Shystiest Don King stories

[mario]

Does anyone know of any shady deals they know of off hand that Don King has pulled, especially with these boxers:

Mitch Blood Green (I know there was 3 real big screwjobs he pulled on Green)

Tim Witherspoon

Bert Cooper

Tex Cobb

any boxer for that matter

any help much appreciated, i'm sure there are tons of stories

[TBooze]

Does anyone know of any shady deals they know of off hand that Don King has pulled, especially with these boxers:

Mitch Blood Green (I know there was 3 real big screwjobs he pulled on Green)

Tim Witherspoon

Bert Cooper

Tex Cobb

any boxer for that matter

any help much appreciated, i'm sure there are tons of stories

He allegedly guaranteed Whitherspoon £1 Million for the Bruno fight, but Terrible Tim got £90,000 and 5+ year court case to sort things out.

He paid The Ring magazine to rate his fighters for the ill fated US Boxing Championship

[My dinner with Conteh]

Greg Page, fighting on a Tyson undercard was paid just $5000. John Thomas has vowed to kill King when he gets the chance. :good

[mario]

did anyone ever hear a rumor, that witherspoon took a dive in the fight with bonecrusher smith because he wanted out of a don king contract?

[My dinner with Conteh]

did anyone ever hear a rumor, that witherspoon took a dive in the fight with bonecrusher smith because he wanted out of a don king contract?


Yep. It wouldn't surprise me if that sort of thing happened in loads of King fights. He's scum.

[achillesthegreat]

Oh Don King really is the pits. We are talking about scum.

Only recently he cunted over Shannon Briggs. Took 25% of his purse. When King gets boxers he makes them forget that they are the employer.

[mario]

he took 25% of briggs purse? holy shit! did they have a falling out? i did not hear anything on that

[TBooze]

Oh Don King really is the pits. We are talking about scum.

Only recently he cunted over Shannon Briggs. Took 25% of his purse. When King gets boxers he makes them forget that they are the employer.

In his defence, he is no worse than many other promoters, and some of his shows were brilliant, and I know I have put money in his pocket, and I suspect I am not alone on this forum in doing that.

There is a side to boxing that is very seedy and uncomfortable, I find it best to ignore it.

Best not to open Boxing's Pandora's Box;)

[My dinner with Conteh]

In his defence, he is no worse than many other promoters, and some of his shows were brilliant


True. But to be honest, fights like Fenech-Nelson, buried on an undercard of a vastly inferior fight like Tyson-Ruddock when loads of the spectators haven't claimed their seats, was always a bummer to me.

[Jack Dempsey]

I was watching Tyson Beyond the Glory last night and I'm sure I didn't mis-hear it, but an attorney working for Tyson said that King stole $43 million dollars from Tyson!!

[My dinner with Conteh]

I was watching Tyson Beyond the Glory last night and I'm sure I didn't mis-hear it, but an attorney working for Tyson said that King stole $43 million dollars from Tyson!!


Well, King wasn't so bad after all :lol:

[TBooze]

True. But to be honest, fights like Fenech-Nelson, buried on an undercard of a vastly inferior fight like Tyson-Ruddock when loads of the spectators haven't claimed their seats, was always a bummer to me.

Fair point, but without Tyson/Ruddock perhaps there would not of been the money to make a Nelson/FenechI. And indeed in part because it was so good, it spawned a rematch that stood alone as a main event.

King also did some of his best work post Tyson

[achillesthegreat]

he took 25% of briggs purse? holy shit! did they have a falling out? i did not hear anything on that
I forgot which commission is. They knew before the fight but had to let it go ahead because tickets were sold etc. However they have banned King from ever hosting an event again.

[achillesthegreat]

In his defence, he is no worse than many other promoters, and some of his shows were brilliant, and I know I have put money in his pocket, and I suspect I am not alone on this forum in doing that.

There is a side to boxing that is very seedy and uncomfortable, I find it best to ignore it.

Best not to open Boxing's Pandora's Box;)
I've put money in Frank ******s pocket and he certainly is no angel. Don King is just the worst of a bad bunch.

[sandwichsurgeon]

"He quit like a dog" - Don King on Gerald McLellan

[Jack Dempsey]

Well, King wasn't so bad after all :lol:

That money could have kept Mike in White Tigers for many a year

[FlatNose]

King handed Witherspoon a contract to sign, that was blank.After Tim signed it, Don filled in the blanks, robbing "Terrible Tim" blind.

