Mike Tyson

Almost as soon as Givens left Tyson's life, Don King entered. King had waited a long time. For years, Tyson had been making mincemeat of King's stable of heavyweight champions, and it frustrated the promoter deeply that he had no piece of the champ. King's first opening came at Jim Jacob's funeral, which he attended uninvited, loudly condemning Tyson's managers for such indignities as not having a limo ready for the champ. He had also worked strenuously to bring to light the suspicions of Givens and her mother toward Bill Cayton. And now, with Givens out of the picture, he pounced, offering Tyson the use of his farm in Ohio to recuperate from his disastrous marriage. King also proved useful, moving swiftly to close Tyson's joint accounts with Givens, just in time to prevent her from transferring over $600,000 into her own account.

At the same time, King began to plant doubts in Tyson's mind about all the "white men" around him, particularly his manager. Perhaps drained from his recent experiences, Tyson began to listen, and before long he was firmly in King's corner, even giving him a limited power of attorney. "I think Don has sold black to Tyson," former heavyweight champ and King client Larry Holmes told Sports Illustrated. Cayton could only add, "I feel very sad that Mike appears to have gone from a manipulative situation … to another, far more manipulative situation."

Tyson, however, wasn't worried. He still had his millions, he still had his undefeated pro career, and he still had his title. In April, 1989, he successfully defended the latter two against England's Frank Bruno, easily over-powering him in the fifth round. Then, on June 27 in Atlantic City, in what may have been his greatest night in the ring, he floored former champ Michael Spinks in all of 90 seconds. Then, on February 10, 1990, the unthinkable happened in Tokyo. James "Buster" Douglas, a 42-1 underdog who couldn't even get a photographer to come to his weigh-in, came back from an eighth round knockdown to fell the champ in the tenth. It was impossible, and at first, Don King wouldn't let it happen. He got representatives from the WBC, the WBA, and even the Japan Boxing Commission to declare that Douglas should have been counted out in the eighth round, awarding the fight to Tyson. But King too suffered a rare defeat, and in the face of enormous public outrage, the fight and the title were soon awarded to Buster Douglas.