Boca Raton's Don King at 91 promoting ‘till the Lord brings me home'

DEERFIELD BEACH — You’ve come to the offices of Don King, not so much to hear about the card he’s promoting in Miami, but to answer the obvious question: Why is this man — really, any 91-year-old man — still promoting boxing? Doesn’t he have anything better to do? With “anything better” defined as, well, anything else?

In a 79-minute “news conference,” Don King, Boca Raton resident, answers that question. At least you think he has. He has answered on Don King terms, burying it in a haystack of words and phrases and paragraphs that dare you to unearth it. By the time he’s done answering that one question, 25 minutes, 2 seconds have elapsed. A total of 4,783 words have spilled into the atmosphere.

Don King just answered your question, even if you don’t have the slightest clue what your question was anymore.

In the process, his oral roadmap has hopscotched the world and taken a healthy bite out of the Time 100. Trump pops up several times, but the Invisible Man gets his props, as does Captain Marvel. There's Muhammad Ali and John Paul Jones. There’s a reference to the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Possibly the Gettysburg Address. Who knows?

He has brought up Nuremberg and Afghanistan, plus sorted out U.S. presidents for the next four terms. The room starts to crack up over a mention of someone with “a hot dog in his mouth,” but King’s own mouth never slows down long enough for the laughter to reach a crescendo.

Ali bloated like a butterfly, stung like a bee, but Don King at 91 is a piece of work you gotta see.

“I have eight, nine, 10 lives,” he says.

And in all of them, he swears, he promotes “for the people.” Got that? When Adrien Broner, a four-time world champion, fights Bill Hutchinson on June 9 at Casino Miami — what used to be the Miami Jai-Alai Fronton — it’s not to line King’s pocket, or Broner’s. It’s for you.

At least in that way, Don King at 91 is the same as Don King at 41 or Don King at 61. He promoted the infamous Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield in 1997, but don’t let that fool you, because King can chew your ear infinitely better than Tyson ever could.

Before that, of course, King ruled the fight game like no one before or since, cleverly signing world champions to his stable, then requiring their challengers to also sign with him. That way, he’d show up at the arena with the champion and leave the arena with the champion, no matter what.

King was the instigator behind the “Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Thrilla in Manila” — fights for the championship of the world that captured the imagination of the world.

Now, it’s “Scraps by the Craps.” Instead of Zaire, King takes his traveling circus to a casino whose primary business once was jai-alai, a building that too is years removed from its pack-‘em-in heyday. His main-eventers are Broner, 33, and Hutchinson, 34, who in the past 2 1/2 years have fought a total of two fights, both victories. Two weeks ago, Broner failed to show at a news conference in New York to hype the card. Tuesday, he promised King he won’t be a no-show on fight night, so there's that.

Don King truly is an ‘Only in America' phenomenon

King has long resided in Palm Beach County, a short ride to his offices next to I-95 on the Palm Beach-Broward line and for years was easily recognized by the largest American flag you’ve ever seen, a tribute to his “Only in America” catchphrase. Only in Don’s kingdom could there possibly be such an assault on the eyes:

Photos of King with Nelson Mandela and presidents of both parties. Title belts. Proclamations for his philanthropy (such as his longtime holiday turkey giveaways, easily forgotten given his checkered, distant history). Street signs informing you that you’re on Don King Lane, Don King Place and Don King Plaza. The ubiquitous Don King logo, featuring an outline of that shock of hair no less electric today than it was decades ago.

About the only thing missing is his coveted 8-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty that he once erected on his oceanfront property, triggering a brouhaha with neighbors. Along the way, Boca Raton became King’s home base. He’s comfortable enough there, he says, that he bought at least one of his neighbor’s homes and turned it into a guest house “for those who are heavy laden, those who are downtrodden, those who are denied.”

So if you’re feeling denied, he’s the man to see.

Amid his 25-minute filibuster, King even drops of mention of Lady Liberty 2.0. You’re tempted to ask whatever happened to it — sold on Craigslist? — but your brain begs you not to. Besides, this is about the time he’s making the point that Joe Biden made Kamala Harris his running mate/vice president out of self-preservation.

“That’s a double whammy to keep him safe because they don’t want no woman to be president, especially a Black woman,” he says as many in the room shift uncomfortably, hoping he doesn’t go any farther down a headline-making road of controversy. Thankfully, he doesn’t.

His latest card is for Ukraine?

The entire time he speaks, King holds six flags. The U.S. and state of Florida flags are easy choices for the occasion, but so is one displaying his face. There’s an Israeli flag to go with his glittering Star of David pendant dangling around his neck. There’s the flag of Ukraine. Why Ukraine? Because this fight card, he says, is for Ukraine. How it’s for Ukraine, and whether Ukrainians are rooting for Broner or Hutchinson, is unclear.

“The battle that we're fighting, dedicating this to June the ninth, to the victory for the Ukrainians,” he says. “Because if you don't, it's going to end up being a third World War. But it’d be on a nuclear circumstances, which means the whole world, that risk is at stake.”

In other words, you can’t afford to not buy a ticket for Broner-Hutchinson. It’s for “freedom, liberty, justice and equality,” King says. Look hard enough at the fine print on the back of the ticket and maybe you’ll find that.

“That’s what we’re fighting for,” he says. “And so when you go out there and see it, you can mesmerize yourself. Or when you look at the mirror, you can hypnotize yourself and you can see yourself being a gladiator and fighting for this great nation called America and for the world at large.”

So you’re fighting. Broner and Hutchinson are fighting. And Don King, 91, is definitely fighting.

As you exit his office, past the statues of three frogs playing musical instruments (don’t ask), one snippet of his wisdom registers in your head.

“You asked me why do I continue,” he had said along the way. “I’ll continue till the Lord brings me home because I have eight, nine, 10 lives.”

So there was the answer, all along. Don King is doing what Don King has always been driven to do: Promote. Hype. Sell.

Until he gets to his 11th life.

And maybe beyond that.

Sports reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com and followed on Twitter @gunnerhal.