BOXING : Thanks to America, King Is the Real Champ

He remains, nearly 20 years after walking out of an Ohio penitentiary, one of the most remarkable figures in American sports.

A few years ago, on an income-tax evasion charge, the federal government spent several million dollars trying to put Don King, the flamboyant boxing promoter, in prison. It couldn’t.

And last week, in a New York federal courtroom, Buster Douglas and John Johnson, seeking to break a promotional contract with King, couldn’t bring him to gaff, either. In a settlement agreement, King will be paid a reported $4.5 million not to promote the Douglas-Evander Holyfield fight in Las Vegas this fall.

Douglas, the heavyweight champion, stands to earn $24 million from Mirage Hotel President Steve Wynn for the bout.

King cackles all the way to his bank, praising the U.S. Constitution, the greatness of the American judicial system . . . and shrieking: “Only in America . . . “

This 58-year-old, 250-pound man with high blood pressure has reason to be a patriot. “I never married no boss’ daughter--there was never nobody for me but me,” he likes to say.

He was raised in grinding poverty on Cleveland’s east side in the Depression. His father died in a steel mill accident when King was 10.

As a teen-ager, the fast-talking King became a highly successful numbers runner. A 1966 manslaughter conviction stemmed from a confrontation with a rival who died after a street fight.

So, when he was released from prison in 1971 after serving four years, who would have given odds that, two decades later, Don King would be one of the wealthiest and most successful sports promoters of the 20th Century?

His big break came in 1972, when he talked Muhammad Ali into fighting three exhibition bouts one night for a Cleveland charity. Actually, others call it his big break. King has always insisted that his big break was being born in America.

For two decades, he has infuriated, confounded and been cussed by rival promoters, fighters and their managers, television and hotel executives and sportswriters, who have been knocking him since the mid-1970s, often with good reason.

Among King’s most-criticized practices:

--Tying up the careers of fighters with exclusive, long-term promotional contracts.

--Contractually requiring fighters to work out at his Ohio training camp, then charging them up to $1,000 a day to do so.

--Requiring fighters to hire his stepson, Carl King, as their manager.

When Tim Witherspoon and Bonecrusher Smith fought in 1986 in New York, Carl King was manager or co-manager of both fighters.

Outrageous? Of course. That’s Don King. Only in America, and only in boxing.

King takes advantage of the fact that his sport is hopelessly fractured by five governing bodies, whose officials are primarily focused on fat sanctioning fees and their frequent-flier accounts.

When Mike Tyson took on Douglas, a 42-1 shot, last February in Tokyo, King couldn’t lose, as Donald Trump pointed out during testimony last week.

Contractually, King was the promoter of both boxers. To secure a title bout, Douglas was required to sign a contract that made him a King fighter through 1992, heavyweight champion or not.

Even so, after Douglas knocked out Tyson, two rounds after Tyson had Douglas down for what King claimed to be a long count, King blew his cool.

He raved, ranted and fumed afterward, protesting the eighth-round “long count.” Douglas and his manager, Johnson, fumed, too. They thought that King not only yanked the spotlight off a guy who’d just pulled off one of the century’s great sports upsets, but breached his contract by failing to attend to Douglas’ “best interests.”

In court, however, it was apparent from day one they couldn’t prove that King sought to manipulate the result.

Two hours after the fight, in a Tokyo hotel room, Douglas lay quietly on his bed, smiling at the scene swirling around him. Men who were getting very drunk hugged each other, cried and laughed.

All but Douglas and Johnson. It seemed sad that at such a moment they were angry. The manager told reporters: “Don King may never promote another Buster Douglas fight again.”

As it turned out, in yet another courtroom, Johnson and Douglas were only the latest to learn that boxing’s heavyweight champion is not a fighter, but a big-bellied, frizzy-haired promoter.

Only in America.

Larry Holmes visited Ontario the other day and announced he will fight in an exhibition match for a promoter named Bob Rey at the Ontario Red Lion Inn on Aug. 30.

There are a couple of problems.

Holmes, 40, will need a California boxer’s license to appear, even in an exhibition match; and because he’s over 36, he will be required to appear at a California Athletic Commission meeting for special consideration.

Also, Rey doesn’t have a California promoter’s license.

Boxing Notes

Rafael Ruelas, half of Ten Goose Boxing’s Ruelas act, will fight Alejandro Armenta on July 31 at The Country Club in Reseda, then will take on Jobe Walters of Long Beach, N.Y., on Aug. 17 at Bally’s in Las Vegas. Older brother Gabriel Ruelas, who suffered a broken elbow against Jeff Franklin in his last bout, has been cleared for gym work beginning in three weeks and could fight as soon as September. . . . Gerry Coetzee, one-time World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion from South Africa, is vacationing in Orange County with his family. Coetzee, 34, has told friends he’s pondering a comeback. But his trainer, Jackie McCoy, says the fighter hasn’t mentioned it to him.

Jay Edson, event coordinator for Bob Arum’s boxing shows, tells this story about Aaron Pryor, before the 1983 Pryor-Alexis Arguello fight in Miami: “I checked Aaron into his hotel suite two weeks before the fight and watched the bellman haul up 72--and I counted ‘em--pieces of luggage. Aaron tipped him three dollars. I said: ‘Aaron!’ And he said: ‘Hey, nobody ever helped me on the way up.’ ”

Official figures show that of the two major Nevada boxing shows held on the same July 8 afternoon, the Las Vegas Hilton’s Jorge Paez-Troy Dorsey draw easily outgrossed the Mark Breland-Aaron Davis bout--won by Davis--at Harrah’s Reno. Paez-Dorsey did $152,240, Breland-Davis $21,204. In addition, even the July 5 ESPN outdoor show from a Gardnerville, Nev., cow pasture did more business than Breland-Davis--$22,754.

Coming up: Middleweights John Armijo vs. Roberto Rosiles, Irvine Marriott, July 30. . . . Jeff Harding vs. Dennis Andries, World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title, ABC-TV, Melbourne, July 28.