Don King
 Don KingBoxingInsider.com Exclusive Biofile Published by Scoop Malinowski Last Updated on April 11th, 2008 | Options:  Print This Article  Email This Article  RSS |
STATUS: Hall of Fame Boxing Promoter
BORN ON: August 20, 1931 IN: Cleveland, Ohio
RESIDENCE: Fort Lauderdale, FL
FAVORITE MOVIE: Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars
CHILDHOOD DREAM: “I wanted to be a lawyer. I had an affinity for the law. Unfortunately, I got derailed.”
EARLY BOXING MEMORY: “I fought in the Golden Gloves in the 1950′s as a flyweight. I won two fights, got to the semifinals, then lost.”
HOBBIES/INTERESTS: “Reading, golf, tennis, meeting people, meeting challenges – do things that haven’t been done before. Take the impossible out of the impossible.”
FIRST JOB: “Shoe-shine boy at a golf club’s men’s locker room (age 12).”
INTERESTING FACT: “I’m a person who is fantastically loyal and I do not quit -it’s not in my vocabulary. Perseverance, single-minded, stick-to-it-iveness. I don’t deal with excuses, only results. No task is to big for me.”
GREATEST SPORTS MOMENT: “Putting together two world class athletes – Muhammad Ali and George Foreman – for the world heavyweight championship in Kinshasa, Zaire (’74). That was the beginning. Changed my life.”
MOST PAINFUL MOMENT: “When you don’t give the paying customer the dollar value entertainment for what they paid their hard-earned dollars for. Matched guys not putting up what they’re supposed to do. They renege on their commitment. That’s painful to me. And when somebody gets hurt – boxing injuries are excrutiating to me. Lack of safety and injuries does the public an injustice.”
PEOPLE MOST ADMIRED: “All people. I can’t segment that. People are all beautiful. You have to get to know them.”
FUNNY BOXING MEMORY: “Coming out of the hardcore ghetto of Cleveland. Ex-number runner, ex-convict, complete exhoneration by the Governor. Full, unconditional pardon. Talking to Kings, Presidents, dictators around the world. That is funny. Because nobody would believe it. That’s what you call a big joke. If you start out from scratch and tell someone this, they would be hilarious. They would almost choke, gasping for breath. Could this happen? And I say yes. Only in America.”
FAVORITE SHAMPOO: “[Laughs] You know, I’ve got a favorite. And it’s really a great shampoo. So I’m gonna hold that because that’ll be a commercial and I should be paid for that. So we’ll call it nameless and let the companies come to me and tell me which one they want me to say. So that we can get their hair clean and bristling with body when they wash it. So I’m waiting on you shampoo companies. Call me [laughs]!”
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