Will King read book of Judges?

It may be true that opposites attract, but Don King-meets-Pope Benedict XVI would seem to be more the invention of film director David Lynch than reality.

But the Big White Hat actually will meet the Really Scary Hair (Twin Peaks?) on Wednesday.

The rope-a-dope-with-the-pope was set up by boxer Luca Messi, who fought on a card promoted by King, and whose brother is a priest.

King, a onetime numbers racketeer who did a four-year stretch for manslaughter, said, “I am standing in the need of prayer. I’m going to ask the pontiff to pray for all of us.”

On being a Baptist and getting an audience with the pope, King responded, “The thing is, we’re all going before the man on high on Judgment Day.”

Someone needs to ask King: Is that “Judgment Day,” the Nigel Benn-Chris Eubank super-middleweight title fight in 1993? Or maybe “Judgment Day in Monterrey” in 1994, which featured six title fights?

As for what the flamboyant King will wear, he said, “I’ll see what the protocol is.”

Fashion tip: Leave those three diamond-encrusted crucifixes at home, Don.

Trivia time

What coach has lost the most NCAA tournament men’s division I championship games?

Pugilistic ponderings

One boxing card King has never laid a glove on is the annual Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Match, which celebrated its 100th anniversary two weeks ago. After the 5-4 Oxford victory, former featherweight champion Barry McGuigan wrote in his column for the Daily Mirror in London:

“As I sat at ringside watching the best brains in the country taking lumps out of each other I was struck not only by the commitment of the fighters, but the involvement of the audience. Boxing’s essence was revealed, illustrating its unique appeal. There is something about leather in the mouth that connects us to our primal past.”

Call it the “Rumble in the Blackboard Jungle,” or “The Thrilla for Those Who Study the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty Signed In Manila.”

Busted flat in Oxford ...

Among Oxford’s boxing alumni is a young Rhodes scholar who later found that freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose. Kris Kristofferson was a light-middleweight on the 1959 team.

Hmm, maybe Bobby McGee was really a police officer?

Cali vs. Indy

The UCLA-Indiana second-round NCAA tournament game conjures up some basketball history.

* John Wooden, born in Indiana, was the coach who led UCLA to 10 national titles, and a boon to anyone arguing with Billy Packer about West Coast basketball.

* Gene Hackman, born in Southern California, was the volatile coach who led Hickory High to the Indiana state championship in “Hoosiers” and inspired wannabe screenwriters with movie ideas about the triumph of the human spirit.

* Reggie Miller won the 1985 National Invitation Tournament title with UCLA (by beating Indiana) before migrating to Indiana to help the Pacers lose to the Lakers in the 2000 NBA Finals, and is the person who could answer this burning question: Is being the 65th-best team in the nation better than being the bearded lady in the three-ring circus that was Shaq, Kobe and Phil?

Trivia answer

Former North Carolina coach Dean Smith lost three finals, to UCLA in 1968, Marquette in 1977 and Indiana in 1981.

Footnote: If not for two brain-cramp moments, a turnover by Georgetown’s Fred Brown in 1982 and an illegal timeout by Michigan’s Chris Webber in 1993, Smith might be 0-5.

And finally

Jennifer Gordon, the pregnant Chicago Bears fan who traded ad space on her belly for two Super Bowl tickets, gave birth to a 7-pound 11-ounce boy this week.

“He’ll grow up going to Bears games and listening to his parents talk about the Bears and the whole experience of going to the Super Bowl,” Gordon said in the Chicago Sun-Times.

No one asked her which was more excruciating: the labor pains or watching quarterback Rex Grossman.

chris.foster@latimes.com