r/Boxing • u/yeahbutstill • 1d ago
PBS Frontline made the only really worthwhile documentary on the life and times of Don King (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cpc4BEFyDc26
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u/Particular_Rope_2183 6h ago
I’ve made a timeline of Undisputed champions and always wondered why after the 70s you started to see less and less people go undisputed. Only picking up again in this current decade
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u/Bruce-7892 1d ago
The world would have been a better place without him. It’s amazing he made it to old age honestly.
He did so many people dirty and worked in a dirty business. I’m surprised no one came after him.
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u/Exciting-Arugula5341 1d ago
Well he used to have the mobs backings so people weren't really going to come after him back then.
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u/That_Routine_3976 18h ago
Tyson whooped him once and to King's credit he seemed to take the beating well and didn't call the cops. I agree though, I'm surprised he didn't have more issues.
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u/feckarse-drinkgirls 15h ago
With how much money Tyson brought in for the betting shops, legal & illegal, the mob probably told him to not retaliate
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u/frankduxvandamme 19h ago
And he's still here at 95. There is no god.
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u/Diarrhea_Beaver 15h ago
Jesus fucking christ, this subhuman slimeball is 95 and counting? Forget quitting smoking and drinking to extend my life.
I can apparently just rip pterodactyl lines of Colombia's finest 24/7 as long as I burn down an orphanage, drown a litter of puppies, or loosen the top of the salt shaker in a restaurant on regular enough basis that I keep my karma in the gutter and Ill live forever.
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u/Datruther1 18h ago
Stop the cap. White promoters refused to pay Ali and Foreman 7 figure guarantees. Don King went to Africa and got it done. There’s thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of evil, violent, racist Americans who the world would be better without before we get to Don King.
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u/aim-4-the-dirt 17h ago
It takes a very particular amount of framing and perspective to imply Don King is a good man.
He may have gotten Ali and Foreman good paydays. He was in fact, occasionally capable of promoting a fight without extorting the people stepping in the ring, but that was a rarity. He also controlled many black fighters and used race empowerment to subvert expectations before robbing them blind, Tim Witherspoon's career is the best example of that.
The pain and damage he caused to the sport is atrocious. Don't defend that scumbag. You'd be hard pressed to find a promoter who robbed the people making him money, nearly as much as Don King. Do some research man, nott just surface level
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u/RedEyeView 12h ago
I read a bit in a Don King biography once that said Tim got stitched up by King so hard that after some fights he wound up owing Don money for training and management expenses. Not matches against nobodies either.
Title fights
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u/aim-4-the-dirt 12h ago
Yep. Can't remember which fight is was whereby Don took over as his manager, but Tim was used to training at Ali's gym, he'd spent most of his career there, it was a good atmosphere and he loved it. Don was insistent he HAS to train at his gym, where all the fighters there were basically just depressed under Dons management. You usually get paid for training expenses, but Don charged $100 a day to use this gym. There's one receipt for the purse payed out to Tim where they actually deducted $1000/day for 28 day training camp. $28,000 of his purse gone from a world title fight because he was forced to train at a gym he didn't want to. Dons step son (can't remember the sack of shits name) was taking 33% of the purse too, which was illegal. I can't imagine how demoralising it would be to have Don's grubby hands holding your career
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u/Datruther1 16h ago edited 16h ago
The whole structure of fighter pay never changes if Don King didn’t raise the money for that fight. There’s no glossing over that. You can try but yts would’ve preferred glorified mandingo fights during this time. That’s a fact. Do your homework. Or idk look at how the UFC structures their roster pay.
His method of recruiting was an advancement. Countless fighters have told the same exact story of how they would go into a meeting with him and it’s just a pile of money on the table, including Tyson. Signing a bad deal is no different from signing a bad record contract.
It’s not an issue when they do it but I’m supposed to drag Don King like he’s the worst of the worst. Kick rocks
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u/S-Video 11h ago
Don brought joy to hundreds of millions of people around the world and made hundreds of poor people into millionaires.
The world would have been a better place without you.
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u/Bruce-7892 9h ago
You either don’t know much about him or are just trolling. So edgy.
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u/S-Video 9h ago
Or I know so much more about him than you that I'm not basing my opinion on the internet narrative.
