Don King

                                    Frankie and Tony Baltazar                                                                  

                                                         

  By kiki

One cold February day in 1982, I received a phone call from Don King's New York office. The voice on the other end of the line was one of King's office secretaries. The voice told me that Don King would like Frankie, Tony, and I, to fly to New York for a meeting. She said King was interested in signing the boys to, as the voice put it, "a Don King contract." I told the voice that I would be interested in hearing his offer.

Arrangements were made for us to fly out of LAX. I don't remember what time we flew out, but we arrived at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport in the wee hours of the morning in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms the city had seen in decades. The storm was so severe that all transportation to Manhattan was suspended. As we were sitting in the airport terminal waiting for the taxis/buses to resume running, an old black guy that looked to be close to ninety years old walked in, said he had a bus and that for 5 dollars a head, he would bus us into Manhattan, said he would drop all of us at the exact location, none of this "take me here, take me there kind of stuff "he told us in a mumbling voice as he sipped on some coffee, or at least what we thought was coffee. We took him up on it. The bus looked like the ones in Tijuana, minus the goats and chickens on the roof. We got into Manhattan while it was still dark. The city was at a standstill because of the storm. I'm not sure where the old man dropped us off, but it wasn't close to where we needed to go. We had rooms waiting for us at a hotel on 8th Avenue off 42nd Street. We were some blocks or maybe a few miles from there, unsure which one it was.

Let me say that we were not the only ones that King invited to meet with him. Others from  LA also made the trip. Three flew with us on the same plane; I can't remember who they were; one might have been boxing manager/trainer, Jerry Moore. We found ourselves standing in a Manhattan street with the others from LA, or was it an avenue? Who knows? All I knew was that we were freezing our priceless appendages. As we were freezing there, we noticed a taxicab coming our way. We all ran out on the Street to flag him down; he stopped and told us that he was off duty and was on his way home. We told him that if he gave us a ride to 8th Avenue and 42nd Street, we would make it worth his while; he said okay, but that it was going to cost us, we asked how much, and he said seven dollars, we looked at him and then at each other, then he said "for all of you" Damn! We were all willing to give him at least twenty bucks each to escape the cold!

Don King held a big press conference in a big fancy hotel to introduce many fighters to the press. Some entertainment figures attended the press conference, like actress/singer Eartha Kitt, actor/dancer Gregory Hines, singer James Brown, and political activist Al Sharpton. It was a fantastic event. In another story, I wrote how Jimmy Montoya won eight hundred dollars with my money; he needed to buy a new suit for the press conference.

                                            THE CONTRACTS

After the press conference, some of us were driven to King's office off Park Avenue. When I was called into a small but elaborate office, King and his sidekick, Duke Durden, were seated there. King was in a big chair behind a very expensive-looking desk, and Duke was sitting off to the side of King. After exchanging pleasantries, I was shown a copy of the contract they could offer us. The contract I was offered was three fights per year for three years. Sounds good, but here's the kicker: All nine fights had the money set upfront, no matter who the boys would fight, title fights or not. Also, they would get to name the opponents. That meant that I couldn't negotiate anything, money or opponents. The boys wouldn't have needed a manager with that kind of deal. I told Duke Duden, who was doing all the talking while Don chewed on a cigar, that that deal; was not suitable for us. That bought Don into the talks. He offered me a second deal. He said that I could bring his son Carl in as a co-manager. I would have been out as co-manager in less than six months after taking that deal. I stood up, shook their hands, and told them, "thanks, but no thanks" I thanked Don for his hospitality and walked out.

That night, our last night in the Big Apple, Tony and Frankie partied into the wee hours with Tex Cobb. The boys later told me that Cobb was charging all food and drinks to Don King…We came home and never again heard from King.

                          Tony Baltazar, Eartha Kitt, and Frankie Baltazar