KING OF THE JUNGLE!

Don King will be crowned the world's greatest promoter in boxing's Hall of Fame today - when his critics were convinced he'd be behind bars.

They said King was going down. That he would never beat a US federal rap...accusing him of defrauding Lloyds of London over insurance claims on fighters' injuries when shows were postponed.

Those same snipers crowed that Mike Tyson would walk right past him when he came out of prison.

That all his fiddling of fighters - which he strongly denies - would catch up with him and help turn the key of the prison cell.

That is how the scriptwriters prepared to close the book on King, the ex-convict, numbers racketeer and convicted killer.

Yet the reality has proved to be very different.

Within two years the remarkable King has made convicted rapist Tyson the biggest earner in sporting history, more than doubling a 100million- dollar fight contract he had waiting to be signed as Iron Mike took his first steps to freedom.

King now directs his empire from the Florida sunshine of Fort Lauderdale, in a glitzy new office that was opened early this year and has a sign that requires sunglasses for the passer-by to squint at.

Now, with the Hall of Fame ceremony in upstate New York imminent, he talks for the first time about how he has resurrected Tyson, defends himself against the charges that he has screwed great fighters like Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, and slaughters Lennox Lewis for being frightened to deal with him.

King says of Tyson: "Here was a man convicted, rightly or wrongly, of one of the most abhorrent crimes in the book. We brought him out of prison in a limousine with a 100million-dollar TV and hotel site deal for his fights.

"Team Tyson, including John Horne and Rory Holloway, had kept his name alive all the time he was in jail for three years. Now Mike Tyson has become the best-paid athlete in the history of sport and it's been done by me - Don King."

Even though Tyson has ended up a world title loser to Evander Holyfield, he has earned 120million dollars in the ring since coming out of jail, making America's previously unchallenged richest sportsman Michael Jordan look like a pauper.

King boasts: "Mike got paid solely for work in the ring. Three- quarters of Michael Jordan's money last year came from product endorsements.

"I negotiate better deals for Tyson than any sports agents do for their clients. They wouldn't ask for the kind of money I get for Tyson, they think I'm crazy to expect to get it."

Tyson got a cool 25million dollars to demolish Pete McNeeley on his comeback before his staggering 1996 pay packet of 75million for less than 50 minutes work when he wiped out Buster Mathis, Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon.

That was before he pocketed another 30million for the Evander Holyfield fight that he lost - yet King insists he will get parity with the WBA world champion when they clash again on June 28.

"Even with the Holyfield defeat, Mike is still the highest paid sportsman ever. He got 30million for the first Holyfield fight - and he'll get exactly what Holyfield gets in the rematch, even though he's not champion. I'll make sure of that. I hold the purse- strings."

True to his word, King has engineered a 26million-dollar deal for Tyson - the same fee as his opponent, even though Holyfield won so convincingly first time.

Put simply, there's no show without King's punch.

To emphasise that he still holds Tyson's strings tighter than ever, King has brought Mike in from the cold. "I brought him down here to Florida to train prior to setting up camp in Vegas because it was too icy up in Ohio. Getting him into a gym down here was a priority."

He added: "My enemies said that Mike would leave me, they say Don King is with the Mob or even if he ain't, no one should associate with me. They say King is a slippery guy, he's this and that.

"But they can't repudiate the statistics, that I've put on more than 300 world title fights, closer to 400, and my entry into the Hall of Fame is going to be one big party.

"I am inviting every one of the world champions I have promoted to join me at the induction. I will fly them in from anywhere in the world - I don't care about the cost because I owe each of those guys a tribute for putting me where I am."

This just makes his detractors squeal all the louder, claiming that if King gets honoured they should rename the famous boxing memorabilia HQ the Hall of Shame!

King is not worried by the prospect of a retrial in the Lloyds of London fraud case and says: "Every time they put me on trial, I win. But I'm always on trial, it never stops. Don King, black, ex-numbers runner, ex-convict, ex-street hustler from the ghettos in Cleveland, I've come through it all.

"They've tried to throw scandals at me and I've overcome them all. I made Tyson the star of boxing, the shining knight who revived the fight game.

"Yet my enemies keep up the propaganda, the untruths, the big lie. They try to besmirch me with character assassination, try to set my fighters against me - but God has blessed me to overcome that.

"But it has all left scars. Presidents haven't survived what I've had to face. Sometimes I feel more persecuted than prosecuted.

"But I don't cry about it. I'm a winner not a whiner. You won't find me drowning in my own tears.

"And I don't throw my guys away on the scrap-heap. Oliver McCall, a chemical abuser, a sick man. I made him well, got him treatment, supported his family and kept him going after he lost to Bruno, got him the return with Lennox Lewis.

"I've even got Tony Tucker coming back," - the heavyweight who looked all washed up after losing to Lennox Lewis in a WBC title fight and is now to face Herbie Hide for the WBO title in Norwich on the same night that Tyson meets Holyfield.

King defends himself against the charges that he ripped off Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali. "Holmes made more than 50million dollars before there was the big money around like today.

"He was like a son to me. It was his fault he didn't take Rocky Marciano's 49 and 0 record as a heavyweight champ. I was going to have his 50th fight in the 50th state of Hawaii - but he picked Michael Spinks for his 49th and lost.

"He overruled me when I wanted him to have an easy defence against Alfonso Ratliff. I had picked all the previous 48 opponents, then Larry had to choose one himself.

"I taught him everything and I love him even if he is bitter these days. How come he kept coming back to me if he hated me so much?

"And Ali - I called him recently. He was with me down in Ecuador last year on a trip and he will be with me when I enter the Hall of Fame. His manager Herbert Muhammad ruled his career with an iron hand.

"If I had done anything wrong to Muhammad Ali I wouldn't be here today."

King verbally demolishes Lennox Lewis. Disregarding Lewis's revenge in the farcical rematch with McCall, when the beaten American looked a sick and disoriented man, he snapped: "Lewis is the most mismanaged fighter ever. The people who handle him have limited mentality, they teach him to hate me rather than let me be of benefit to him.

"Pano Eliades is a liquidator in business - well, he certainly liquidated Lewis's career compared to the money Tyson has earned.

"Lewis should be kissing me all over for giving him nine million dollars when he fought Tony Tucker and another four million step aside money (for missing Tyson) - but I don't think Lewis will ever see the light.

"They got his brother Denis mesmerised and hoodwinked, and he gets used to turn Lennox against me.

"He's suffering in a snake-pit - he's not too bright and he's brainwashed against me."

Win, lose or draw with the Holyfield-Tyson return, King is still top of the pile - as today's ceremony will underline. And he looks like staying there for some time yet.

Copyright 1997 MGN LTD
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