Don King was in Saint Louis last weekend promoting the Devon Alexander fight, but a lot of the buzz was about who else was at ringside on Saturday night, one Floyd Mayweather Jr.
There have been rumors (mostly fueled by King) that Mayweather would be moving over from Golden Boy to Don King for his promotional services.
King claims if he can get Mayweather signed a Pacquiao fight would not be a problem. Here are some of the more colorful quotes from his interview with Dan Rafael from ESPN.com:
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 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 but 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.”
If anything King is a convincing speaker, but it is my opinion Mayweather is just using him to get more money from Golden Boy, something that even King is acknowledging as a distinct possibility.
I personally have given up on a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight, so just wake me if it ever does happen and if King is the person that gets it done he will be a hero to boxing fans everywhere, but don’t hold your breath.