Don King’s past connection with Muhammad Ali opens doors in Cairo
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Version 0 of 1. Everywhere Don King has gone in Cairo this week he has caused a stir. When we pulled up at the Pyramids on Wednesday, locals peered in the window of our mini-bus and started shouting “It’s Muhammad Ali!” Maybe King would take that as a compliment, even if Ali, struggling with Parkinson’s disease since 1984, does not stir far from his easy-chair these days. Because, as large a presence as King has been and would love to be again, Ali was once the most famous athlete in the world. He was probably, for a time, the most famous person in the world – more famous, even, than The Beatles, whom John Lennon reckoned were more famous than Jesus Christ. At his height, Ali happily stood alongside King, and their grins and chutzpah lit up the 60s and 70s. They did not part on the best of terms near the end of his career, but they have been reconciled a good few years now, old bruises healed, bad memories forgotten. Those were crazy days – and a little of that madness returned to the Egyptian capital this week as King began what, to anyone else, would be an improbable quest: to bring a world heavyweight title fight to a country mired in financial distress, social unrest and parked next to the running sore that is modern Israel. If they did not know King when he walked down the street, there was little doubt they would not forget him. At the Pyramids, he chatted for ages with the young urchins trying to sell their tat, bargaining with them before settling on an agreed sum. He probably drove harder bargains with the casino bosses of Las Vegas, but even some of those lucrative deals cannot have made him smile as much. He was in his element, talking to young hustlers trying to survive. Life, meanwhile, carried on chaotically around us. On Tuesday night, even as he won an assurance from the tourism minister, Hisham Zazou, that his proposal would receive his wholehearted backing, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, was meeting with the president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to work on a ceasefire in Israel. Airlines had just stopped landing in Tel Aviv, after a bomb near the airport, and the air was thick with uncertainty and tension. There was more at stake here than a mere boxing match. King says he realises that. He says he wants to help Egypt restore its shredded tourism industry (when we went around the Pyramids, there were maybe a few dozen tourists for company; before the revolution, they attracted 20,000 visitors a day). No doubt he does. But he is still in the Don King industry – and there is business to be done. King has another champion now, the 35-year-old Haitian Bermane Stiverne, and he wants him to defend his World Boxing Council title against the fearsome Deontay Wilder in November “in the shadows of the Pyramids” (or maybe in the more atmospheric setting of Luxor), rounding out a promotional trilogy separated by 40 years: the Rumble in the Jungle, the 1975 Thrilla in Manila and, if he pulls it off, King Of The Nile. A more significant anniversary marks King’s visit, however, one with deep cultural and religious connotations. It is 50 years since Ali visited Egypt, shortly after he took the world heavyweight title from Sonny Liston, then announced he was a Muslim. Overnight, the new champion became a villain in his own land – but not beyond those gilded shores. There are pictures of Ali visiting Cairo’s Al-Hussein mosque in June of 1964, praying with local devotees (of the original Muhammad), and he pronounced more loudly about his faith than he did about his boxing. In 1975, a year after regaining the title for the third time with that Rumble against George Foreman, Ali told Playboy magazine: “You can go to Japan, China, all the European, African, Arab, and South American countries and, man, they know me. I can’t name a country where they don’t know me. If another fighter’s goin’ to be that big, he’s goin’ to have to be a Muslim, or else he won’t get to nations like Indonesia, Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey – those are all countries that don’t usually follow boxing. He might even have to be named Muhammad because Muhammad is the most common name in the world.” Don King is not a Muslim, but he knows how to be a good guest. All week, he has chanted, “Ana Masry! Ana Masry!” (I am an Egyptian), and I’m sure his audience were half way to believing him. He hopes to meet with president Sisi before he returns to the United States next Wednesday and I wanted to know if he would use his people skills for something far more important than this fight: the release of three al-Jazeera journalists jailed for from seven to 10 years for allegedly inciting unrest. “I’ll do my best,” he said. “I’ll do my best. I’m getting a good vibe from them.” Part of the sell? Maybe. But, if King pulled off that long shot, it would be his greatest victory. |