[TBooze]

Maybe, but of all the douche-bags in boxing - Don is the douchiest...

He single handedly ruined the Heavyweight division and is the main reason we are in the mess we are right now.

Also single handily put alphabet crap on Tyson and then as part of the Dynamic Duo sorted out Spinks/Tyson.

[Jack Dempsey]

He should be shot for staging that uber tacky 'Coronation' for Tyson, with the crown and robes and shit

[TBooze]

"He quit like a dog" - Don King on Gerald McLellan

I said the same thing straight after the fight, as the commentators on ITV

[My dinner with Conteh]

I said the same thing straight after the fight, as the commentators on ITV


You said he quit "like a dog" too? Wow, good bloke you are. :huh

[TBooze]

You said he quit "like a dog" too? Wow, good bloke you are. :huh

Just being honest, I lost a lot of money and it did look like he had quit, I was fuming at the time.

Of course when I woke up the following morning and heard what had happened, I regretted my response and put 'my loss' into perspective.

Hey I'm human, and no saint.

[ironchamp]

True. But to be honest, fights like Fenech-Nelson, buried on an undercard of a vastly inferior fight like Tyson-Ruddock when loads of the spectators haven't claimed their seats, was always a bummer to me.


In terms of Money Fenech Nelson was inferior. Which is why it was on the undercard.

I respect Don King for his abilities and clout as a promotor but I, like many, dislike some of his tactics that include the hostage of titles and unfair rankings for fighters who havent deserved it.

King is a real scum bag, but Lots of other promotors are too. Thier job for the most part is money first, fighter second, fans third. King just happens to be rich powerful and famous so he just gets the grunt of the criticism.

[My dinner with Conteh]

In terms of Money Fenech Nelson was inferior. Which is why it was on the undercard.


But if fighter like Nelson and Julian Jackson were always on undercards, no wonder the average fan didn't really know them. Fenech-Nelson certainly wasn't an inferior fight, it's a pity that all the 'Brad's' and 'Todd's' couldn't take their seats earlier and watch a decent contest.

[TBooze]

But if fighter like Nelson and Julian Jackson were always on undercards, no wonder the average fan didn't really know them. Fenech-Nelson certainly wasn't an inferior fight, it's a pity that all the 'Brad's' and 'Todd's' couldn't take their seats earlier and watch a decent contest.

But when Tyson got locked up, he had to use the likes of Jackson to headline. In bills that were full of quality and often double and triple main events.

[My dinner with Conteh]

King just happens to be rich powerful and famous so he just gets the grunt of the criticism.



Probably has something do two with a couple of dead people too...and let's face it, there's been more bad decisions on King's cards than anyone else's. The fucker needs a nice big slice of death. :good

[My dinner with Conteh]

But when Tyson got locked up, he had to use the likes of Jackson to headline. In bills that were full of quality and often double and triple main events.


Yeah, pity he wasn't locked up for longer.

[TBooze]

Yeah, pity he wasn't locked up for longer.

Yep, pity they did not throw away the key...

[My dinner with Conteh]

Yep, pity they did not throw away the key...


On second thoughts, no. We'd have missed the joy of the first Holy fight. My #1 fight moment of all-time (slightly ahead of Benn-Barkley). :happy

[Duodenum]

Wow, you are all making it sound as if King ia waaayyyyy more generous than I'd always been led to believe. Back around 1980, some boxing columnist wrote: "Don King would get Joe Louis out of his wheelchair to fight Roberto Duran, if the money was right!" Maybe so, but with two simple magic words, "No mas," El Cholo screwed King back over royally (pun intended), to the tune of eight million bucks.

[mochabuzz]

We all know DK is a dishonest bitch... but how does his dishonesty and disloyalty compare with the likes of other promoters? With Frank ******, Bob Arum & Golden Boy? Aren't all promotors pretty greedy?

[janitor]

He did turn up at the funeral of Greg Page's mother to get him to sign a contract once.

[Raggamuffin]

did anyone ever hear a rumor, that witherspoon took a dive in the fight with bonecrusher smith because he wanted out of a don king contract?
As i remembered it, Smith was a late substitute for someone else or at least Teribble Tim didn't want to fight him.
He got onmitivated after that and the result is history

[young griffo]

He kicked some poor bastard to death when he was a street hustler.

