Don King may be down, but he's not out. While he's no longer the biggest promoter in boxing he's still out there hustling. He is pictured above with Marco Antonio Barrera.
Don King might be 76 years-old and he might not be as active as a promoter as he once was, but he says two things are going to happen real soon.
The first will be Saturday night in Manchester, England where King finds himself with his fighter, Marco Antonio Barrera, who will meet the young British sensation Amir Khan at the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Speaking from England on Wednesday, King was in a positively giddy mood.
“I’m oh so happy to be here in the U.K.,” bellowed King. “And I’ll tell you now, Marco Antonio Barrera is looking exquisite and although Amir Khan is a terrific young fighter we’re going to take him out. Frank Warren called me a couple of months ago and asked me if Barrera would want this fight and we didn’t hesitate for a second. Yes, yes and yes is what we said! Now we’re here and the time is counting down!”
Although many are already writing Barrera’s fistic obituary, King says they’ll have to stop the presses and do a re-write if they think one of Mexico’s greatest ever fighters is going to lose.
“Marco is going to do it, you know what I mean?” said King. “Marco is going to rise to the occasion. He is a great fighter and the most important thing that I see is that he’s got that flame in his eye and that fire in his belly again. He has the intensity to be resurrected from the dead. Many people think, and Frank Warren is one of them, who think that Marco is old and too long in the tooth.”
Many think Marco Antonio Barrera has been backed into a corner, but he and King see things differently.
King claims that the age discrepancy between Barrera, who is 35, and Khan who is 22, will only make the fight more interesting and Barrera’s victory that much more impressive.
“It’s going to be a war,” promises King. “It’s going to be something that everybody in the world can wonder and say ‘Wow!’ It is going to be a great, great extravaganza and it’s a fight that the boxing fans of the world can’t afford not to buy! But victory will be ours. Viva Mexico! This is a sensational event and Marco Antonio Barrera will knockout Amir Khan.”
The second thing King said would and could happen (as long as a satisfactory deal can be worked out) is about the story that ran on Wednesday regarding a possible “Polish Fight of the Century” between Tomasz Adamek and another of King’s fighters - Andrew Golota.
“That would be a blockbuster of epic proportions,” said King. “But first we’ve got to get Andrew Golota healthy and healed and then we can talk. He is injured right now and Andrew won’t be ready to fight again for a while. You call me back in a couple of months and we’ll have more news for you on that. But that is a fight, between those two Polish superpowers, that would be like two planets colliding! I don’t know what would be left of my wonderful country of Poland after the dust settled. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
King is open to making a fight between two of Poland's favorite sons, Tomasz Adamek (left) and Andrew Golota.
The exact nature of Golota’s injury could not be confirmed as of this writing. But in a fight against Ray Austin in China back in November, Golota was knocked down and he landed awkwardly. As a result, he could not continue and the fight was stopped in the first round. At the time it was thought that Golota damaged his shoulder.
However, sources have told this writer that the shoulder is not the problem now, but that Golota has bone fragments in his right hand that are causing him a great deal of pain. The shoulder has responded well to treatment and physical therapy. Golota is scheduled to undergo surgery within the next few weeks and by the end of May he should be ready to get back into training if all goes well.
March 2009
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