Legendary promoter Don King speaks with Local 10 on career that keeps on going

MIAMI – Like the building that bears his name off of Interstate 95 in Deerfield Beach, Don King’s presence in South Florida and around the world has loomed large for decades, but it didn’t all begin as some might have believed.

“You gotta understand, I started on the wrong track. I didn’t start in no boxing.. I was a numbers man,” King told Local 10 News.

It was in the early 1970s that King, 92, moved from being a bookmaker to making a name for himself as a boxing promotor— all part of his connection with another man whose name is synonymous with boxing.

Mohammed Ali brought me into the business, and he was my first fighter so i started at the top and never left,” King said. What happened with Mohammed Ali was he put the people before himself and he taught me boxing.”

King solidified his position as one of the sports’ preeminent promotors with the match-up he deemed “The Thrilla in Manilla,” which was the third and final fight between Ali and Joe Fraiser

Through the years, King’s success grew.

Along with boxing, in 1984, he was also the concert promotor for one of the biggest names in Motown music, The Jackson’s.

“Michael Jackson said to me that music is the ribbon that ties people together, you know ties people together, answers one to the other,” King said.

Local 10 Sports anchor Will Manso asked King, Did the boy born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931 ever envision a life like the one he’s had?

“No, no, no, a thousand times, no,” he responded.

King says he’s been humbled by personal and professional challenges but if boxing were a metaphor for his life, he would tell you he took his punches and got right back in the ring.

“I put myself in the hands of the lord, my lord and savior Jesus Christ, because if I would do anything ordinary, it would be extraordinary,” he said.