Don King
Spit Bucket
And Still…Champion! Don King Productions
Among all promoters DKP edges Top Rank with most world championship fighters
Don King the boss of Deerfield, Florida based Don King Productions has beat his old time nemeses one more time in the recent category of promoter with the most championship fighters.
Arum, who said this week that he is not the least bit surprised at the success DKP has enjoyed with nine champions compared to Top Rank’s eight championship fighters and praised his former nemesis, calling King a friend.
Don King Productions leads all promoters with championship fighters besting Golden Boy Promotions of Los Angeles, Gary Shaw Productions of New Jersey, Main Events of New Jersey, DiBella Entertainment of New York and Goossen Tutor of Sherman Oaks, California that only have eight world champions combined.
All information based on data from world champions ratings organizations and each promotional company own website.
“We know what we are doing and he [Don King] knows what he’s doing and he understands the business,” Arum said of King.
Many promoters boast and brag about being the top boxing promoter in America and some have more favorable relationships with networks HBO and Showtime that allow for them leverage to sign prospective fighters and produce more shows.
However, when you examine the hard-core facts and add up the stable with the most championship fighters with recognizable belts, it is clearly a NO CONTEST and Don King Productions stands alone.
Here are the hard-core facts:
Shall we start with Golden Boy Promotions, which according to the boxing organization rankings has two world champions in Shane Mosley (WBA welterweight champ), Juan Manual Marquez (WBO lightweight champ) and WBA featherweight champ Chris John?
GBP also claims mythical pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao as one of its fighters, but Arum contends that the company only shares a percentage of Philippine star and his promotional rights solely belong to Top Rank.
However, as great as an attraction as Pacquaio is, he does not own a world championship belt and is ranked as the top contender to newly crowd DKP fighter Devon Alexander for the WBC 140-pound title.
Without Pacquaio holding a title, Top Rank eight championship fighters include, WBC Super Middleweight champ Kelly Pavilik and WBO Welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, WBC Lightweight champ Edwin Valero, WBC super featherweight king Humberto Soto, WBO junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez, and three fourths of the entire junior flyweight class with Giovanni Segura (WBA), Brian Vilora (IBF), and Ivan Calderon (WBO).
Moving on. Gary Shaw Promotions (GSP) has a fine stable of fighters, but only three champions in unified (WBC, WBA, IBF) junior bantamweight titlist Vic Darchinyan, WBO junior welterweight champ Timothy Bradley, and IBO undefeated light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson
Lest we not forget about Dibella Entertainment, Goossen Tutor and Main Events, all prominent promoters, but when it comes to champions nowhere close to DKP or Top Rank. Dibella and Main Events have one champion and Goosen Tutor zero.
Dibella has undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, Main Events IBF cruiserweight champ Tomasz Adamek, and although Goossen Tutor has talented Paul Williams he relinquished his IBF welterweight strap to move up to middleweight.
Don King Productions nine champions include:
Twenty-two year old Devon Alexander won the prestigious WBC junior welterweight crown recently; he joins DKP champions Guillermo Jones (WBA cruiserweight), Corey Spinks (IBF Jr. Middleweight), Daniel Santos (WBA Jr. middleweight), Paulus Moses (WBA lightweight), Elio Rojas (WBC featherweight), Joseph Agbeko (IBF bantamweight), WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev and Juan Palacios (WBC strawweight).
If you would listen to many promoters, especially Golden Boy, you often hear them say that titles don’t mean much; well it’s because you don’t have any and thus you thrust your Ring Magazine belt into the belt equation, a company at Golden Boy owns.
Sure you can also make an argument that fight fans wants want to see the best fighters, but the best fighters are the one’s who are crowned champions- not manufactured one’s.
For more than four decades, Don King and Don King Productions has been the leading boxing promoter in the world.
His record of having promoted more than more than 500 championship fights and making millionaires out of more fighters than any other promoter, has kept the legendary ‘Only In America’ man launched into his own stratosphere.
In an era where many prominent businesses are closing their doors and in an economy that has been painted with gloom, DKP has not only remained a viable player in the sport of boxing, but has remained on top of it.
Every promoter has prospects and potential stars, but championship belts are the one clear-cut barometer that measures the best.
In that regard, DKP with its legion of champions is at the head of the class, distancing itself with championship belts and not smoke and mirrors.
