Don King Makes His MMA Debut With Vengeance Fighting Championship in Concord, NC
September 13, 2008 at 5:43 pm by Jason Hatcher in News 
It has been rumored for a while that veteran boxing promoter Don King was interested in entering the mixed-martial-arts business. Some would say such a move is necessary with talk of professional boxing’s decline in national popularity and shrinking pay-per-view sales. But of course the MMA-verus-boxing debate is a fiery topic and the verdict is still out with regard to boxing’s economic survival and fanbase statistics.
On Saturday, September 27 in Concord, North Carolina, Vengeance Fighting Championship makes its debut under the distant umbrella of Don King Productions via DonKingTv.com which is the internet branch of King’s promotions. At first glance the Vengeance FC card featuring two icons of MMA in that of Jeff Monson and Mark Kerr, seems like a potentially entertaining night of mixed-martial-arts. But Don King’s low profile and near vacant marketing for this event paints the picture that King’s debut MMA promotion is simply a testing of the waters.
Also consider that Don King’s entrance into MMA is a polarizing concept to many. Maybe King is aware of this situation thus explaining why King is also co-promoting a boxing card with Golden Boy Promotions featuring Ricardo Mayorga and Shane Mosley in Carson, California on HBO the same night. King has been criticized for many years within the boxing world. And such criticism is turned up in volume amongst a large majority of the MMA community. But no matter the potential criticism of Don King, thus far the debut Vengeance FC card is respectfully stacked.
Personally, I am very excited to see Jeff Monson and Mark Kerr clash as well as BJJ legend Carlson Gracie and John Savage. The following video is a Vengeance FC commercial currently running on television in the North Carolina market.
Fight Card as follows:
Jeff Monson vs. Mark Kerr
John Savage vs. Carlson Gracie
Denis Gomes vs. Carmelo Marrero
Cale Yarbrough vs. Andy Curtiss
Rodney Wallace vs. Quince St. Preux
Ryan Lamareaux vs. Mackens Semerzier
Jeremiah Brandon Brown vs. Matt Covan
Brian Keller vs. Steve Linton
Chris Herring vs. Joel Wyatt
Hallie Hair vs. Ryan Bedini
Rusty Haun vs. Tony Moenich
Nick Blake vs. Patrick Needham
Mike Turner vs. Nate Davis
Sylvain Bynum vs. Jeff Bricker
The official Vengeance FC website
September 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Watching Monson and Kerr will be exciting for sure, not really amped about Don King having his foot in the MMA community. I mean, aren’t we fighting an uphill battle already?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
The fight card looks good enough but Don King??? What’s a girl to say, just not happy about that.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The fight card looks entertaining and I can’t wait to see Monson vs. Kerr. However, Don King stepping into the MMA world as a promoter is somewhat concerning for me. He’s followed by a large cloud of rumors, fraud and lawsuits which I just don’t think the sport needs. Not saying I wouldn’t like to see some additional UFC type productions, but c’mon so far we’ve been given the “ghetto trash” mess of EliteXC, the nearly bankrupt Affliction and a few others I can’t even rattle off the top of my head. Seriously folks, if you aren’t going to do right – stay out of the game.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Forget Don King. The sponsor should be the state Employment Security Commission. NC is in the top 10 states in the nation for unemployment rates in August
(http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm). And they’re not just gonna *hand out* jobs @ the biotech center.
Follow me: http://twitter.com/JodyFarrad
September 29th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Vengeance Fighting Championship photos are available at:
http://www.lakenormanphoto.com/photogalleries
February 20th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Say what you want to about King, the guy may be a crook but he makes fighters millionaires. Some fighters are lucky to see $20k or even $1 million. King may steal $2 million, but earn you $5 million in a championship fight. Some boxers, under King have earned as much a $20 million in a fight!
If Don King does put his stamp on an MMA promotion, I can bet many UFC fighters will be leaving their $5k a fight contracts with Dana to fight for King.