Don King Understands, Speaks Floyd Mayweather's Language -- FanHouse

By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse

Legendary promoter Don King spoke to FanHouse just hours before playing host to Saturday night's HBO-televised main event between WBC and IBF junior welterweight (140 pounds) champion Devon Alexander and former WBA king Andriy Kotelnik at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

The subject: King's wooing of five-time titlist Floyd Mayweather with the goal of matching him against seven-division king Manny Pacquiao, perhaps in the spring. In order to do so, King invited the unbeaten fighter to his Florida home last week, and has also brought in Mayweather to be a ringside guest for Alexander-Kotelnik.

In this Q&A, the 78-year-old King shed light on why he believes himself to be better suited toward working out a deal with longtime rival and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter than Mayweather's present handlers, Golden Boy Promotions and adviser, Al Haymon, who have twice failed to bring Mayweather-Pacquiao to fruition.

Warning: the interview below is transcribed verbatim, and includes some profane language.

FanHouse: So I understand that Floyd Mayweather is in St. Louis to be your guest at ringside for tonight's fight?

Don King: Yes he is. I just got off of the telephone with him two seconds ago. He's going to call me right back again. If he wants me, he knows that I'm there for him. Everything is everything. He can't lose if he comes to see me, because the price goes up from where he's at. If he comes with me, the price soars, because, with him, he and I can generate more capital than anyone alive.

Can you shed light on the notion that some time in the spring of 2009 that you and Floyd almost hooked up a few months before his comeback victory over Juan Manuel Marquez?

Yes, so this time, it's going to be like a family reunion. The last time that he was here I had $45 million on the table for him. That was the last time when he came to see me at my house. I made arrangements with him and his aide, Tommy Smalls. They brought him to me, and he stayed at my house.

And he said, "Help me out, man." So I went to work. He wanted $15 million, and then I found a way to supplement him with another $30 million. So we had made a deal, man. We had a handshake deal and I had already told Bob Arum that before their guys had nixed it, that we would be getting the sh** on [with Pacquiao].

This was before he fought Juan Manuel Marquez. He would have signed with me and I would have had him. He could have fought anybody he wanted to fight because Floyd Mayweather is the best in the world, man. So Manny Pacquiao would certainly be a part of the pie and would definitely be in there.

And then, the last day, after the deal was done, he stayed with something that they [his previous promoters] had him going on. And Floyd lost the opportunity of a lifetime. But I just smiled, because you know what. If Floyd wants me, then he's got me. And if he don't want me, then I still love him because it's more than about me and him and some prize fight.

Floyd is a generous guy, and a lovable guy. They don't understand that. They make him look like a piece of s**t, but he ain't no piece of s**t. So this weekend, wherever I'll be, he'll be there also.

So how much have you and Floyd spoken about a potential matchup with Manny Pacquiao?

You know what? I'm not interested in just the Manny Pacquiao fight. I'm interested in Floyd Mayweather. What I try to do is to get him. And when I get him, everything else is included. That's why they made the mistakes. They're all into the greed. I'm not in for the greed business, I'm in for the need business.

When you get the man, then you've got everything. And I've got the man with the plan. Me and Bob Arum can pull this Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao s**t off in two seconds, you know what I'm saying. I'm talking in two shakes of a lamb's tail. It would be fitting and proper for Bob and I to work on this because we're used to what it means.

Rather than think about what it seems to be. You've got to be able deal with what is real. You've got to be able to deal with the hypocrisy in a manner that you understand. If you don't understand, then you're apprehensive. They [Mayweather's promoters] don't speak ghetto-ese like Floyd Mayweather does, do you understand? I mean, that's like hieroglyphics to them. So they may talk to the man like they're talking down to the man. Talking around the man. Or looking at the man in a condescending manner, you know what I mean? They look at him like he's an indentured servant when in actuality he's the hottest thing on the planet.

That's what it is. It's a disrespect of cultures. You must be able to respect people's cultures and to be able to know what they're thinking and feeling. You've got to be able to stand in their shoes. You've got to be able to look out of their eyeballs. Other than that, if you try to convince a man against his will, then he'll be of the same opinion still.

So you're saying that you speak Floyd's language more than Golden Boy Promotions and his adviser, Al Haymon?

I happen to speak ghetto-ese because I'm one of them. Because you know what? We understand. Many people can't speak hieroglyphics, because that's what ghetto-ese is to them. They can't speak it. If you can't communicate, relate and identify, how are you going to make a deal?

