In the 1980s, Donald Trump pulled the strings in US boxing with the help of Mike Tyson, staging numerous mega-fights with the scandalous boxer and earning millions. But in the end, the new old US president failed as a casino king.
No one in Washington is responsible for sport. However, if there were also a “Department of Sports” in the government of the United States of America, the unpredictable “President-elect” Donald Trump could have enriched the “wild mix with many controversies” (Frankfurter Rundschau) in his cabinet with another sensational appointment: Mike Tyson as “Secretary of Sports”. The background to this satirical comment: Trump and Tyson were business partners in the 1980s. To this day, the two share sympathies for each other.
Tyson already supported the Republican candidate during the election campaign for Trump’s first presidency (2017-2021). “I like Trump. I think Donald should be president of the United States,” the former scandalous boxer told the Huffington Post at the time. When Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison (three on probation) for rape in 1992, Trump defended him and called the sentence “a farce”.
Ali, Madonna & Co. in the boxing ring
At a specially convened press conference three days after the Indiana state court ruling, the mentor of the “baddest man on the planet” (Tyson on Tyson) argued that he was in favor of harsh punishments. But in this particular case, “substantial compensation” for the victim and a facility for abused and raped people in Indiana, financed by Tyson’s stock exchanges, would be more sensible than imprisonment. That’s what makes Trump tick. After all, Tyson was a million-dollar fighter.
As on June 27, 1988, Donald J. Trump himself escorted the invited celebrities to the seats of honor in the boxing ring. Madonna with husband Sean Penn and other Hollywood celebrities. Immediately before the first bell, the let’s-get-ready-to-rumble announcer Michael Buffer makes a “special introduction” in the ring, allowing the vain host in a dark suit with a bright yellow tie and Muhammad Ali – already suffering from Parkinson’s disease and wearing large glasses – to bathe in the cheers of the crowd.
“Make Atlantic City Great”
The gentlemen have barely taken their seats before it’s all over. The 21-year-old Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks, ten years his senior, in 91 seconds in the fight of the undefeated heavyweight champions. Tyson is the Trump(f) card of the then 42-year-old real estate tycoon from New York in the vabanque game of turning the gambling town of Atlantic City, 200 kilometers to the south, into the Las Vegas of the East. With the full-bodied promise: “Make Atlantic City Great.” Donald Trump was to adopt this slogan 28 years later as the motto of his election campaign: “Make America Great Again.”
Boxing offers the most attractive advertising for the temples of gambling in Las Vegas and has a magical attraction for the “high rollers” (gamblers). Boxing is booming in the desert. Soon on the Atlantic too. Trump has erected a colossal 39-storey hotel building on the famous Boardwalk, the promenade by the sea. He calls it the “Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino”. The 22,000-capacity Convention Center is directly connected by a walkway.
Boxing stronghold Las Vegas outdone
If boxing is another business model, then Trump’s gigantomania also claims the title of “Lord of the Rings”, despite Don King. The superman from New York “trumpets”: “Any fight I want, I’ll get.” The self-important casino magnate outbids the boxing stronghold in Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, and wins the bid for the second fight of the century in the USA after Ali against Frazier. Trump pays the unscrupulous impresario Don King the exorbitant record sum of eleven million dollars for the event rights.
The newspapers call the mega event Tyson vs Spinks the “Super Bowl of Boxing”. The trade magazine “The Ring” praises Trump as “probably the most powerful “player in the boxing business”. 1,300 media representatives are accredited. On their postcard-sized plastic badges, Trump’s name stands out twice as large as Tyson’s. Between 1985 and 1990, the youngest heavyweight champion of all time beat up his opponents nine times – four of them in a world championship fight …
Text: Hartmut Scherzer
You’ll find part two of the story here on Friday.