“I’m one of the world’s great survivors. I’ll always survive because I’ve got the right combination of wit, grit and bullshit”
On March 31st 1949 the fifth of Clarence and Hattie King’s six children Donald was born. His father died in a steel plant explosion when Don was only ten years old. His mother was an entrepreneur, selling homemade pies and roasted peanuts at the time.
During the early 1950s, King had a brief career as a boxer (brief because the rules got in his way). After a year at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, King abandoned dreams of obtaining a university degree and tried on the university of the streets. Six-foot-two Don King became a stone-cold ghetto bad boy, running things.
Two dead – life in jail
Donald the Kid, as he became known, developed and controlled the numbers racket of Clevelan. A posse attacked King’s base in 1954, in an attempt to rob the business. During the ensuing shoot-out King shot and killed one Hillary Brown. ‘Teflon Don’ got off with justifiable homicide.
Sam Garrett owed King $600 ($3,000). On April 20th 1966, King noticed Sam at a bar they both frequented and rushed him. King pistol-whipped Garrett to the ground then stomped him to death in broad daylight and in full public view. In 1967, King was sentenced to life in prison for which was commuted to manslaughter. He studied and read furiously. He would later say: “I didn’t serve time, time served me.”
In 1971 King listened to the first of the three fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier from prison. He staged he third fight just two and a half years after he left prison.
Boxing’s new era
In 1972 when Don Elbaum (a professional fight promoter) along with Muhammad Ali helped King break all records for a charity exhibition bout. Ali suggested King get into the boxing promotion business. King never looked back.
Muhammad Ali
King successfully put Muhammad Ali off a fight organised by Arum and Herbert Muhammad (Ali’s manager) worth $850,000 ($2 million), that jeopardised his proposed idea of an Africa event. This former convicted murderer and Cleveland street hustler had out-manoeuvred Bob Arum, a Harvard law graduate (member of the bar and former state prosecutor) and stage one of the greatest sporting events in history.
Mike Tyson
King lost his grip on the heavyweight championship when ‘next-big-thing’ Mike Tyson, managed by a competitor. He kept a close watch on Tyson, and seized his opportunity to take control when Tyson’s co-manager and friend Jim Jacobs died from leukaemia on March 23rd 1988. Remorseless, shameless and audacious, King gatecrashed the funeral (Tyson was a pallbearer).
King gave the young boxer a black revolutionary perspective on the history of ‘blaxploitation’ in the boxing industry. At 24 years of age, Tyson signed a four-year exclusive promotions deal with Don King. Game over.
Don King brought more money into the world of boxing than all his peers combined. Seth Abraham, former president of HBO Sports said of King: “He has the most brilliant business mind I have ever encountered … Don King is formidable in his sleep.”
By Ron Shabazz Shillingford
Author of : The History of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs
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