There will never be another Don King. Perhaps the most influential promoter to ever grace the sport, the Cleveland, Ohio native has always had a way to stay in the public?s eye and despite not staging massive shows nearly as often as years past nor having the superstar clientele that defined him for much of his career, King will always be a stout player in the sport until he decides it is time to leave.
King?s name has been thrust back into the spotlight in recent weeks due to his rekindled friendship with superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. Late last month Mayweather would update the world from his personal Twitter page that he was ?chilling with Don King? and would proceed to post pictures of the two men enjoying pricey lobster dinners and flashing money in front of the camera. You couldn?t help but wonder where their friendship would lead and the recent developments surrounding Mayweather and King has been worth notice.
King would invite Mayweather to be a ringside guest for his Gateway to Greatness event at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri last weekend, an offer that Floyd was glad to take him up on. Mayweather?s presence was felt heavily, as the crowd erupted when he graced the HBO airwaves, but the fighter refused to speak to analyst Bob Pappa about his future in the sport. Many had hoped Mayweather would find himself in a November 13th bout with Manny Pacquiao but it doesn’t appear to be on tap for the moment and people are dying to know about Floyd’s future intentions.
Days later our respected colleague Michael Marley would break the news of a rumor that King had signed Mayweather to a 4 fight, $100 million deal that would likely see the Las Vegas-based fighter finish his career under King?s banner. If true, this puts the outspoken promoter back into the game full force but when taking a look at his history in the sport it shouldn?t be that surprising as King has always found a way to remain relevant in the boxing world.
During his tenure as a promoter King has played an intricate part in the careers of such fighters as Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez, Bernard Hopkins, Ricardo Mayorga, Felix Trinidad, Ricardo Lopez, Roy Jones, and Marco Antonio Barrera. Two of his biggest events were the October 1974 ?Rumble the Jungle? between Ali and Foreman as well as the ?Thrilla in Manila? roughly a year later between Ali and bitter rival Joe Frazier.
The 90’s were a colorful time for King as he was still connected to the sport’s biggest superstar, Mike Tyson, and he always seemed to have a solid lineup for his Pay per view events that were highlighted by Trinidad and Chavez. Things have been much more quiet on King’s front ever since the turn of the century but he has always had the abiltiy to rear his head and make his presence felt when putting on his shows and he has been no stranger to traveling overseas to stage his productions while tapping into other markets as well.
In mid-2007 Nate ?The Galaxxy Warrior? Campbell was in a quandary in his career. At the time Campbell was 35 years old and had won successive lightweight title eliminators with decisions over Matt Zegan and Ricky Quiles but didn?t have any serious leverage at the negotiating table towards landing his desired title shot. Campbell could feel the clock ticking and didn’t want to let things slip away.
Campbell?s promoter at the time, Terry Trekas, who runs One Punch Productions, knew a power move was in order and orchestrated a deal to have King serve as Campbell?s co-promoter in hopes that they could land a bout with unified champion Juan ?Baby Bull? Diaz at the time. Trekas would later assist King in producing the January 2008 Bring on the Titans event headlined by Roy Jones vs. Felix Trinidad at Madison Square Garden in New York and he was taken back by how tireless King was when approaching his job.
?That guy is a machine at any age,? Trekas would tell me of King. ?He just does not stop when it comes to his job. When I was up there working on the Jones-Trinidad card he would be up in the mornings and in the media center by 7 or 8 in the morning. He is like a machine and it shows how much work he has put in to make it in the sport. Becoming a player, so to speak, in boxing is not a part-time job. It consumes everything about you and if you try to look at this business as a 9 to 5 job you aren?t going to get anywhere. Guys like Don, Bob Arum, and Gary Shaw all understand that and they use it to their advantage. ?
Campbell would indeed get his moment in the sun while under King, defeating Diaz by dominant decision in March of 2008 to capture the IBF, WBA, and WBO belts in Cancun, Mexico. It was a glorious night for Campbell and his future in the sport seemed bright but things were soon set to take an unfortunate turn.
Campbell was scheduled to face Domincan stylist Joan Guzman on September 13th in Biloxi, Mississippi for the first defense of his belts. Guzman was figured to have a real shot because of his tremendous ring savvy but he weighed three pounds over the scheduled 135 pound weight limit and the fight was later scrapped altogether.
