By Scoop Malinowski

One of the most important figures in the history of boxing was in New York last week, but not on official boxing business. Don King was hired by Nike to host and hype the athletic wear’s boxing-themed press conference introducing tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (called “Grapple In The Apple”) at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the eve of the 2008 U.S. Open tennis event.

Boxinginsider.com was the only boxing media outlet to attend this upscale event and we were lucky enough to interview Mr. King who just returned from Beijing, China. In this interview, King discusses Olympic boxing, Margarito vs. Cotto, why he thinks Jones can conquer Calzaghe, one of his personal mottos, and more.

Boxinginsider: The Olympics, amateur boxing. The scoring and judging are getting a lot of criticism from fans and media. You were there in Beijing last week. Your comment?

Don King: “Well you know what? People have got to move with the times. They all want to hang on to custom and tradition. Custom and tradition is diametrically opposed to progress and reform. They get the rules, they know what they are before they go in there. And because things go back to the other way you can’t hold on to the old, you gotta take on the new. I think the best way to sum it up, where many people can understand, is chapter 16 of Revelations. He says, ‘Behold, I make all things new. Of former things are passed away.’ You gotta be able to adapt. And that’s what our thing is. Adapt is improvise and overcome.”

Boxinginsider: Did any of the boxers you saw in the Olympic matches in Beijing impress you?

Don King: “A few of the boxes, you know, I have never ever pursued an Olympic boxer. My forte has been that I get the ones that are the incorrigibles (definition: incapable of being corrected or reformed). The ones that are the downtrodden or the ones that are just coulda been and didn’t get there. And see if I can turn them around. And help them. I’ve never pursued the Olympic guys because at the time I recognize that I would have been highly criticized because I just came out of jail and when I started my career - and it’s why I remarkably feel so good about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman - is because nobody would give you a chance. And at that time everything was (inaudible), they had a white maverick, they didn’t even want him to come in. You know what I mean, so more or less, a black one, that was unheard of. And so I’ve never put the weight of my life and the baggage that I was bringing, the first thing they would say, He done corrupted those young kids. He done bribe this one, he done and did that. They put all kinds of negative connotations. So out of my whole distinguished career I’ve never pursued an Olympic boxer. What I do is get the ones that missed it. The ones that didn’t get there. I grab them. If they come up and they need help, I try to help them. There were some impressive boxers there. They had a little Chinese kid named I think Zow…”

Boxinginsider: Zou Shiming.

Don King: “Yeah. Did he win?”

Boxinginsider: Not yet. (Note: Shiming was in the SF at the time of the interview. He eventually did win the gold medal.)

Don King: “But this little guy, I seen him beat our guy. He was unbelievable. He’s got all the moves, I see a China man doing this kind of stuff [laughs], you know what I mean? And so it’s a remarkable thing. And all of the fighters that are in there fighting - you could never deal with excuses, only results. And it doesn’t matter what rules you play by. You got to go out and win. You got to win, man. And then you can come back and talk about how difficult it was for you. Under the most strenuous conditions of what they were. That is one of the mottos that I subscribe to many years ago. I’m in it to win it, I can’t give in, I can’t give up and I can’t quit. So what I do is deal with results and not excuses. In the foot race of life you’re going against all type of odds. When you get to the victory circle then you can demonstrate why you there and how much more difficult it was for you than your counterpart. Or your opposition. But they don’t interview losers. So you gotta win.”

Boxinginsider: Cotto vs. Margarito. Did you enjoy that fight like everybody else?

Don King: “That was a great fight. And again - it demonstrated Margarito, Margarito was like written off. Margarito is a guy who is a tremendous competitor and no one ever wanted to give him credit. So therefore, when he went in, they said this was gonna be a good fight. But everybody had rode in Cotto. And that was really the most strenuous fight that he had. And Cotto fighting Shane Mosley - that was a remnant of what he was - that’s not the same type of Shane. But that was a good fight. Not discounting or not disparaging it.

“But when you got a guy that’s gonna compete and he’s there and he’s really in that WIN category, you know what I mean, (Cotto) had hell on his hands. They both fought very valiantly but you could see Margarito dominated that fight. It was a good fight that demonstrated what Cotto was made of, to go out there and fight. But more or less, Cotto quit on that fight. He took two knees and went back to his corner, and told them that it was over. So that’s the only thing that hurt me, because Puerto Ricans don’t quit. But he did.”

Boxinginsider: Do you think Roy Jones has a chance with Calzaghe to redeem himself and win?

Don King: “Jones is a remarkable athlete. He’s a remarkable athlete. He’s capable of doing anything. Because when I took him I rejuvenated him from the dead when I put him in with Tito. Everybody was on me and believe me, really vehemently and overwhelmingly, saying that I’m a mercenary. I’m doing this, taking Jones because he got knocked out consecutively. And at his age they were thinking he was through. But I didn’t go for that. I gave Jones the opportunity and he rose to the occasion. So this is the things that you have to do. You take the risk, you get the reward. So I tried everything I can. But Jones is a remarkable athlete. And he is a guy that on any given night can beat anybody.”

Scoop: mrbiofile@aol.com