It was heavyweight time in a storm-damaged Miami this week, with Don King at 90 selling the latest men he has matched in a title fight.
King has put on fights in hospitals, penitentiaries, the greatest arenas in a dozen lands and on Saturday night, at a casino on the edge of town, he promotes Trevor Bryan against Daniel Dubois for a bit of the WBA’s heavyweight championship. King knows how to sell.
King was once known as The Kid, a prolific hustler on the streets of Cleveland, and during the last 50 years he has been boxing’s greatest showman and the most entertaining promoter on earth. He has enemies, he made fortunes and he made headlines during his life in the boxing business. He has the shotgun pellets in his neck, the scars across his old face and the millions in the bank to prove it.
And, at 90, he insists he is not done. “I’m gonna get Tyson Fury out of retirement,” he told me earlier this week. “He’s just a human being – I can help him.”
On Saturday, King’s man in the fight is Trevor Bryan, who is unbeaten, untested and a big underdog. Bryan is also tremendously likeable and believes that he is the most avoided heavyweight fighter in the world. Bryan owns the WBA’s regular heavyweight title; Oleksandr Usyk has the real belt.
Bryan has stopped, bludgeoned or knocked out 15 of the 22 men he has so far beaten; he does, it has to be said, have a reputation for performing well in the gym against good fighters. “I just can’t get fights – nobody wants to fight me,” Bryan insists. The alternative view is that Bryan has been protected, guided by King with care and moved closer to a big payday. Hey, that’s the job of all promoters.
Dubois is still a boxing baby at 24, still a work in progress in many ways and that might seem odd for a man with 18 fights on his record and a date with a champion in a foreign land. The Casino Miami venue is stranded between the freeways near the airport, hemmed in by canals that look like alligator pools and illuminated by the types of bars that sit on the edges of most American cities. Still, it’s a casino and this is a heavyweight title fight on paper.
It is, however, a good fight, a real international heavyweight fight, and in our business we get so few of those. The belt on offer has persuaded both to take a risk and that is fine – it is also a factor that is ignored in the clamour to knock the many ridiculous fights for pointless belts. This fight would not happen without a belt. The winner does move closer to one or more of the real heavyweight champions. The winner is not the heavyweight champion, not yet.
The winner is expected to be Dubois. And he is expected to win quickly and easily and without any fuss. “You seen the odds?” a veteran of King’s patronage, called Stacy McKinley, asked me. I had, they were big. “That is just disrespectful. Two heavyweights and my man is 7-1. There is a lot of money to be made.”
McKinley has been in the corner of more than 20 of King’s world champions during the last 35 years and that includes Mike Tyson. I could tell McKinley was shocked and a little insulted by those odds. And, by the way, he’s a man with thick skin.
“I believe that Bryan is better than we think,” said Shane McGuigan, who has worked in the gym with Dubois since early last year. “But, Daniel will still get him out of there.”
The fight has been placed kindly to start in Miami by about 6pm, which means viewers in the UK can watch before midnight. Bryan has been talking a great fight all week out here, mixing insults with sensible observations and a bit of humour. In previous fights he has looked bored, slow, but there has always been a glimpse or two of the arts acquired in real gyms; there needs to be a lot we have not seen for Bryan to win. Perhaps there is.
Dubois lost in late 2020, has fought twice since and still has a lot to prove. His two fights lasted less than six minutes in total. On Saturday night, he might just want to use a bit of sense before letting his heavy fists flow. A slow beating might break Bryan easier than a fast and furious start.
It will be an event with King conducting once again – perhaps for the last time – a fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. King, a casino in Miami, violent storms, wayward gators, neon silhouettes and fights are what Saturday nights are made for.
