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Everything Changes, But Don King Will Always Be Don King
“Who is it?” Don King asks the person who is handing him a cell phone on Thursday in Brooklyn. He means, who is on the other end? Which really means, who am I selling now and how am I going to sell that person?
It doesn’t matter, really. It never matters when Don King is on the sell. Hand him a phone and he will not speak but shout into it. This is a man who will debate with dial tones, or give 10 minutes to one of those automated airplane updates that’s announcing a flight delay. To, “Your flight now leaves at 5:45 p.m.,” it’s, “Did I ever tell you about the time in Vegas with Tyson …” He’ll launch into diatribes on America and athlete activism and Clark Gable and white supremacists and how millennials love magazines. He did all that in five minutes on Thursday afternoon. Some of it may even have been true. It wasn’t easy to keep up.
“Sports Illustrated!” he shouts, repeating the name and louder, in case it hadn’t echoed properly. “The one! The only! I, sir, am ready to go back on the cover of Sports Illustrated. After Saturday night you’re gonna be coming after me like a hungry dog. Get that cover ready!”
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King is 86 now and still, incredibly, in boxing, still selling the storylines of fighters, still trying to make fights. Even on the sport’s fringe, even toward the end of his colorful career, he’s still Don King, the boxing promoter whose hairstyle is forever wet-finger-in-electric-socket. He drops references to the years he promoted Muhammad Ali and describes the fights he made in the heavyweight division back when it mattered to causal sports fans. “Only in America!” he says over 100 times a day.
The event he is referring to on Saturday is a heavyweight boxing match in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. It features King’s fighter, Bermane Stiverne, in a rematch against Deontay Wilder, who holds a 38-0 record, has 37 knockouts and topped Stiverne by unanimous decision (his only non-knockout in a professional fight) in Jan. 2015. They’re fighting again because the opponent Wilder chose, Luis Ortiz, failed a drug test in September and Stiverne was already on the undercard. “Bermane will shock the world!” King says, unsurprisingly and convincingly all at once. “Deontay never met a guy like him. He took everything Deontay threw at him. He’s gonna win this time. So get that cover ready!”
SI's Best Photos of Don King
Don King comforts Muhammad Ali, who ices down his broken after losing a heavyweight title fight to Ken Norton on March 31, 1973 at San Diego Sports Arena.
Don King smiles alongside George Foreman as he talks with assistant trainer Archie Moore at the InterContinental Hotel on Oct. 26, 1974, before the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight title fight between Foreman and Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Don King walks with Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seku and Muhammad Ali during a reception at the presidential complex on Oct. 28, 1974, before the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight title fight between Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Don King wears a shirt promoting the Rumble in the Jungle at the InterContinental Hotel on Oct. 28, 1974, before the heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Don King wears a dashiki while standing in the ring before the weigh-in for the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman on Oct. 29, 1974 at 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Don King celebrates the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman on Oct. 29, 1974 at 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Don King watches Muhammad Ali speak during a press conference on March 5, 1975 in the lobby of the General Assembly Building at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Ali announced that he would donate circuit television earnings to UNICEF and Africare to aid countries affected by the Sahel drought.
Don King blows out cigar smoke during a photo shoot on Aug. 25, 1975 in New York City.
Don King poses with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier during a photo shoot on Aug. 25, 1975 in New York City, ahead of their Thrilla in Manilla heavyweight title fight.
Don King poses with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier on the Sept. 15, 1975 cover of Sports Illustrated promoting the Thrilla in Manilla heavyweight title fight.
Don King hits the dance floor with Joe Frazier at the Hyatt Regency Hotel after Frazier lost the Thrilla in Manila heavyweight title fight to Muhammad Ali on Oct. 1, 1975 in Manila, Philippines.
Don King stands with a victorious Larry Holmes and trainer Richie Giachetti after Holmes defeated Fred Askew in their heavyweight fight on April 5, 1976 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md.
Don King hugs a victorious Roberto Duran after Duran defeated Sugar Ray Leonard in their welterweight title fight on June 20, 1980 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada.
Don King poses with Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes on Sept. 16, 1980, ahead of their heavyweight title fight at the Sports Pavilion of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Don King holds up the championship belt of Larry Holmes after Holmes weighed-in for his heavyweight title fight with Muhammad Ali on Oct. 2, 1980 at the Sports Pavilion of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Don King holds up puppets of Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney during a photo shoot in May 1982 ahead of their heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.