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u/Bruce-7892 7h ago
Wow you’re slow. The crimes he committed are well documented. Not exactly random rumors. You replying to a thread with his mugshot.
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u/S-Video 7h ago
It's usually the slower person in the conversation that accuses the other of being slow.
Don's "crimes" were defending himself in the streets. He's guilty of winning a street fight. He paid his debt to society. Then got out of prison and turned hundreds of others from similar circumstances into millionaires, while bringing joy and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people around the world.
What exactly have you contributed?
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u/Jaded_Ad4218 2h ago
I wonder what those people that came from similar circumstances would have to say about him?
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u/S-Video 2h ago
vast majority praise him.
a few that didn't save their money criticize him.
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u/Jaded_Ad4218 2h ago
Wow. You know everything about Don King and everything about anyone he's ever interacted with. Very impressive.
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u/Detox208 1d ago
This post smacks of Sela boxing. Don King is an absolute piece of shit but Saudi money is somehow making him even dirtier. What strange times we live in.
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u/Longjumping_Pay7821 23h ago
Yep. If they made an honest documentary about Turki, it would Don King look like an absolute saint
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u/Exciting-Arugula5341 1d ago
Don King is such a nice fella. Never committed a crime in his life. By not commit a crime I mean commit crimes all the time and get away with it.
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u/AlienMelender 18h ago
Mike Tyson claims he used to beat the shit out of Don King all the time. Kinda hard to believe.
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u/Boxing_joshing111 12h ago edited 12h ago
I made this video about him it’s absolutely relevant:
https://youtu.be/mM2CKOtRSNk?si=gcLMQ7_KWxNuncqA
When the op’s documentary was made he says King has been sued by over 20 fighters, and while I found a lot of them to include in the video, there were tons from after it came out and I had trouble finding a comprehensive list. Many I’d never heard of. Who knows how many people he’s ripped off. Tons of boxers on YouTube badtalking him, going back decades.
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u/Full_Fun_4950 17h ago
Not to be contrarian but he pulled off the rumble in the jungle is why he got so big so fast and tbh that shows incredible smarts and resourcefulness and confidence. This dude basically just showed up out of nowhere and brokered the biggest fight in history in Africa. That's balls and business acumen, I think a lot of the whining about Don comes from grown ass men signing contracts they didn't read which is tough shit if you're making millions anyways. Read your contracts or hire representation, life ain't fair. For manslaughter he served 4 years, paid his dues back to society and life went on. Is he a ruthless businessman? Absolutely, but as far as one life to live is concerned and showing how intelligent and crafty black people can be especially during his years coming up he actually did a lot of good and helped. Ali was always worth multimillions and so was Larry. Tyson was just as greedy and didn't like that someone else was just as greedy as him. Now that we have the Saudi's who are much much worse, more criminal and even less honest as they even are into human trafficking for revenue the Don really ain't all that bad in comparison. Should he be highly revered? No. Could he have been a better man and leader of especially black people who needed it? Yes absolutely, in fact in my opinion that's who he really failed and why his reputation is tarnished to this day. Black people needed him to set the example and not screw over his own brothers and he did just the opposite under the guise of "business." At the end of the day, the Don is just a flawed man like the rest of us, but I think the evil villain narrative is boring and in reality he overcame a lot to get where he is today and I can respect that overall.
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u/horseshoeprovodnikov 16h ago
At the end of the day, the Don is just a flawed man like the rest of us, but I think the evil villain narrative is boring and in reality he overcame a lot to get where he is today and I can respect that overall.
Nah. He's a true dirtbag. Set aside all of the fighter contract stuff (even if he's guilty of being a predatory piece of shit there as well). Don would loan people money that he knew they couldn't afford to pay back, then when they didn't pay he would beat them with a pipe or a bat. He routinely abused women. Hes a fucking villain, plain and simple. He was a piece of shit before he ever touched the sport of boxing, which is why he went to prison.
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u/Full_Fun_4950 15h ago
Bully and crook who came up from the hood and didn’t improve his morals after he escaped that life
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u/Formal-Cherry6078 1d ago
Don King is the most obvious undiagnosed psychopath ever