Don King (boxing promoter)

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Don king (2007)

Donald "Don" King (* officially August 20, 1931 in Cleveland , Ohio ) is an American boxing promoter .

Life

King is the fifth of six children of steel worker Clarence and his wife Hattie King. When he was ten years old, his father died in an explosion. His mother made a living selling homemade pies and roasted peanuts. King and his brothers laid the peanuts as a gimmick with no lots.

According to his own statements, he went to Kent State University for a year , left it and then worked full time for illegal gambling operators (especially Numbers Lottery).

Homicides

In 1954, King killed a man trying to rob one of his betting shops. In court he was acquitted for self-defense .

In 1967, King killed an employee in his gambling business who owed him $ 600. He had beaten him to death with the pommel of a pistol. According to his biographer Jack Newfield: “King hit Garrett with his fist or, more likely, with the butt of his weapon. As soon as Garrett was on the ground, King began to kick his head unrestrained. "Even as a police officer interfered, King is said to have given his victim one last kick, according to Newfield." Garrett died after five days in a coma.

King was first sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in affect; later the manslaughter conviction was toned down and the sentence was set at 15 years. Of those, Don King only served three years and eleven months at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio before he was released on parole in 1971. This very early release was the result of a private meeting between King's attorney and the adjudicating judge. The public prosecutor was not represented. In 1983, King was subsequently pardoned by Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes after Jesse Jackson , Coretta Scott King , George Voinovich , Art Modell and Gabe Paul stood up for him.

Career as a boxing promoter

When a Cleveland hospital was in financial need, he persuaded Muhammad Ali to box a show fight to raise funds. When the handsome sum of $ 80,000 came together, King was gripped by boxing fever. His first contracted boxer was Earnie Shavers , whom he marketed as a "puncher". Later, before Shavers' title fight with Ali, he sold the contract to the Gambino mafia family .

He achieved fame in 1974 when he hosted the Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa (Zaire, now: Democratic Republic of the Congo ). For this he had dictator Mobutu Sese Seko guarantee a gigantic sum with which he lured the two fighters. He cemented his position the following year when he supported a fight Ali against Joe Frazier at Thrilla in Manila , Philippines . This fight was financed by the authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos , who ruled from 1972 . Most of the Ali fights were promoted by King's rival Bob Arum ; Ali didn't have a permanent contract with King. He only promoted his last title fight against Larry Holmes . In 1981 he made a milestone when he offered $ 10 million as a guarantee for the first fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán .

He represented boxers Evander Holyfield , Félix Trinidad , Mike Tyson , Larry Holmes , Wilfred Benitez , Wilfredo Gómez , Julio César Chávez , Oliver McCall , Hasim Rahman , Chris Byrd , Salvador Sánchez , John Ruiz , Hector Camacho , Aaron Pryor , Alexis Argüello , Ricardo Mayorga , Andrzej Gołota , James Toney and Lamon Brewster .

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In New Jersey (including Atlantic City ) he has no license for this decade because he refused to testify about his dealings with the IBF , which is based in that state . IBF founder Bob Lee had been sentenced to imprisonment after the IBF ratings person Doug Beavers testified that he was bribed by King. (In June 1999, the FBI searched its Florida business premises without success).

In 1995 Lloyd's of London failed with an insurance fraud lawsuit. It was about $ 350,000 in relation to a broken fight between Chavez and Harold Brazier. Under civil law, King has definitely lost lawsuits or agreed to settlements, e.g. B. Ali sued him for $ 1.1 million, and King paid $ 50,000 as a settlement. Tim Witherspoon received a million dollar settlement in the eighties. In 1997, King was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame . In October 2006, he acquired a minority stake in Duva Boxing .

In 2008, he offered the Ukrainian brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko 20 million euros for a fight against each other, which both of them met with strong rejection.

On March 31, 2009, the game developer 2K Games released a video game for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS platforms under the title Don King Boxing .

Personal

Don King in 2005 while visiting a US military hospital in Landstuhl near Kaiserslautern

King is known for his eccentric demeanor and unusual style. His slogan is: "Only in America!". He appears in public with the so-called heavy current hairstyle, likes to wear flashy clothes with lots of jewelry and is often seen with a cigar.

In 2004 Don King campaigned for the re-election of US President George W. Bush . Although he supporters of the Democrats , he took part in the congress of the Republican Party in part in 2004 and gave several interviews.

In 2007 King met Pope Benedict XVI at the general audience. and handed him prayer requests in a handwritten letter and a boxing belt. On September 21, 2016, King supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump .

Cameo appearances

In the television series Miami Vice he has a guest appearance in the episode "Am Boden" (orig: "Down for the count") and plays the boxing promoter Don Cash. He also played a boxing promoter in the episode "The Boxing Championship" in the Knight Rider series . He made a cameo as himself in the thriller In the Devil's Order . He also appeared as himself in the series The Model and the Sniffer in the episode “Symphony for Four Gloves”.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "SPORTS PEOPLE; Don King pardoned" , The New York Times , January 5, 1983. Accessed May 29, 2011.
  2. ↑ Kath.net : Don King gave Pope a boxing belt March 23, 2007

Web links

Commons : Don King  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME King, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, Donald (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American boxing promoter
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio