49 years after promoting his first boxing event, Don King is still playing his trade. It’s 2021 and the larger than life figure is still signing boxers, putting on cards and promoting world title fights as evidenced by his forthcoming January 29th show in Hollywood, Florida.
Mahmoud Charr and Trevor Bryan will both come out of self imposed mini retirements to contest for the WBA regular belt that Charr picked up against Ustinov in November 2017. Bryan isn’t much fresher, last fighting on August 2018 against former cruiserweight BJ Flores – a fight that was for a WBA interim belt and a testament to King’s ability to play the sanctioning bodies. The co-main event will have Beibut Shumenov defend his WBA (regular) cruiserweight title against the unheralded Raphael Murphy.
A staple in heavyweight boxing from the 70’s through the 90’s, King never really went away but has laid low for stretches since his wife’s passing in 2010. If you weren’t paying close attention you could have easily figured the 89 year old would be well into his retirement by now. He’s even up to his old tricks – pulling Christopher Lovejoy, one of his fighters off the Usyk-Chisora under card in the eleventh hour. Lovejoy would not fight for the remainder of 2020 and remarked that he’d have to wait his contract out before getting in the ring again. As fortune would have it, he’s got third billing in a 10 round match against Bermane Stiverne.
The Stiverne-Lovejoy match could prove some what interesting as Lovejoy will have to answer a lot of questions about his ability and Stiverne will have just as many questions about his fitness. Hopefully we get a thriller instead of a slow, plodding clinchfest… you’ve gotta love heavyweight boxing!
