When the roll is called for fighters who are the greatest boxers of all time, not to be forgotten are the ones behind their success, such as the personality who sold their storylines, bringing them and what of which they are capable to our consciousness. One such individual is American boxing promoter Don King. He is famous for his involvement in historic boxing matches, just as he is notorious for always getting bogged down in the toughest of controversies.
As a pro at selling fighter plots and trying out fights, King has promoted landmark events such as The Rumble in the Jungle, Thrilla in Manila, as well as some of the greatest boxers of all time, including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, among others.
Don King also got a taste of infamy due to a manslaughter conviction. During this time, some of the boxers he promoted sued him for allegedly cheating, although most of the lawsuits were settled out of court. The man has managed to diversify into the media and is an ardent figure in politics. Read more about him below…
Don King Biography
The veteran promoter was born Donald King on August 20, 1931 in Cleveland (Ohio, USA), to Hattie and Clarence King. He attended Jonh Adam High in Ohio and graduated in 1951, after which he enrolled at Kent State University. King left college and ran an illegal book-making operation that would see him face the law for killing two people.
In 1954, King shot and killed a Hillary Brown while trying to rob one of his gambling houses. He was cleared of the incident after it was ruled that a homicide was justifiable. However, 13 years later, he was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to prison for beating an employee named Sam Garrett, who owed him $600 to death. He served for nearly four years and was paroled in 1971. Subsequently, Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes granted him a full pardon in 1983.
Career achievements as a boxing promoter
After his pardon, Don King entered the boxing business, forming a partnership with a local promoter, he gained experience in the art of boxing promotion. In 1972, with the help of singer Lloyd Price, he convinced Ali to participate in a charity show to raise money for a hospital in Cleveland. Two years later, he became a full-time promoter with the highly anticipated 1974 Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, famous for The Rumble in the Jungle in which Ali regained his championship title. Since then, his image hovers over professional boxing.
Don King then staged Alidont’s Seventh Battle One with Chuck Wepner in 1975, which Ali won in the dying seconds. Sylvester Stallone witnessed the fight and was inspired to write the award-winning book Rocky. This was followed by another fight of the era, the Philippine Thrilla in Manila, the fight between Ali and Frazier in 1975. The match, considered the greatest match of all time, cemented Don King’s future as a promoter. During the 70s he became the promoter of choice for many other top heavyweight championships in the 1980s and 1990s.
Additionally, he compiled an impressive list of pugilists over the decade, many of whom became Hall of Famers such as Roberto Durán. Over the following decades, many others, including Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Leon Spinks, Bernard Hopkins, Ricardo López, Félix Trinidad and Terry Norris, chose him as their fight promoter. Nonetheless, a number of them, including Ali, Larry Holmes, and Tyson, felt cheated by King and filed lawsuits against him, most of which were settled out of court.
Controversial as his career has been, Don King is still considered one of the greatest boxing promoters of all time. So far he has promoted over 500 world championship fights and over 100 boxers. In 1997, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2008. Although his legal troubles and controversial tactics have reinforced the public perception that boxing is a sport corrupt, he will always be remembered. boxing creative promotion.
Don King and politics
Outside of boxing, King is politically active. In 2004, he campaigned for George W. Bush in the presidential election and attended the Republican National Convention in New York. Additionally, he supported Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.
Abandoning his political endeavors, he managed Michael Jackson’s reunion, The Jacksons’ 1984 Victory Tour ventured into media publication. He bought Call and Post, a Cleveland-based weekly newspaper serving the African-American community in Ohio in 1998, which he has served as publisher since 2011. Don King worked with Donald Trump in the 1980s to promote Tyson’s title fights and years later., when the latter ran for the nation’s highest office, his old friend, King, was there to endorse him for president.
His wife and children
King married his wife Henrietta in 1959 and they had three children; a biological daughter named Debbie and two adopted sons, Carl and Eric. He considers her the force behind the success he has achieved in life and calls her his best friend. After a long illness and almost fifty years of marriage, Henrietta died on December 2, 2010 at the age of 87.
Don King’s Net Worth
Don King has garnered a lot of attention for a variety of reasons other than boxing, one of which is his gravity-defying hair, and the other his catchphrase – Only in America. Another point of interest in the promoter’s life is the size of his wealth. While on vacation, King built his empire by launching the careers of boxing luminaries and managing lucrative fighting championships.
However, his financial dealings and bizarre contractual terms with his fighters have left a number of people unpaid and uncertain as to where the money will go. As such, his fame, as well as his purse, reached such a point that he left some of the various heavyweight champions he promoted in his shadow. He has an estimated net worth of $150 million.
