Boxing strong man Don King portrays himself as a black Horatio Alger. He loves to tell the triumphant tale of how a former Cleveland numbers runner, after spending four years in prison for manslaughter, rose to dominate the cutthroat business of prizefighting.
Don King is today a multimillionaire. He has tasted the food at White House state dinners, been honored by groups such as the NAACP and the B'nai B'rith and beaten the government in a $1 million tax-evasion case.
"I transcend earthly bounds," King recently said in an interview with Playboy magazine. "I never cease to amaze myself, because I haven't yet found my limits. I am quite ready to accept the limits of what I can do, but every time I feel that way - boom! - God touches me and I do something that's even more stupendous than whatever I've done up to then."
The men who fight for him and the promoters and managers who deal with him see Don King as something less than a hallowed phenomenon.
Listen to their words:
Former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes: "Don said to me, 'Why give money to the white man? Don't you want to help your brother?' Well, I wanted to help my brother. But it turned out he (cheated) me. . . . Don King doesn't care about black or white. He just cares about green."
Rival promoter Cedric Kushner: "I used to have two pit bulls. They were too mean, so I had to get rid of them. The only difference between those dogs and Don King is that Don is much more vicious."
Former cruiserweight champion Alfonzo Ratliff: "He's like a spider who pulls you in with his money. . . . Before you know it, you're all caught up in the web and you're at his mercy. And this man has no mercy."
King declined requests to be interviewed for this article. He dismissed his critics in March, telling The Inquirer, "All of my fighters should get down on their knees and thank me for what I've done for them."
Since 1974, King has promoted more than 200 title fights, including at least 35 of the last 45 heavyweight championship bouts. Until the recent domination of Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks, he had cornered the market on heavyweights for more than a decade. Even now, as some suggest that his grip over boxing is loosening, King has promotional ties to more than 100 fighters and stands to make up to $3 million as a promoter of tomorrow's Tyson-Spinks title fight. His role in that bout? "He's just setting up the undercard," said co-promoter Butch Lewis. "It's the easiest $3 million anyone ever made."
