Don King

[Greig]

Only In America: The Life and Crimes of Don King by Jack Newfield is a fantastic read on King. I read an excerpt back in about 1997, and it was so good I had to buy the book.

Also check out A Savage Business - The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson by Richard Hoffer.


Both offer a pretty good account of the Machiavellian workings of Don King.


But if it wasn't for Don King, I'd wager boxing would be in a damn sight worse off than the state it finds itself today...

[johnmaff36]

Only In America: The Life and Crimes of Don King by Jack Newfield is a fantastic read on King. I read an excerpt back in about 1997, and it was so good I had to buy the book.

Also check out A Savage Business - The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson by Richard Hoffer.


Both offer a pretty good account of the Machiavellian workings of Don King.


But if it wasn't for Don King, I'd wager boxing would be in a damn sight worse off than the state it finds itself today...

Really? Im intrigued. Could you elaborate more? Thanks for the heads up on the book. Will seek it out asap. Is that jack newfield the same guy that King lost the head with before, calling him a scumbag and shit at a press conference? I saw a show called 'Dispatches' on ch4 in the UK several years back about King and i think it was jack newfield who was doing a lot of the talking on it. This programme would be pretty well respected in journalistic circles and would not have been just a hatchet job on King, but,christ, he didnt come out of it too good. Some of the stuff on it you just couldnt make up. For instance,when he was acquited of tax evasion (or something like that) just before the Witherspoon/Bruno fight, he flew out the entire jury as a thank-you for finding him not guilty ha ha ha!

[the_sacred_chilli]

Only In America: The Life and Crimes of Don King by Jack Newfield is a fantastic read on King. I read an excerpt back in about 1997, and it was so good I had to buy the book.

Also check out A Savage Business - The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson by Richard Hoffer.


Both offer a pretty good account of the Machiavellian workings of Don King.


But if it wasn't for Don King, I'd wager boxing would be in a damn sight worse off than the state it finds itself today...

i dont think boxing is in too bad a state. it has its obvious faults:
1. too many belts
2. fighters avoiding each other
3. v. dodgy refs decisions.

but on the plus side it is breaking records for ppv sales on the marquee fights, and we have been blessed with some very talented fighters recently. and who knows when the next superstar is going to appear. perhaps david haye will go on and dominate the heavyweights, maybe amir khan will come good and unify the junior welters. (im a brit, i expect both of these what ifs to be shot down by some blinkered idiot)

but there is quality about. i do wish that boxing was more widely available on terrestrial, its a great shame setanta went belly up.

[saad79]

Thomas Hauser Books (Used, New, Out-of-Print) - Alibris

Check the above link for "The Black Lights." This book is somewhat dated (1986), but I rembember it gives a detailed behind the scenes example of how DK does business. At the time, DK was the promoter of Billy Costelo, the then WBC superlightweight champion.