8. Only in America
Don King's mugshot former felon becomes popular boxing promoter
Not anyone can own a professional football franchise. Not anyone can own a baseball franchise. However, anyone can promote a fight- even a convicted ****er and numbers operator from Cleveland. In 1974 Don King very shrewdly promoted his first professional fight. It turned out to be the famed Ali vs. Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire. This mega-event instantly transformed King into the major player in boxing for the next 30 years.
Unfortunately, the major player likes to play dirty; King’s many exploits are infamous. He has perpetrated fraud after fraud on any and all promising young fighters to join his stable. King has been implicated in: ******, bribery, theft, bookmaking, breaches of contract, and mafia-assisted racketeering. Larry Holmes once said, “Don King wears his hair like that so he can hide his horns.”