Campbell was set to receive a reported $250,000 for the contest as well as an additional $50,000 signing bonus but since the bout failed to push through he was in danger of leaving Mississippi with empty pockets. Trekas had hopes that King would still pay Campbell, as the Jacksonville, Florida fighter had done his part in making weight and being fully ready to fight Guzman, but King refused.
A bitter fallout between fighter and promoter would soon ensue as Campbell would verbally trash King online and later filed for bankruptcy in October, leaving his contract with the promoter void. Campbell would later sign with Golden Boy Promotions and when looking back at the fallout it is almost a microcosm of how King?s career in the sport has been as he has guided many athletes to the promise land but also been involved in several fallouts and legal battles along the way.
Having been a part of Campbell?s training camps for a few years prior to the scheduled Guzman clash, I was in Biloxi that weekend to take in the festivies. After the final press conference on Wednesday I would track King down and engage in discussion with the affable promoter about a wide range of topics. To this day it still stands out as one of my most memorable one on one interviews in the sport.
Minutes into our conversation King touched on the hardships he had experienced in the sport. Boxing?s brutality both in and out of the ropes is what makes the sport unique and King saw several parallels that defined the sweet science.
?Boxing is life,? King said. ?Throughout my time in boxing I have learned that there is no other sport in the world that can emulate and embody the ups and downs of life like boxing can. Life is like a foot race and boxing in many ways is like a mirror image to life. The joys and sorrows of life and the dedication and hard work all go hand in hand with boxing. And just as in life, you have to have the determination and the unrelenting desire to achieve and be successful in this sport. No matter what direction you go in your life you have to have certain qualifications to make it and the sport of boxing represents nearly all of those essential qualities.?
King would continue to open up and soon revealed how he has been able to strive in the most cutthroat of sports. While many people were against him with dead fast vigor, King was equally adamant about his own beliefs and that is what always kept him moving forward.
?Throughout my time in life I have learned that you will encounter people who will close the door on you and say they have no need for you,? King said bluntly. ?People will have apathy for you and not even give you any consideration. The key thing is to not fall prey to this by drowning in your own sorrows. You have to always be vigilant in life and you have to be relentless. Along with this you must also have faith in God and everything you do. Once you have that faith, you can move mountains. You have to be able to find a perfect balance and a way to deal with that faith and apply it to all obstacles you encounter in life.?
In looking over my interview with King many quotes were striking and his recent collaboration with Mayweather can be tied into much of what was said. In working with Mayweather, King would have access to one of the sport?s most controversial characters as well as a man capable of generating much attention and income. King knows fully what he has his hands on and he could likely find a way to make Floyd more prominent than ever.
?The Business of boxing is about the attraction,? King claimed. ?You will see some people talk about money first but what they need to realize is that the attraction comes first. I realized that if you had something that was worth a million dollars you could promote it to where it became worth over ten million dollars. The bottom line is that you need to put the people before the money and when you do that the profits will come. I become a promoter of the people, for the people, and by the people. I don?t really promote the sport as much as I promote the individuals within the sport. The sport is the reason itself why the people come together to watch an event. You have to find a way to put everything together to create a demand and from there you create a supply to supply the demand that you created.?
When people first saw King and Mayweather hanging together the first word that popped in everyone?s head was ?money?. It is the common bond that connects the two men and will likely define much of their future moves together. In closing King gives his thoughts on the power of money and in hearing him speak you get a better understanding for why he was able to stay in the game so long and rise like a Phoenix once again in anointing himself with a fighter of Mayweather?s caliber.
?You make money, money doesn?t make you. People need to hear this and understand this. You can have a lot of money but if you are a no good son of a bitch you will still be a no good son of a b**** who just happens to have a lot of money. You have to understand that if you had to choose between power and money, choose power, because power creates money. Money can?t change power. All money can do is give you a false sense of power because you want to abuse and misuse it instead of uplifting and elevating things through it. Money doesn?t change the nature of the beast. The person has to find a way to have a heart, be compassionate, and find a way to get involved. If something is wrong you can?t sit on the sidelines and wonder ?what if?, you have to find a way to make change yourself.?
