| Name |
Don King |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
American |
| Date of Birth |
20-August-1931 |
| Place of Birth |
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Famous for |
Boxer |
Don King is an American boxing promoter, whose career highlights include promoting "The Rumble in the Jungle" and the "Thrilla in Manila". He also had a long association with Mike Tyson. King has promoted some of the most prominent names in black boxing, including Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Mayorga, Andrew Golota, Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones, Jr., Marco Antonio Barrera, Adrian Diaconu, Nikolai Valuev and Joey Hernandez.
King entered the boxing world after convincing Muhammad Ali to box in a charity exhibition for a local hospital in Cleveland with the help of singer Lloyd Price. Early on he formed a partnership with a local promoter named Don Elbaum, who already had a stable of fighters in Cleveland and years of experience in boxing. In 1974, King negotiated to promote a heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire, popularly known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". The fight between Ali and Foreman was a much-anticipated event. King's rivals all sought to promote the bout, but King was able to secure the then-record $10 million purse through an arrangement with the government of Zaire.
King solidified his position as one of boxing's preeminent promoters the following year with the third fight between Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, which King deemed the "Thrilla in Manila". Aside from promoting the premier heavyweight fights of the 1970s, King was also busy expanding his boxing empire. Throughout the decade, he compiled an impressive roster of fighters, many of whom would finish their career with Hall of Fame credentials. Fighters like Larry Holmes, Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Wilfredo Gomez, and Alexis Arguello would all fight under the Don King Productions promotional banner in the 1970s.
For the next two decades, King continued to be among boxing's most successful promoters. Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez, Aaron Pryor, Bernard Hopkins, Ricardo Lopez, Felix Trinidad, Terry Norris, Carlos Zárate, Azumah Nelson, Andrzej Golota, Mike McCallum, Gerald McClellan, Meldrick Taylor, Marco Antonio Barrera, Tomasz Adamek and Ricardo Mayorga are some of the boxers who chose King to promote many of their biggest fights.