You going to bombard him over the head saying you're going to make him $40 million? For that kind of money, most motherf**kers would turn a trick. But it didn't work with Floyd Mayweather. So people were like, "Floyd's got to be a goddamn fool," and, "Floyd's got to be insane."

But your manhood is worth more than $40 million. I don't talk trash, I talk cash. I understand that because I've been without. If I've learned one thing, then that's that the power of your human nature and your pride and your self-worth is worth more than money. Money is a supporter of power, and power is a creator of money.

I mean, his promoters didn't understand. They already had Bob Arum on one side with Manny Pacquiao, and they say that they're with him, but at the same time, they don't defend him. Look how he's getting beaten up in the press. Look how he's being castigated and vilified. Nobody knows how to defend him.

Everybody's looking at him with a jaundiced eye. They're saying he's a coward, and he's a this and he's a that. They're finding all kinds of ways to make him out to be like he's the most selfish individual who has ever existed on the planet Earth when in actuality he's got a blessing from God that he has the skill and the talent that he can rise above the fray with the creme de la creme.

Floyd Mayweather has the ability to self-promote to the point where they would offer him $40 million. But if he was with me, it would be $100 million. That's the difference. In addition, he would keep his dignity and his pride intact. They treat him like he's a cow or a horse, and like he's property. But you've got to get that s**t out the way.

Are you confident that you can sign Floyd Mayweather this time?

No. That's going to be his prerogative and his decision. But I'm confident of this: I'm confident that I'm available for him. All of them are pursuing what they can do with a Manny Pacquiao fight. I'm pursuing what I can do with a young African-American who has the skill and abilities to be able to help others.

My job is to help other people and not just be able to help him. I can help him to help himself, and then, he has the ability of spreading community unity by being able to say, 'Yes I can,' when everyone else says, 'No you can't.' My objective is all together different.

He has to ask me, I can not ask him. Then I'll become a mercenary and reduce myself to the same standard. I'm not the same standard. So if he came with me, then we could fight anybody in the world without fighting Manny Pacquiao and I would still make him a lot of money.

Whoever makes Mayweather-Pacquiao, it's going to be worth x amount of money. But when I make it, it's going to be triple that x amount. And remember this: Floyd called me, I didn't call him. I did not seek him out the last time, and I did not seek him out this time.

Remember that he came to me. Now, if he can do himself and the world a favor, then I would be the most honored and appreciative guy in the world to have another brother that I can promote as a free man. Nothing would please me more.

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com

Does Don King hold key to Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather? -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

ST. LOUIS -- When Floyd Mayweather was preparing to end his brief retirement last year and asked adviser Al Haymon to field offers for fights, Mayweather did a little fielding of his own.

He spent several days in South Florida hanging at promoter Don King's mansion.

King was not shy about his interest in signing Mayweather, but even though they barbecued and relaxed, nothing came of it.

Mayweather returned to Haymon and Golden Boy Promotions, which eventually put on his comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez last fall, followed by his win against Shane Mosley in May.

Now the High-Haired One's courtship /pursuit/seduction of Mayweather is in high gear again. They spent several days together again last week in South Florida, feasting on lobster and making no secret about their dance.

King still hopes to sign Mayweather and believes if he does, fight fans will get what they want -- the mother of all fights between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

King expects Mayweather ringside as his guest Saturday night at the Scottrade Center to watch junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander -- the fighter with the most Mayweather-like potential in the sport -- defend against former titlist Andreas Kotelnik. If Mayweather shows up, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg told me the network will endeavor to interview him during the telecast.

While King, who turns 79 this month, has been all over St. Louis promoting his rear end off, Mayweather has also been on his mind.

With so much swirling about their positional pairing, I sat down with King at our hotel Friday to talk about it.

At one point, King's phone rang. He said it was Mayweather, spoke to him for a couple of minutes and told me he said he was in town and would be at the fight. Then King turned his attention back to our discussion.

"I love Floyd. Floyd's my man," said King, who was holding his cadre of flags and smiling ear to ear. "He'll get the soup to nuts treatment [if he signs]. He was down there with me for a week in Florida. He's buyin' him a nice place down there. And so it's no downside with me with Floyd because the people that have him, they gonna give him more money to keep him away from me if he stays with them. If he comes with me, he'll have a whole new vista, a whole new arena that he can play on. I can get more money than anyone out there. They can't stop that."

King said he when he tried wooing him last year, Mayweather ultimately went back to Haymon and Golden Boy because they gave him more money.

