Don King

King’s Vegas relevance comes from the fights and fighters he brought to its arenas, rather than from a claim that he was a local native. His promotional roster included Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Julio César Chávez and Félix Trinidad. He entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.

The city’s archive documents both rivalry and cooperation with Bob Arum. Their companies worked together on the 1999 De La Hoya–Trinidad promotion, whose resort connections included Mandalay Bay. King’s heavyweight-era work also belongs beside MGM Grand’s Holyfield–Tyson history.

His profile is a starting point for examining the promoter’s power: control of access to major bouts, relationships with television and hotels, and the complicated relationship between a fighter’s fame and the business selling it. The linked feature follows those questions through contemporaneous reporting.