In the meritocracy of hustlerdom - the universe of P. T. Barnum, Jimmy Hoffa, and Colonel Tom Parker - Don King is a reigning monarch. He is a Vegas patriot, a ghetto Machiavelli whose intelligence and resiliency have enabled him to dominate boxing for a generation.

But Don King has a dark side. Working his way out of a life of street crime and numbers running - and jail time for manslaughter - King rose to become a powerhouse in the fight game, outnegotiated corporate giants, fleeced the treasuries of entire countries, and amassed a vast personal fortune while ruining the lives and careers of some of boxing's greatest champions.

The dying words of the man King stomped to death on the streets of Cleveland in 1966 - "Don, I'll pay you the money" - became the motif for Don King's ascendancy. Economic manipulation is not a victimless crime. This book is a tale told from the point of view of Don King's casualties - the fighters he cheated, exploited, underpaid, seduced, and abandoned.

Only in America is a brilliant combination of investigative reporting, narrative writing, memoir, and biography that adds up to a shocking portrait of a true American Original.