"He profited from me. He got more money for the Marquez fight," King said. "He wouldn't have got what he had. He can use me. I don't mind being used because I understand Golden Boy, Al Haymon."

King's point of view is that Haymon and Golden Boy do not understand Mayweather or know how to treat him.

King said he'd make Mayweather "a people's champion and be able to create and generate more money than he's ever had before with dignity, pride and stature. Like it is now, he's being degraded, vilified, accusations, you know. Some of it goes for the hype, but when it gets to the substance of the man, the substance is not there. And they don't understand because they can't communicate with him because Floyd speaks Ghetto-ese and they don't understand because it's hieroglyphics.

"They look down on him and put him in disrepute and disregard, the people who's with him. And they don't defend him. He goes out and says, 'Money, money, money,' and that don't win it. That don't give you what you need as a human being."

King said his pursuit is not a hard one as he has done with so many fighters in the past. He said he hasn't presented him with a duffel bag of money -- one of King's favorite moves -- to get him to sign. He didn't jet off to be at Mayweather's side. No, King is playing it cooler than that.

"Never made him an offer. If he wants me, he come and get me. I'm there for him all the time, either way," King said. "It doesn't matter whether he comes or he don't come. I love him, I understand him because I'm one of him. I am one of the masses, not the classes. I'm from the hood too and I also speak Ghetto-ese. I can relate, communicate and identify. And that's something [Haymon and Golden Boy] don't do."

King insisted that if he and Mayweather were together, the Pacquiao fight would be made quickly. Sure, he said he and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum -- King's longtime adversary -- would argue and fight like crazy over deal points, but it would be made quickly because they are dealmakers.

"Me and Bob would get that fight done in two shakes of a lamb's tail," King said. "If I was there working with Bob Arum, this fight would have been history. It'd be ready now and we'd be talking about how we gonna promote. It wouldn't be nothing put a piece of cake. But even then it would be so much bigger that what it would be if he were to make with Golden Boy or Al. They cannot make the fight as big as Arum and I can make it. They are not in the class of a Bob Arum."

Indeed a co-promotion between the sport's most famous (some would say notorious) promoters would add another dimension to what is already the biggest potential fight in the sport. After years of promotional warfare, King and Arum, both in their late 70s, have mellowed toward each other. Fight they will for every dime, but they respect each other.

King once told me that he was glad to have Arum around as his competition because if he didn't have Arum, "I wouldn't know how good I really was."

King wants to see Pacquiao and Mayweather fight but said if or when they do, he wants to see it be the "biggest fight in the universe."

Naturally, that means co-promoting it with Arum, Mayweather's former promoter, who has openly said he's rooting for King to sign Mayweather so they can make the fight.

"This will be a good fight, and I think Bob Arum and I would make it the biggest fight in the universe," King said. "No matter who makes it, it will be the biggest fight in the world. Without me and without Bob [doing it together], it would be a good fight, Pacquiao and Mayweather, but it would not carry the same impetus."

King threw around the number $200 million as to what he thinks it could generate.

"You can generate that kind of revenue when you have the creative imagination that I have," he said.

So the King-Mayweather dalliance presumably will continue through this weekend, at least. I would never count King out.

"Floyd keeps telling me he's free," King said. "I keep hearing from Golden Boy and other people that he ain't free. So who knows? They may have done tricked him and he thinks he's free. They promise you everything and give you nothing and he finds himself in a quagmire. That's what happened to him last time.

"So now he's back saying he got it straightened out, and 'me and you gonna talk; me and you gonna do this and that.' I say, 'OK, OK.' I never ever disagree because he's the man. So whatever he says, that's what it is. But I would be delighted. It would be an honor and privilege for me to be with Mayweather.

"He has done a tremendous job of self-promotion. He's done a tremendous job of fighting and winning. I love Floyd."

Source: espn.go.com

Don King could hold key to Pacquiao-Mayweather fight -- Manila Bulletin

By NICK GIONGCO, Manila Bulletin

There is a new major player in the bold bid to put together what could be the richest fight of all time.

Don King, the out-of-this-world promoter sporting an electric-shock hairdo, told the Los Angeles Times a few days ago that he has what it takes to make the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight happen.

Of course, King said he will have to join hands with another power broker, his long-time nemesis Bob Arum, who promotes the Filipino star.

“Me and Arum can do this fight with Pacquiao in a flash,” King told Lance Pugmire of the Times.

Arum was obviously tickled pink by King’s remarks especially after the Top Rank chief had a very nasty experience with the Oscar De La Hoya-owned Golden Boy Promotions (GBP). GBP has been representing Mayweather the past couple of years.

