LONGTIME MANAGER AND BROADCASTER CARL KING TO BE INDUCTED INTO FLORIDA BOXING HALL OF FAME THIS WEEKEND
“Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to be surrounded by so many greats in the sport of boxing, including promoters, fellow managers and broadcasters, matchmakers, and of course the boxers themselves,” said Carl King, who has managed nearly 50 world champions and served as an analyst on more than 200 broadcasts. “This is truly an unbelievable honor, and I am thrilled to be joining the other inductees that will be celebrated with their induction into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame this weekend.”
On Sunday, King will be presented by Florida Boxing Hall of Fame Vice President Bob Alexander at the Hilton St. Petersburg Lake Carillon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“Carl has had an illustrious career that has spanned decades in our great sport,” said Don King, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. “He has worked tirelessly over the years to create his own path and journey in boxing, and I couldn’t be prouder of him to receive this great honor.”
Carl King said he is interested in following in his father’s footsteps and hopes to become a boxing promoter in the near future.
He said he first fell in love with the sport at the age of 8. “My dad bought me a pair of boxing gloves to play with,” Carl said. “When I was in the seventh grade, before my dad had ever promoted a boxing match, I wrote a paper called History of Boxing in the Heavyweight Division. I received an ‘A’ on that paper.”
Don King didn’t promote his first bout until Carl was 15 years old, but Carl met Muhammad Ali and other boxers many years earlier because they liked to go to his father’s nightclub in Cleveland and sometimes visited his home.
“Ali was like a God to me,” Carl said. “He still is, and always will be, very special to me.”
King was born in Cleveland and attended Grand Valley High School in nearby Orwell, Ohio, where he played basketball, baseball and football. King turned down numerous college basketball scholarships in 1975 to focus on his educational and fledgling business interests. He enrolled in Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he dual-majored in business management and marketing and minored in telecommunications.
While still only a freshman, King formed Monarch Boxing and became the youngest boxing manager in history by signing Michael “Dynamite” Dokes. King guided Dokes from his first professional bout through his reign as a world heavyweight champion.
On Dec. 20, 1982, Carl was awarded a Key to the City of Cleveland and, a few days later on Dec. 27, he was given a Key to the City in neighboring Orwell, Ohio. He was named Manager of the Year by the World Boxing Association in 1995 and 1996 and was given the same award by the International Boxing Federation in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Carl has managed nearly 50 world champions, more than any other boxing manager in history, “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Tony Tucker, Frankie “The Surgeon” Randall, James “Bonecrusher” Smith, Trevor Berbick, Frans Botha, Julian “The Hawk” Jackson, Azumah Nelson and Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga.
Carl currently is the Senior Color Commentator on all Don King Productions, Inc. broadcasts including the June 7 “Fists of Fury” event featuring Adrien Broner vs. Blair Cobbs.
Carl has been married to his wife Chelle since 1983. They have a son, Jon Carl, and a daughter, Carly (Brandon Ellis), as well as two grandsons Harlen and Emory Ellis.