That doesn't mean he's a bad promoter or bad for boxing necessarily,but it just goes to show that underneath all his hype,bluster and bullshit there lurks a mean,low life, cunt who doesn't care about anyone except Don King and has about as much care or compassion for his fighters as we'd have for a piece of dogshit on the ground.

He has promoted some great cards but in the long run he's done more damage to boxings reputation than probably any other single person (although Tyson comes close).

[JohnThomas1]

Greg Page, fighting on a Tyson undercard was paid just $5000. John Thomas has vowed to kill King when he gets the chance. :good

Well lets be honest, you and i both know all those people didn't turn out primarily due to Tyson! They all knew that if Page could show even a spark of the talent he did vs Snipes we would be looking at the biggest potential Heavyweight Fight since Louis - Schmeling II.

[bigG]

don king...low life, thieving scumbag.......don king.....superb promoter...without don king, boxing would be in a worse state than it is now......the guy put on some great shows.....all the way back to the rumble in the jungle....don king always walks into the ring with the winner......and walks out with the winner......credit where its due, he is a dislikeable bastard, but boy he is good.....

[META5]

Always heard that the guy was a shiesty bastard and have heard it confirmed by many within the boxing circles ...

One thing that always caused me to wonder though was the Rumble In The Jungle fight ... when King goes up to Ali to congratulate him, Ali says something to King with a look of hostility on his face ... Don's face drops as if he's walked into the house, laughing and joking, to see his family held hostage or something ... what exactly did Ali say and why the hell do people still do business with the shiesty bastard?

[JohnThomas1]

Always heard that the guy was a shiesty bastard and have heard it confirmed by many within the boxing circles ...

One thing that always caused me to wonder though was the Rumble In The Jungle fight ... when King goes up to Ali to congratulate him, Ali says something to King with a look of hostility on his face ... Don's face drops as if he's walked into the house, laughing and joking, to see his family held hostage or something ... what exactly did Ali say and why the hell do people still do business with the shiesty bastard?

Money, and the fact that he runs so much of the show.

[Bummy Davis]

he got caught bribing Ring Magazine's John Ort for fighters like Larry Holmes and others for T.V. fights

[META5]

Money, and the fact that he runs so much of the show.

So then, knowing his reputation, why do fighters complain when they get taken for a ride, and why do we, as fans, feel sympathy for them?

I mean, why would you allow your child to hit a lion in the head and then get angry with the lion for Mike Tyson'ing your child's ears off, knowing a lion's nature?

[TBooze]

As i remembered it, Smith was a late substitute for someone else

Tony Tubbs, who was off his head on crack at the ti... I mean he had a 'shoulder injury' ;)

The irony was Whitherspoon was mandated to give Tubbs a rematch because he had failed a drugs test in their encounter earlier that year.

[Titan1]

He did turn up at the funeral of Greg Page's mother to get him to sign a contract once.

Actually, it was his father's funeral, but quite true.

[JohnThomas1]

So then, knowing his reputation, why do fighters complain when they get taken for a ride, and why do we, as fans, feel sympathy for them?

I mean, why would you allow your child to hit a lion in the head and then get angry with the lion for Mike Tyson'ing your child's ears off, knowing a lion's nature?

Fair call.

[Titan1]

I know he jipped Ali out of what, like a million dollars for the Holmes fight.

[Icemmann]

So then, knowing his reputation, why do fighters complain when they get taken for a ride, and why do we, as fans, feel sympathy for them?

I mean, why would you allow your child to hit a lion in the head and then get angry with the lion for Mike Tyson'ing your child's ears off, knowing a lion's nature?

Thing is even when the top fighters did their best to avoid dealing with Don King he'd work his way into the picture. Either he'll have the title holder under wraps, or he'd have the top contenders the guy needs to fight on the way to the title. So when the time comes for the match to be made he's going to do his best to exercise options.

Fans might sympathize to a point, but then we still want to see the matches made. So what do we care if the guy is going to get screwed out of 70% of his purse? Easy to say when it isn't our money. Boxers probably have the same mentality about fighting tomato cans. 50 bucks for a ppv card of stinkers, to see the main event, that turns out to be a crap fest.

[Stonehands89]

Always heard that the guy was a shiesty bastard and have heard it confirmed by many within the boxing circles ...