“King’s the most persuasive guy I've ever met. With enough time, he’ll get this kid [Mayweather] to come over. Don’s no fool. He knows how to make a fight,” said Arum.

“If King were ever involved, it would give a real impetus to make this fight happen. All those little details that have stopped us before, King doesn’t give [a thing] about. All he cares about is the end result, making the most money possible,” said Arum, who had teamed up with King in the 1975 epic Thrilla in Manila.

Last week in Florida, King and Mayweather spent some time together and both discussed what lies ahead.

King denied they had already discussed a particular fight but hinted of a possible tieup in the event a Pacquiao fight is made sometime in 2011.

“I’m just happy to be seeing [Mayweather], he came out last week [to Florida] because he said he wanted to talk, and I'm hoping we'll get it together,” said King.

“He’ll say it to me on his own when he wants, ‘Everybody’s talking about this Pacquiao fight,’ and I’ll tell him, ‘Yes, we can do this, that and the other.’” He can bring it up himself. I’m just waiting, being very patient. The power of understanding people is important. I believe he can make the most money with me, because we’ll show his dignity and pride, and stop people from throwing stones at him.”

"If anybody can do it, it's Don King."I know my man Don,” added Arum.

Pacquiao and Mayweather were supposed to face each other on November 13 but a deal was not reached between the two parties, prompting Arum to tap Antonio Margarito of Mexico as Pacquiao’s next foe.

Source: mb.com.ph

King card fills Pacquiao-Mayweather void -- New York Post

By George Willis, New York Post

There was a time when Don King was mostly high hair and hot air. But after listening to the boxing promoters from Top Rank and Golden Boy fuss and feud over Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather in recent months, King has emerged as a breath of fresh air as he drums up support for tonight's world championship triple-header in St. Louis.

HBO will televise two of the title fights from the Scottrade Center. In the main event, Devon Alexander of St. Louis defends his IBF/WBC junior welterweight belts against Ukrainian Andriy Kotelnik. In the other televised bout, IBF light heavyweight champ Tavoris Cloud of Tallahassee, Fla., faces former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson of Miami. Also on the card, St. Louis native Cory Spinks defends his IBF junior middleweight title against Cornelius "K9" Bundrage.

King hasn't been involved in many high profile bouts recently, as Bob Arum's Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions have shared most of the superstar matchups. But King, who turns 79 this month, has been in rare form while promoting tonight's event, using his tried and true tactics of making everyone from the governor to the custodian feel involved.

Say what you want about King, but his fight cards almost always are loaded with competitive bouts giving boxing fans their money's worth, something that hasn't always been the case in the sport recently.

"We're going to create something provocatively beautiful, a wonderful boxing card from top to bottom," King said. "This is the Show-Me State, and in St. Louis you get the opportunity to do just that, to show it to the world. I'm a promoter of the people for the people and by the people, and my magic lies in my people ties."

It's typical King rhetoric, but welcomed after all the misinformation surrounding the inability to get Mayweather and Pacquiao to agree to a fight. King is doing the most with what he has. Alexander (20-0, 13 KOs) is one of the young stars of a loaded 140-pound division that may need to carry boxing until Mayweather and Pacquiao decide to get in the ring.

Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KOs), Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KOs) and Marcos Rene Maidana (28-1, 27 KOs) also hold titles in the division and there is talk of a tournament of sorts to decide the last man standing.

"I know if I take care of [Kotelnik] there will be bigger and bigger opportunities," Alexander said.

Kotelnik (31-3, 13 KOs) is no pushover. He is a former junior welterweight champion, who handed Maidana his only loss by split decision in February 2009. He also won a silver medal for Ukraine in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"He's a great fighter and everybody is going to be shocked and amazed by his will," King said of Kotelnik. "He's not coming in to be an accommodation. He's coming into win."

Mayweather spent some time with King a few weeks ago, fueling speculation whether Money May might start doing business with King.

*

Congrats to Brooklyn's Maureen Shea for capturing the NABF female featherweight title with a third round TKO over Liliana Martinez last week in Saratoga. ... Getting knocked out in his middleweight title fight against Dmitry Pirog last week might be the best thing to happen to Brooklyn's Danny Jacobs. Being matched with inferior opponents didn't help his development and gave everyone around him a false sense of his readiness for a title shot. A little humbling all around should help Jacobs in the long run. ... UFC 117 tonight is headlined by Anderson Silva defending his middleweight championship against Chael Sonnen from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.

george.willis@nypost.com

Source: nypost.com