Don King's Next Fight, Round 1

A ringmasterificator with hair of grandilomentitudinous proportions has lifted his dukes against a force of monumentatious sportumental influence. Translation: DON KING filed a $2.5 billion defamation suit against ESPN last week. "I seek justice," said King, disputing ESPN's SportsCentury profile of him, aired last May, which called the boxing promoter a "snake-oil salesman" and "shameless huckster." The program claimed-- falsely, King says in his suit--that he shortchanged Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes as well as a hospital owed funds from a boxing charity benefit, and threatened to kill two people. An ESPN spokesman defended SportsCentury as a Peabody and Emmy Award--winning series that is "widely respected for its journalistic quality." Gentlemen, to your corners.