FanHouse Don King

Among the motivations for Joseph Agbeko entering Saturday night's defense of his IBF, 118-pound title against Yonnhy Perez is his desire to achieve the greatness of two of his African predecessors.

Like Agbeko, a 29-year-old bantamweight titlist, Ghaninan legends such as three-time champion Azumah Nelson and former belt-holder Ike Quartey, hail from the city of Accra. Nelson excelled as a featherweight (126) and super featherweight (130), and Quartey, as a welterweight (147).

Nelson and Quartey have made appearances at Agbeko's training sessions, encouraging him during his quest to be considered among the sport's best fighters, pound-for-pound.

Timothy Bradley took a controversial technical knockout victory over Nate Campbell in Saturday night's WBO light welterweight title fight in Rancho Mirage, Calif., winning when the referee appeared to misinterpret the cause of a cut over Campbell's left eye.

The deep gash was causing blood to get into Campbell's eye, and as a result, the ringside doctor made the correct decision to stop the fight. But referee David Mendoza made the surprising ruling that a Bradley punch caused Campbell's cut, even though TV replays seemed to show that it was actually an accidental head butt that opened the wound. That would mean the fight should have been ruled a no contest.

The American Legion post in Chino, California, has agreed to pay two $20,000 settlements in lawsuits brought by Don King's KingVision Pay-Per-View over showing boxing matches at their hall.

According to Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuits, brought by both KingVision and J&J Sports Productions, alleged that the American Legion hall was breaking the broadcast rules by purchasing only a residential pay-per-view license, rather than a commercial license. The American Legion post says they just bought the pay-per-view that their satellite company told them to buy, and they say they don't see why they'd need a commercial license, because they never charged anybody to watch boxing.

My own thoughts when seeing George W. Bush dodge a thrown shoe in Iraq over the weekend were, first, Shouldn't the Secret Service have moved a little more quickly? And second, Is this what it looks like to be greeted as a liberator?

But Don King had a different thought: Bush should be a boxer. From TMZ:

"Bush has unbelievable reflexes ... he can stick and move like a boxer!"

King, who is currently in the middle of a huge charity event in Florida, even came up with a trademark rhyme -- calling the duck-and-move, "Aggression but with protection."

After the jump, watch King talking about his love for Bush.

The boxing promoter Don King, who has done time for manslaughter and been accused of defrauding his fighters, isn't the guy I would choose to voice concern about the moral decline of our society.

But the writer Thomas Hauser, who regularly writes about his opposition to mixed martial arts, uses King as his go-to guy for why boxing is good and MMA is bad. Hauser quotes King at ESPN.com:

"UFC ain't nothing new," King said. "They started with 'ultimate' fighting, and then they civilized it and made it into boxing. All UFC is doing is taking 200 years of rules and throwing them out the window."

Personally, I can't take it seriously when I hear King giving lectures about being "civilized." But Hauser likes that quote so much that this is at least the second time he's used it; he also used it in this 2007 article.

King is free to say what he wants to say about the UFC, but is there anyone who doubts for a second that King would jump at the chance to promote an MMA fight if he thought he could make money on it? As for Hauser, as Zach Arnold writes, he's on a continuing crusade against MMA. If the best arguments he can make against the sport are recycled quotes from a guy like Don King, MMA must be in pretty good shape.

The boxing promoter Don King, who has done time for manslaughter and been accused of defrauding his fighters, isn't the guy I would choose to voice concern about the moral decline of our society.

But the writer Thomas Hauser, who regularly writes about his opposition to mixed martial arts, uses King as his go-to guy for why boxing is good and MMA is bad. Hauser quotes King at ESPN.com:

"UFC ain't nothing new," King said. "They started with 'ultimate' fighting, and then they civilized it and made it into boxing. All UFC is doing is taking 200 years of rules and throwing them out the window."

Personally, I can't take it seriously when I hear King giving lectures about being "civilized." But Hauser likes that quote so much that this is at least the second time he's used it; he also used it in this 2007 article.

King is free to say what he wants to say about the UFC, but is there anyone who doubts for a second that King would jump at the chance to promote an MMA fight if he thought he could make money on it? As for Hauser, as Zach Arnold writes, he's on a continuing crusade against MMA. If the best arguments he can make against the sport are recycled quotes from a guy like Don King, MMA must be in pretty good shape.

Last week, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney wrote a column about UFC President Dana White. The column appeared under the headline, UFC head White: 'The white Don King'.

White was not amused.

In a radio interview with Steve Cofield, White insisted that he's nothing at all like Don King, the boxing promoter who has served prison time for killing someone and frequently been accused of financial improprieties.

"This moron, not only did he not compare me and Don King, because he couldn't, but he didn't even interview me," White said of Graney. "This guy's probably never even seen a fight in his life."

When told that Graney writes opinion pieces, White said, "well, his opinion sucks."

Although Graney presumably didn't write the headline that appeared over his column (newspaper columnists rarely do), White is basically correct that it's dumb to compare him to King. Almost everyone who follows mixed martial arts would agree that White has been good for the sport, and almost everyone who follows boxing would agree that King has been bad for the sport. They're not much alike.

Yes, in the picture above, Trinidad is on the left. There was a time in my life when I would have been elated to read the headline of this post. That was about seven years ago when both boxers had around 40 wins, mostly by knockout, and the only blemish on either of their resumes was a 9th round disqualification of Jones Jr. to Montell Griffin in '97. Of course, Tito went on to lose to Bernard Hopkins, while Roy Jones Jr. couldn't figure out Antonio Tarver, losing to him twice, and Glen Johnson once, in the midst of an unprecedented streak of defeats. Trinidad meanwhile, got stomped by Winky Wright in May of '05, and called it quits after that. Until now.

Tito has signed a contract with promoter Don King to fight Roy Jones Jr. in January of '08. Jones Jr., who has recently made comeback efforts to the ring, will most likely agree to the fight. No venue has been set, nor has a TV deal been arranged, though King says he's going to shop the fight around. The two will fight at 170 pounds, which will require Tito to move up in weight, and Jones Jr. to move down. It appears as if a win by Trinidad could set up a future fight with Oscar De La Hoya.

So again, the question must be asked, are you excited for this fight? Is there any buzz to it? Well, it certainly carries name value. But that's about all this fight will hold. It's almost like Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy signing on to mud wrestle each other on pay-per-view. There was a time when you'd die to see the two sex symbols splash around in some grime. Now, you'd reluctantly hand the money over out of obligation rather than choice. So yes, I'll be watching, but no, I'm not excited. Side note, these guys must be really hard up for some cash.