Back in his heyday though, King used to put on some of the best cards in history. Who can ever forget the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire when Muhammad Ali shocked the world by knocking out George Foreman and the “Thrilla in Manila” when Ali and Smokin’ Joe Frazier went toe to toe for 15 rounds in one of boxing’s all-time greatest fights?
But these days it’s boxers such as Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Amir Khan who are making the big money and King doesn’t promote any of them. This could be why the senior citizen is now considering getting into the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) and wants to start promoting fights in that sport to compete against the UFC.
King sees the dollar signs spinning in his head when thinking about MMA and is impressed with the way that UFC president Dana White runs his organization. He says he’d like to get in on the action now and that’s the reason he wants to start up his own MMA promotion company. King, who’s always had a way with words and goes by his own dictionary, said he likes MMA because it’s “sophisticated barbarism.” But he said it’ll never be more popular than boxing.
He said he doesn’t have a name for his future MMA promotional company, but he’s definitely looking forward to being involved in the sport. He adds that boxing is committing suicide by not giving the public the fights that it really wants to see such as Pacquiao vs Mayweather. He places a lot of the blame for the downfall of boxing on big shot cable television executives and said they have too much power these days.
King said their experience lies in broadcasting not in sports promotion and they don’t know the first thing about boxing. He said all of a sudden they’re trying to become managers, matchmakers and promoters, but they don’t know a left hook from a right jab. He said the TV networks don’t usually put the best boxers against each other and when they do the public has to pay for it.
Surprisingly, King gave credit to his nemesis Bob Arum, and said he and Arum are the only ones who give the public what they want. Of course, that’s a pretty debatable statement when you consider his top boxers these days are Cornelius Bundrage, Ricardo Mayorga, and Tavoris Cloud, no disrespect to those fighters intended. In addition, King’s biggest event this year has been the Mike Marrone vs Guillermo Jones card which aired on something known as WealthTV.
It’s highly unlikely that King or anybody else is going to be able to challenge the UFC in the near future. That organization basically has a stranglehold on MMA cards and has signed its best fighters even though their paychecks don’t come anywhere near those earned by world-class boxers.
