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The eccentric ‘Lion King’ is still a force to be reckoned with in the boxing jungle. His roar – sometimes harmless, more often menacing – continues to disturb the swamps of politics and the savannahs of entertainment. At 80 years old, Don King, the most famous promoter in the history of a sport that goes back millennia, the man behind the historic bouts of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and countless other heroes of the ring, has no intention of abdicating his throne. In fact, King doesn’t deny himself anything: not his role as impresario that over the past 30 years has made him rich and influential, nor his absurd and unmistakable coiffure, and certainly not his improbable posture as a moralist preacher. “The ascent of Barack Obama is the greatest miracle since the raising of Lazarus”,
he proclaims from his pulpit at Don King Promotions, a building on the Florida coast just north of Miami, where he reigns over 40 or so subjects. “For two centuries the United States has lived in hypocrisy”, he explains, “which is a disease worse than leukemia. Our country, symbol of freedom and equality, has been living a lie, remaining a bastion of discrimination and a crucible of racism. But the arrival of the first African-American president has opened to door to redemption”. When talking about Obama, Don King gets all riled up, tormenting the long Cuban cigar that he is never without, gesticulating with a right hand weighed down by the diamonds of a massive square ring, his left hand lost in the wilderness of his insane hairdo. Then he points proudly to his Obama ‘trophies’ – a lithograph
and a plate bearing the President’s face. The old lion seems deeply moved, covering his eyes. Perhaps his thoughts are returning to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was born in 1931 and spent a difficult childhood, like many Afro-Americans of his generation – dropping out of school, illegal gambling, trouble with the law. He tries to convince us that the presence of a ‘brother’ in the White House has opened a new chapter in his life. But is that really true?  If so, we ask with a hint of insolence, what about that framed photo at the entrance of George W. Bush, with an affectionate handwritten note thanking King for his help in the election? “Bush was one of the most memorable presidents in history”, he replies, cutting it short and bypassing the profound ideological differences between the two presidents and therefore, of his own duplicity. The truth is that, apart from his triumphs in the sports business, Don King has always been, first and foremost, a peerless promoter of Don King. Thanks to his innate gifts – a keen sense of public opinion and a nose for always picking the winner – he has secured a very unusual position in America (and even in other countries) by exploiting his extravagant image and cultivating relationships in the corridors of power. This is why his offices – at once a museum of boxing and a mausoleum of kitsch – are plastered with blow-ups of his encounters with VIPs, from Nelson Mandela to Pope Benedict XVI. “Look at this one”, he says, showing us a shot of a cordial handshake with Silvio Berlusconi. “He hadn’t gotten into politics yet”, King recalls. “We were planning a match in Italy with Mike Tyson. During my visit, he treated me like family, hosting me in his castle and letting me use his private jet”. King’s tone becomes almost nostalgic: “It’s a pity that we never managed to do anything at the Colosseum. I would have put on a great show, with Roman gladiators and chariots”. Indeed, Don King has put on more than his share of such spectacles. The most famous? The ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, as the epic heavyweight title fight of October 30, 1974, between reigning champion George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, has come to be known. After three years in prison for refusing to serve in Vietnam, and after losing to Joe Frazier in 1971 at Madison Square Garden, Ali dreamt of returning to the ring. Don King, then at the very beginning of his boxing career, convinced the two superstars to let him organize the bout by promising millions of dollars that he didn’t have, but which he had secured on a promise from the new president of Zaire, Mobutu. And so the bout was held at 5 in the morning (TV broadcasting rights…) in Kinshasa, capital of what is now the Congo. Foreman was the favorite, in that the superior agility of the challenger was not considered dangerous for a fighter of Foreman’s incomparable physical power. But Ali proved to be tactically superior as well, provoking and disorienting his opponent. After wearing Foreman out for eight rounds, Ali launched a decisive attack: a left hook that lifted Foreman’s head, then a frontal, full-on smash that sent the champion to the mat. “It was the most exciting fight in the history of boxing”, sighs King. “And it also enabled me to rise from anonymity, because prior to the Rumble in the Jungle, I was a victim of racism, too”. From that moment, his stable expanded quickly. The parade of champions that passed through Don King Promotions included Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes, Julio César Chávez, Félix Trinidad, Marco Antonio Barrera and Mike Tyson. All became famous, but nearly none have very fond memories of King who – to get a sense of how other people feel about him – is perennially being sued by someone or other for fraud, defamation and criminal threats. “Don King is a slimy son of a bitch”, growls Mike Tyson. “Some ‘brother’! He’s just a scumbag who would kill his own mother for a dollar”. King responds in kind. “Tyson”, he confides malignantly, “became famous despite having neither intelligence nor an education. But hey, you don’t win in the ring with your brain…”. One is compelled to wonder: who is this guy, really, this Lion King? Is he like Mufasa, the good king of the Disney mythology, or is he Scar, the evil uncle? We make a futile attempt to find an answer in the paintings and objects, all in the most abysmal taste, that surround him. His executive suite is choked with everything imaginable, with no discernible logic: bronze eagles and honorary diplomas, patriotic banners and Botero paintings, photos of his wife Henrietta and maxi-screen TVs, stuffed animals and swords, busts of Caesar and bottles of Grand Marnier. We ask how he spends his free time, which might provide a clue. “I haven’t taken a vacation since I got out of prison”, he objects disingenuously. Prison? Yes, it’s an old story, and anything but edifying. As a young man, Don King killed two people. In the first case, he was acquitted on a self-defense argument, even though the victim was shot in the back; in the second, he was convicted of homicide, but his lawyer was so good that he got off with just four years in the can. “Finally”, he recalls, “I had time to study. I voraciously read the works of Shakespeare, Victor Hugo and especially the great philosophers of antiquity”. A philosopher king, then? Or a speculator of sports, politics and business? It’s hard to say, for the ‘king’ of boxing eludes categorization. The only thing for sure is that such a character could only have been produced by America, a sentiment captured by the expression, coined by King and now in common usage, “Only in America”, which is written in real diamonds on the necklace that hangs ostentatiously from his neck.