Don King celebrates with Mike Tyson after Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick in their heavyweight title fight on Nov. 22, 1986 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Don King speaks during a press conference as Donald Trump looks on at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino on June 22, 1988, ahead of the heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks at the Boardwalk Convention Hall in Atlantic City.
Don King stands in the ring before the heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno on Feb. 25, 1989 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Don King stands with Mike Tyson after Tyson defeated Carl Williams in their heavyweight title fight on July 21, 1989 at the Boardwalk Convention Hall in Atlantic City.
Don King stands with Mike Tyson during a press conference on April 30, 1990 in New York City.
Don King stands with Julio Cesar Chavez after Chavez defeated Kyung-Duk Ahn in their light welterweight title fight on Dec. 8, 1990 at the Boardwalk Convention Hall in Atlantic City.
Don King poses with Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis during a photo shoot on Nov. 2, 1988 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, ahead of their heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.
Don King, dressed as Santa Claus, poses with Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis during a photo shoot on Nov. 2, 1988 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, ahead of their heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.
Don King stands with Felix Trinidad after Trinidad defeated Oscar De La Hoya in their welterweight title fight on Sept 18, 1999 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Don King poses for a portrait during a photo shoot on Feb. 24, 2003 in Los Angeles.
Don King poses for a portrait during a photo shoot on Oct. 28, 2005 at the Friar's Club in New York City.
Don King looks over papers with Donald Trump on Oct. 28, 2005 at the Friar's Club in New York City.
Don King sits backstage before the heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Eric Molina on June 13, 2015 at the Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
Don King greets fans before the heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Eric Molina on June 13, 2015 at the Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
“Only in America!” he says again.
He’s picking up speed now, jabbering away, sentences ramming into other sentences like bumper cars. A conversation with King, however brief, unfolds like a tsunami, approaching slowly and spinning faster and faster and faster and faster and faster untilyou’reinitandit’shardtoseparatewhereonewordendsandanotherbegins. He says something about how he never really left boxing and never plans to retire. Maybe. He says the sport is in the “doldrums” and has “prepared to fail.” Sure? “Thekeypartisthepeople,” he says (we think). “Thepeoplearethemostimportant. Wehavetowinbacktherespectandadorationofthepeople.”
“Only in America!” he says again.
It’s impressive, really, that a man can say the same things in the same way not for years but decades, personalizing the message but never changing it. “Americanisthegreatestcountryintheworldanationfoundedonfreedomandqualityandlibertyandjustice,” he says, cramming a high school civics lesson into a sentence without a pause. He says we need laws that specifically make white supremacy a crime.
“WehavetodealwithwhatisrealnknowwhatI’msaying?”
Kind of. He notes that Ali gave up the prime of his career to stand for what he believed in. So I started to ask King what Ali would make of 2017, with President Donald Trump, NFL owners and star football players locked in an endless debate over the anthem and whether it’s OK to kneel for it. With Trump calling players “sons of b------“ and owners saying Trump is jealous he could never join their club and buy a team.
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King, though, is already moving forward. He’s on to the next sell. Is this the end? His last fight of significance? It’s hard to say. He’s the one who’s talking, his cadence slower now—slower being relative, in this instance and all instances with King.
“SI, hear my cry, the greatest magazine alive, and will not be denied!” he shouts, as he hands the phone back to whomever gave it to him, as if dropping the mic at the end of a rap battle. The room spins a little as the tornado of words halts. An ear rings, the one nearest to the phone.
“Don is gone,” the voice says, and it sounds like the voice of God himself.
“Is that enough?”
Always.
“Get that cover ready!”
Greg Bishop is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who has covered every kind of sport and every major event across six continents for more than two decades. He previously worked for The Seattle Times and The New York Times. He is the co-author of two books: Jim Gray's memoir, "Talking to GOATs"; and Laurent Duvernay Tardif's "Red Zone". Bishop has written for Showtime Sports, Prime Video and DAZN, and has been nominated for eight sports Emmys, winning two, both for production. He has completed more than a dozen documentary film projects, with a wide range of duties. Bishop, who graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, is based in Seattle.