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 King of the Ring
By Sean Stowell (February 1, 2003)
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Larry Holmes once said that Don King’s hair stands straight up to hide his horns. After unifying the WBA and WBC welterweight titles last Saturday, Ricardo Mayorga credited his success to God and King.
Whether you put all your faith into King or if you can’t trust him as far as you can throw him, there is one thing that can’t be disputed—King rules the boxing world . . . whether you like it or not.
To be a King fighter you’ve got to be willing to go on blind faith, never knowing if you’ll see horns or a halo behind the crown shaped tresses.
“George Foreman signed seven or eight blank pieces of paper,” King once said. “And he became heavyweight champion of the world at 45.”
King’s chokehold on boxing only gets tighter now that Mayorga has the WBA and WBC belts. Two other King-promoted fighters, Michele Piccirillo and Cory Spinks, will duke it out for the IBF welterweight belt in March, giving him control of the division.
March will be a big month for the self proclaimed “Promoter Extraordinaire,” as WBA heavyweight titlist John Ruiz, also a King fighter, will put his belt on the line against light heavyweight ruler Roy Jones, Jr. on the 1st.
Chris Byrd, who recently signed with King and relocated from Michigan to Las Vegas, moving in across the street from his new boss, defeated Evander Holyfield for the vacant IBF title last December. King hopes to pit the winner of Ruiz-Jones against Byrd for the right to take on Lennox Lewis for what he calls Lewis’s “kingdom.”
Last Saturday, King promised Vernon Forrest a rematch with Mayorga, but only after the tough Nicaraguan has one fight before the sequel.
“I got Piccirillo and Spinks fighting in March,” King said after the welterweight shocker in Temecula, Calif. “If Mayorga fights one of them before Forrest, I’ll be right back here with all three belts.”
When informed that WBO welterweight title holder Antonio Margarito, a Top Rank-promoted fighter, was in attendance at the post fight press conference to challenge Mayorga to a bout, King acted as if he’d never heard of Margarito.
“Oh, Margarito,” King said in mock shock to the lanky Mexican. “The only problem with you is you ain’t with me.”
King went on about how Margarito’s current promoter is doing a terrible job of promoting him, since King apparently didn’t know who Margarito was. In fact, King said that he didn’t even know Margarito held the WBO title.
“That’s even worse,” King said. “If he’s a champion and we don’t know him, that’s even worse. Muy malo (very bad). “Mayorga was out there in the fields of Nicaragua and now he’s a world champion. You’ve got to work with the fighters, man.”
While King may have been taking jabs at his arch nemesis, Top Rank president Bob Arum, King’s record as a promoter speaks for itself.
According to Don King Productions, nearly 100 individual fighters have earned $1 million or more in DKP-promoted fights. DKP has promoted 15 of the top-25 highest grossing live gates in Nevada. Some of those include Holyfield-Lewis II, which grossed nearly $17 million; Holyfield-Mike Tyson II, grossing just over $14 million; and Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad (a co-promotion with his rival Bob Arum's Top Rank organization) that came in at almost $13 million grossed.
King was the first promoter to guarantee a boxer $10 million when he paid Sugar Ray Leonard that amount to take on Roberto Duran in 1980. He was also the first promoter to guarantee $1 million purses to featherweights when Salvador Sanchez fought Wilfredo Gomez in 1981.
Even outside of boxing King has made himself and others a lot of money. He promoted the Jackson Five’s Jackson’s Victory Tour in 1984, which grossed $150 million. He then brokered Michael Jackson’s deal with Pepsi-Cola. Jackson’s hair later caught on fire while filming a commercial for the soda
giant.
Despite the nice track record, King, 71, has his fair share of fighters who felt they’ve been burned.
Holmes made his comments after allegedly being cheated out of several million dollars he felt owed to him. Last year junior welterweight Sharmba Mitchell filed a lawsuit against King alleging that his manager, King’s son Carl who runs the aptly named Monarch Sports Management, had undisclosed business dealings with his promoter, King. He alleged that King arranged fewer bouts than promised.
Heavyweight prospect Cedric Boswell, who fought on the undercard of the Mayorga-Forrest bout, sat out more than two years because of a dispute with King, his then promoter.
“All I’ll say about it is that we had a disagreement,” Boswell said. “Because of the contract I had to sit out.”
Other fighters not signed with King have even accused him of stalling their careers. More than 20 years ago Gerry Cooney was being touted as the “Great White Hope” to Holmes’ throne atop the heavyweight division. Cooney claims that King kept him from staying active in the ring while trying to reach Holmes. After knocking out Ron Lyle in one round in 1980, he dropped Ken Norton in the first a year later. His next fight would come 13 months later against Holmes.
“I fought three rounds in three years,” Cooney told MaxBoxing on the 20th anniversary of his showdown with Holmes. “That was because of Don King.”
Many have questioned King’s business dealings, and it is always peculiar how many of his fighters seem to rise up the alphabet rankings so quickly. But that’s why holy warriors like Byrd and Holyfield are willing to take the gamble with the man Holmes equated to the devil.
“In the game of boxing anything can happen,” King said last Saturday. “But one thing is for certain—Don King will be there and keep his word.”
Whether or not he keeps his word is up for debate, but if you deal with the devil, just as the King of Pop learned, you may get burned.
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E-Mail Sean Stowell at seanstowell@hotmail.com
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