Boxing News: Don King and Lamon Brewster Uber Alles

HAMBURG, Germany (September 28, 2005) – Don King arrived in Hamburg on Sunday night to join WBO heavyweight champion “Relentless” Lamon Brewster, who arrived in Germany on September 19. The promoter was greeted in the lobby of The Atlantic Hotel by a large painting of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was on hand for the opening of the hotel in 1909, before leading Germany into World War I, after which he was exiled to Holland.

Lamon Brewster is defending his title against challenger Luan Krasniqi in the challenger's adopted homeland, a place others have feared to tread, and for good reason. Questionable decisions and other said acts of treachery including “espionage, conspiracy, and poisoning” have been alleged in that part of the world. Brewster has also taken on the added burden of fighting on the 100th anniversary of former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling's birthday. Schmeling passed earlier this year at the age of 99.

The good-natured Brewster, a saint amongst boxers, has been welcomed with open arms in Hamburg where he will meet Krasniqi tonight at the Color Line (sic) Arena.

WBO champ Lamon Brewster, true to form, requested and has been granted an opportunity to visit and pay homage to the great Max Schmeling's grave.

Brewster was to have traveled to Ramstein Air Base and nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center with his manager, Sam Simon, and Don King on Monday, but King begged him not to fly 400 miles to Frankfurt and take a long bus ride to the base, visit injured troops and return to Hamburg the same day – all just 48 hours before his title defense.

Don got it covered.

King and Simon’s visit, sponsored by the USO, is to promote troop morale, especially among those who have been injured. They spent Monday afternoon touring the wards at Landstuhl, learning from the injured servicemen and women what happened to them in Iraq.

Most told of being hit by IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices, bombs that can be made out of anything, but which pack the power to penetrate tanks. Others tell of being hit by automatic weapon fire. They all want show their battle scars to the curious.

Landstuhl is not a place where most soldiers spend much time. They are flown in after sustaining wounds, they receive treatment, and they are either sent home or back into combat, depending on the severity of their injuries. Many of America’s brave soldiers Don King met spoke about their friends and comrades who were not lucky enough to make it out of Iraq alive.