MIAMI — He was one of the biggest stars in boxing history and one of sports’ greatest showmen. He was the celebrity-promoter who shaped the careers of Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. He was as big as they get in his reign from the mid-1970s through the ‘90s.
He was.
Don King introduced himself to the world by staging “The Rumble In The Jungle,” Ali KO’ing unbeaten champion George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. The African crowd adored Ali, chanted, “Ali, boma ye! (Ali, kill him!)” It was such a spectacle that B.B. King and James Brown were the warmup acts. The fight was watched by 1 billion worldwide, set pay-per-view records.
By the 1990s King’s goldmine cards included the infamous but wildly consumed Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield bout in which Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield’s ear.
In sports as in life, alas, the greatest seldom get to go out on top.
Willie Mays in a Mets uniform in 1973, batting .211, struggling in center field. Dan Marino limping off a football field for the last time in the first days of 2000, after a miserable performance in a 62-7 playoff loss. The fans in Jacksonville were heckling him.
The greatest actors don’t so much retire from film-making as see the movies retire them.
Well, Don King fights on, still alive, still promoting.
“I will slow down when I go to heaven” is his stock answer.
He will be 91 in August, if heaven can wait.
“God has kept me here so I’m going to continue to work for a betterment of life,” he told the Miami Herald on Thursday. “Anything I can contribute toward peace and freedom, it keeps me going. I’m a promoter of people. Boxing gives you a chance. After the fight you grab the [opponent] and hug him and say ‘Great fight.’ This is a symbol of what we should try to emulate in life.”
On Wednesday’s media session this week, King sat at a long table in a ballroom of a Miami airport hotel, because Don King Productions — two decades past being a major player in the sport — is putting on Saturday’s fight card at Casino Miami, what used to be the old jai-alai fronton, at 3500 N.W. 37th Avenue.
In the headlining bout, Trevor Bryan will defend his WBA heavyweight title against Great Britain’s Daniel Dubois.
“One of the greatest heavyweight title fights in history,” proclaimed King. Because he’s a promoter!
The WBA is not the premier organization in the sport. Neither the card nor its featured bout has merited a story on ESPN’s boxing page this week. Still, “A super sensational card,” King said.
As the famed promoter was introduced to speak he rose slowly from his chair, with help from Bryan, who helped push him up with a hand on the small of King’s back. King grabbed the edge of the lectern to steady himself.
He stood for an hour, introducing all eight bouts in a meandering, at times rambling talk.
In the audience were former luminaries Larry Holmes and Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini, but this was a long way from Vegas, from national attention, from seven-figure payouts. This was a long way from Don King’s heyday. Tickets are still available for Saturday’s show. The PPV cost is a modest $29.99.
The card is billed as “The Fight For Freedom And Peace,” and as a tribute to the people of Ukraine. That country’s anthem will be played Saturday.
“I talked to the Ukraine last night,” King said at one point.
He also mentioned inviting 300 kids to attend the fight after referencing recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas.
King at a microphone at an eccentric 90 makes you hold your breath for what might come out. His scattered yet oddly endearing ramble on Wednesday included a tribute to Queen Elizabeth, a minute on former fighter Chrissy Martin’s marital woes, a prediction Russia could cause World War III, and a brief recitation of the Bill of Rights.
Dressed like 1978, King wore his trademark denim jacket with stars on it. Wore a red, white a blue tie. Always with a small American flag handy for photo ops.
His distinctive hair, which sports writer Jim Murray once described as looking like “he’s seen a ghost or survived an electric chair,” still rises north, but thinner and gray now.
King branded himself long ago as the embodiment of the American Dream and holds onto the image.
His version of the American Dream was making a success of himself despite a shady past that included running an illegal bookmaking operation and killing two men 13 years apart. The first was judged to be justifiable homicide for killing a man robbing one of his gambling houses. For the second he was found guilty of second degree homicide in 1967 for stomping to death a man who owed him money. He served four years before being pardoned by the governor.
King also has been sued by several fighters including Ali and Tyson over the years on claims he underpaid the money due them.
He largely disappeared from public view after his beloved wife of 50 years, Henrietta, passed away in 2010. He told us a report earlier this year that he’d retired was false, and yet this week still feels like a comeback of sorts.
Almost 50 years past the Rumble In The Jungle that introduced him, it’s a modest card in a ring on what used to be a jai-alai court ... but Don King is back.
Will it be his last fight card? Let his own words answer for now:
“I will slow down when I go to heaven.”
