On April 5 in Las Vegas, Hall of Famer Christy Martin will induct her longtime promoter Don King into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame at the IWBHF 2025 ceremony.
Flamboyant and often controversial, Don King has been an enduring figure in the world of boxing and entertainment since 1952. During his tenure as a boxing promoter, King created such legendary fights as “The Thrilla in Manila” and “The Rumble in The Jungle”. In 1993, he took a chance on managing Christy, and she battled her way to boxing stardom with King guiding her career. Her final fight with King was a victory against future wife Lisa Holewyne in November 2001.
King had an incredible impact on Christy’s career, and she lauds him for her success. “Thanks to DK, I’m a Hall of Famer, she said. “He gave me an opportunity no other promoter was willing to give me. I learned how to deal with the media from DK,” she continued, which included bringing her bold ring persona to life, boosting her confidence. “I felt like every time I went into the ring, he was sitting on my shoulder,” she said. “I couldn’t let him down after he took a huge chance on me.”
The huge chance King took on Christy propelled her and women’s boxing into the spotlight when the sport was barely noticed. After Christy’s iconic blood and guts fight with Deirdre Gogarty on King’s Mike Tyson undercard, women were motivated by that fight, and women’s boxing was on the grow.
King’s influence on Christy did not end with her ring career. She learned the secrets of his success throughout the years and began her own promotional ventures in 2016.
“DK stacked his cards with champions,” she said, “and put his fighters in competitive fights every time out. Now we have PPV fights with fighters no one knows.”
Armed with decades of King’s know-how, Christy has promoted cards that launch local stars, building them with competitive fights just as she observed King doing for years. Working alongside King as a manager versus promoter Christy revealed is a unique experience, many times pitting the feisty King against his equally strong-minded counterpart. “It makes me laugh sometimes now working with DK as a promoter,” she said. “I use the words he told me against him sometimes,” she admitted. “I have former NABA champion, Johnnie Langston with DK, and negotiations are tough, because I already know what he’s going to say.”
With all the experiences Christy shared with King in their years together, there was time for fond recollection. She recalled her favorite memory, which had King at his raucous best, touting his fighter to the crowd and daring people not to hear him or acknowledge Christy as anything less than the star of the show.
“After fighting Melinda Robinson the first time in Florida, he was telling everyone around him that I am his champion. It was the first time he saw how the crowd reacted to my fights. I did a little showboating and you can see him in the crowd loving it.”
Accolades, adjectives, and insults alike have been assigned to Don King for decades, but when asked for one word to sum up the enduring promoter, Christy’s response was quick. “Complicated.” Complicated is accurate, given that word is the opposite of simple. What Don King has achieved has been anything but simple, and the woman inducting him is an example that if it were simple, everyone could do it.
