payday down to chump change. Read about Team Tyson when DKP was charging expenses to Mike for fights, if you want to see gross vs net. And just who was it that got Tim a title shot with what, 14 fights? Then he was paid well on undercard fights like Tillis. Then he fought Thomas/Page/Smith/ and so on. He easily grossed a million dollars. He sure didn't net much. No different than most people in the music industry and how they were paid. they lived on their advances often times. Later on in thew 80's the groups were the one's charged to make a video. And that was accounting by the record label that could claim it cost $800k to make a 4 minute video. And it's subtracted off the top. So are production costs to make the album. And they get a small % of record sales anyway. Go look at the music industry if you want to see big cases of theft. It actually makes DKP and Arum and so forth better than their colleagues in music treating most bands---or like boxing, the one's without top shelf management.
The one scene that sticks in my head regarding Don King was right after Ali knocked out Foreman and the crowd surged into the ring if you watch closely he steps toward Ali from behind smiling. Ali turns, sees King and with complete disdain looks like say "F... You". Kings smile immediately disappears.