When journalists would ask about his relationship with promoter Bob Arum, Don King would recount a fable. The story involved a venomous snake and an alligator. The snake needed passage across a river and asked the alligator to oblige. The alligator protested, citing that once the snake got on his back, the snake would bite. Eventually, the snake convinced the alligator to provide passage and in the middle of their journey, the snake plunged a fatal bite into the back of the gator.
When the gator asked why the snake bit him, that they would now both surely drown, the snake replied, ?I?m a snake, I couldn?t help myself.?
The alligator in the story was King, the snake was Arum.
Their mutual histories show that both are capable of either role in the fable. The two have shown they can work together to make a big fight happen, starting with the 1975 Muhammad Ail-Joe Frazier rubber match, Thrilla in Manilla.
In 1978, following Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks II, a fight that Arum promoted, King jumped in the ring to hug Ali.
?To this day, people still think King promoted that fight,? Arum lamented to Los Angeles Times writer Steve Springer in 1996.
Following the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler title fight in 1987, a fight also promoted by Arum, King attempted the similar tact of jumping in the ring for exposure. Arum grabbed King by the tuxedo jacket on his way up the steps into the ring. A scuffle ensued and was quickly broken up by security. Arum intimated to the New York Times that after security separated the two, King pointed to his pocket, which contained a handgun.
?See what I got here?, King said, according to Arum.
Arum and King are currently spinning the friendly, old codger angle, but their history is deep and occasionally very dark.
?I fondly remember how we co-promoted Oscar (de la Hoya) and Don?s guy, Felix Trinidad,? Arum recently told Michael Marley of Examiner.com. We did over 1.4 million homes on pay per view TV and we only had 18 to 19 million homes to work with. Now the market is so much bigger.?
Following the Trinidad-De La Hoya fight, which Trinidad won by a controversial majority the decision, King famously pronounced in the post-fight news conference that, ?the lights in Arumville are going out,? which infuriated Arum. De La Hoya was Arum?s money-maker at the time.
According to the New York Times, Arum was so angry, he had to be restrained. Arum tried repeatedly to respond to King?s boasts, but King kept talking over him. Arum eventually had King?s microphone turned off.
The bridge is very high for the amount of water these two have flowing underneath it, but they know the business as well as or better than anyone.
From the looks of King?s romance of Mayweather, he has pulled the rug right from under Golden Boy Promotions.
In the late 80′s King pulled a similar move, securing control of Mike Tyson from his manager at the time, Bill Cayton.
?Don King, is making moves, I guess, to take over,? Cayton told reporter Phil Berger at the time. ?It?s something a lot of people told me he would try ? people familiar with the history of Don King.?
Cayton underestimated King much like Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Shaefer has.
?No, it doesn?t worry me,? Shaefer told Boxingscene.com when asked about Mayweather and King. ?Floyd is his own man. The track record speaks for itself, so I don?t look at Don King as a threat at this point.?
And as far as snakes and gators go, both Arum and King should make it to the other side of the river safely.
?You?d better sharpen your teeth with barbed wire to compete with the likes of guys like Bob Arum and Don King,? fellow boxing promoter Cedric Kushner told New York Times reporter Timothy Smith.
