What If.. No Don King??

Tell that to the managers of Tyson Fury ... so scared with risking his "invencible" record

 

Well, now I remember the controversy and you can see the logic. If somebody controls Fighter A and Fighter B, then fixing the fight is child's play. In all justice, King probably had more than his fair share of fixed fights....

And regarding MSG you are dead right: they liked their boxers as "manageable" as possible: poor, hungry and grateful... specially if they were black or other minority.

 

Not a fan of Don King. But he was a helluva promoter.

 

Ali Foreman, Norton and the Frazier fights would of still been made even with out King. Sure they may not have been called the Thriller in Manilla because the bout would of been called the Thriller in New York or the Rumble in Las Vegas, but they would of still happen one way or other. No way is Foreman NOT going to fight 1 one ranked Ali, even after he blasted out Frazier and Norton. Larry Holmes still reins and fights pretty much the same guys in the 80's. Cooney still gets his shot, Tyson still rises and falls. I really do not see much change for the most part.

 

Imagine there’s no Don King
And no Bob Arum too
No exploitative promoters
Boxers who don’t need to sue

Imagine all the fighters
Really getting paid
Ah

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Perhaps some day Don will join us
The fight world can live in fun

 

Ali and Frazier fought twice, Foreman beat Frazier and Norton, Norton split two with Ali, all before King came along.

However, Ali-Foreman doesn't happen in Africa for $5 million a piece without King. He worked his butt off to make that deal. Nobody was trying to put that fight together at the time. Hell, MSG was trying to make a third Ali-Quarry fight.

If Ali eventually fights Foreman in 1975 or 1976, in the US, who knows who wins. The jungle heat and humidity ravaged George like the heat caught up with Sugar Ray Robinson against Maxim.

Ali may have had to fight a third fight with Norton before he ever got a shot at George. It wasn't like their first two fights were decisive. And nobody gave Ali a chance against George. Like I said, regardless of his rating, nobody was in a hurry to make Ali-Foreman except Don King.

Hell, Ali was an 8-1 underdog when they signed to fight. Everyone thought he was going to get killed.

It very well could've been Foreman-Norton 2 in 1975 or 76, had Norton won an eliminator with Ali.

Even after Ali beat George, nobody was particularly interested in seeing Ali vs Frazier a third time. Not after the rematch. Ali wasn't even interested. Not until King offered him three times what everyone else was offering to take in Joe again.

And Larry Holmes owed everything to King. King put Holmes on countless Ali undercards and on other network undercards when he was a nobody. King got Holmes in the US Boxing Tournament. King got Holmes a WBC rating. King got Holmes a fight with Shavers to put him near the top of the ratings. And King pressured the WBC to strip Spinks so he could promote the WBC title fight between Norton and Holmes.

Holmes was a nobody after he got disqualified in the Olympic Trials against Bobick. Nobody else came running to promote him. Certainly not Arum.

No King. No Larry Holmes as we know him. That's for sure.

Maybe no second Ali reign at all and no third Frazier fight for the title.

Probably a lot of George Foreman defending against Arum's favorite South Africans and Bobick.

Not having Ali as champion in the second half of the 70s or Holmes as champ in the late 70s and early 80s flips everything upside down.

 

Great post.

And does JC Chavez ever rise to true fame as a star in the U.S. or is he just a well-kept secret in Mexico without King?

How about Julian Jackson? Mike McCallum? Azumah Nelson?

Does Roberto Duran get elevated enough to challenge Sugar Ray Leonard in a mega-fight or is he making defenses of a 140-pound championship in Panama?

King was bad in many ways but a lot of fighters benefitted from him and fight fans for sure did.