One thing that always caused me to wonder though was the Rumble In The Jungle fight ... when King goes up to Ali to congratulate him, Ali says something to King with a look of hostility on his face ... Don's face drops as if he's walked into the house, laughing and joking, to see his family held hostage or something ... what exactly did Ali say and why the hell do people still do business with the shiesty bastard?

I have heard it said that it was Ali himself who brought King into the bigtime.

[Raggamuffin]

Nope.
DK surfaced as the one who could give Ali his match with Foreman.

[Stonehands89]

Nope.
DK surfaced as the one who could give Ali his match with Foreman.

Elaborate please.

[TBooze]

Elaborate please.

Well he got Mobutu to put up $10Million to make the fight.

He was a smart man, I always like the Jamaica story, where you see him pre Frazier/ForemanI with smokin' Joe; pretty much one of his team, always on Joe's side for press conferences.

Then post fight, arm around Big George and now Foreman's mouth piece...

[Raggamuffin]

Well he got Mobutu to put up $10Million to make the fight.

He was a smart man, I always like the Jamaica story, where you see him pre Frazier/ForemanI with smokin' Joe; pretty much one of his team, always on Joe's side for press conferences.

Then post fight, arm around Big George and now Foreman's mouth piece...

Correct. He is the one who also got George to sign the contract for the fight. Off course he pulled the "we are all proud black men, fighting in a black country" type of shit. But Big Ol'George had $ signs in his eyes and DK made him believe it would be a walkover against an old Ali

Switching camps comes as naturally to DK as scratching our balls is to us other men

[Stonehands89]

Understood. Although I think that Ali -for whatever reason- held the door open for him. King got him to participate in a charity event in CLeveland with Lloyd Price (remember him? Price had big hits in the 50s with "Stagger Lee" and "Lawdy Miss Clawdy")... he then promoted Zaire AND Ali-Frazier III.... after that, he was in for good.

[Vantage_West]

"He quit like a dog" - Don King on Gerald McLellani remember that :verysad what a fucking gob shite

[Vantage_West]

We all know DK is a dishonest bitch... but how does his dishonesty and disloyalty compare with the likes of other promoters? With Frank ******, Bob Arum & Golden Boy? Aren't all promotors pretty greedy?but golden boy is run by boxers....there is a big difference oscar made it to break the tie on belts.

[Vantage_West]

don king
"looks black, speaks white, thinks green"

[TBooze]

i remember that :verysad what a fucking gob shite

He was not alone in sugesting McClellan quit; The ITV commentary team said the same thing, and I was call him every name under the sun, for losing me money by seemingly giving up.

[Titan1]

I heard about the time that Don tried to get involved in the Ali-Berbick promotion and got his ass kicked;Dokes had to pick him up from a Florida airport and take him to a hospital.

[Duodenum]

he got caught bribing Ring Magazine's John Ort for fighters like Larry Holmes and others for T.V. fightsHence, Malcolm "Flash" Gordon's nickname for him; "Johnny 'Bought, Caught' Ort!" (Man, what an entertainingly outspoken and wonderfully cynical curmudgeon "Flash" was. I hope he hasn't mellowed in his "old" age!)

[Duodenum]

don king
"looks black, speaks white, thinks green""Looks like shit, speaks shit, thinks shit." That's DK. (We should be using the "DK" acronym. His full name is language far too filthy to use in a "family oriented" forum like this! Why, there might be kids under 55 lurking in here who are way too young to be exposed to such disgusting obscenities. Where are the censors when we need them?)

[Duodenum]

To paraphrase Jimmy Cannon:

DK is a credit to his race......the rat race.

[justaboxingfan]

Did anyone watch Don King:Only in America(1997) It was a good movie but I won't forget the part when he's in the washroom with Holmes(I believe) and after taking a piss hands him a blank contract to sign

Holmes says something like "aren't you going to wash your hands first?"
King goes "I wash my hans before I touch my dick" I thought that was hilarious:rofl :nut

[Duodenum]

Did anyone watch Don King:Only in America(1997) It was a good movie but I won't forget the part when he's in the washroom with Holmes(I believe) and after taking a piss hands him a blank contract to sign

Holmes says something like "aren't you going to wash your hands first?"
King goes "I wash my hans before I touch my dick" I thought that was hilarious:rofl :nutNow that you mention it.....DK could be used as an acronym for dick.