Only In America: Don King Wants To Promote MMA

Can you imagine a post-fight press conference where Don King talks about side control and full mounts? About the time being propitious for a title fight between two courageous contenders? He can. From Kevin Iole and Yahoo!:

He still loves the action and he craves being in the middle of the big deal. He was one of the first boxing promoters to recognize the potential of mixed martial arts and in 2006 was talking about buying into the now-defunct World Fighting Alliance.

King hasn’t put MMA entirely out of his mind, though he heaped praise on the UFC and the way it has marketed and promoted fights. He said the UFC’s success isn’t a death knell for boxing but rather proves that people want to see good fights and get value for their money.

“Now there are people who want to say that the UFC is going to kill boxing. I would respectfully disagree. Dana White is a phenomenal promoter, a brilliant guy. He’s got you all pumped up that this guy hates that guy and you need all this security between them because they want to kill each other and he promotes it and he makes you desperate to want to see that.

Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta, they’re fabulous. They’re terrific promoters and they’ve laid out a road map for how you can succeed even in the toughest of times. And I love [MMA]. I’m going to promote it too.”

So there you have it. Don King may be bringing his hair, awesome vocabulary and garish get-ups to a cage near you. Only in America.