Don Elbaum, whose extensive and influential career in boxing spanned most of his 94-year life and saw him working as a boxing manager, matchmaker and promoter, died on July 27.
In more than 60 years in the sport, Elbaum even tried his hand as a fighter, though that endeavor proved brief – he could take a good punch but lacked the ability to meaningfully test his opponents’ chins. Per BoxRec, he went 0-3-1 as a professional; Elbaum disputed this, however, once telling Thomas Hauser that he had six wins as well.
One time he had to do double duty, coming in as a short-notice opponent on a show he was also promoting in 1969, lacing up the gloves because there weren’t enough fighters available to fill the prelim slots. Elbaum dropped a four-round split decision.
Alongside his lifelong dedication to boxing, Elbaum is celebrated for the enthusiastic manner in which he promoted fights. Elbaum was fond of reminding people that he got the controversial promoter Don King into pugilism in the early 1970s.
The International Boxing Hall of Fame, to which Elbaum was inducted in 2019, announced that its flags will fly at half-staff in Elbaum’s memory.
“From boxer to matchmaker to promoter, there was no more colorful personality in boxing than Don Elbaum. His promotional creativity was second to none,” said IBHOF Executive Director Edward Brophy. “The Hall of Fame offers our condolences to the Elbaum family and joins the boxing world in mourning his passing.”
Lou DiBella, a promoter and friend of Elbaum’s, paid tribute on X: “A master storyteller and a self-admitted scoundrel, Donnie was a lovable relic of a time gone.”
Ring announcer Michael Buffer, whose voice is now iconic to all boxing observers, wrote that Elbaum gave him his first announcing job:
“43 years ago this summer, Don Elbaum asked me to announce the fighters from the ring in a shopping center parking lot in the Atlantic City area to promote his upcoming event at the A.C. Tropicana. I had never done this before so technically it was my very first ring announcement gig. Of course he paid me nothing but congratulations on a job well done. Four months later, now claiming I was experienced, I was on USA cable at the Playboy hotel/casino as the ring announcer. I was horrible, but I think I got better.”
Elbaum, said the Hall of Fame announcer, was “definitely one of a kind with a touch of many Runyon-esque characters! A true HOF inductee with his entire life devoted to a sport he obviously truly loved.”
Born on June 16, 1931, Elbaum started matchmaking at the age of 15 and began promoting fights at 18. He was astonishingly prolific, serving as a matchmaker for over 10,000 fights and promoting more than 1,000 cards, according to the IBHOF. The list of fighters he worked with includes many of the sport’s legendary names, including Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran, Sonny Liston, Willie Pep and Aaron Pryor.
The IBHOF called Elbaum “a master of hype” who was “known for his promotional ingenuity” that “inspired countless stories and publicity for promotions he staged around the world.”
The last months of Elbaum’s life proved difficult: His son, Kipp Elbaum, posted a GoFundMe link in May with the hopes of helping his father recover from organ failure. Boxing stewards like writer Ron Borges and the Teddy Atlas Foundation contributed significant sums. Kipp added an update later in the month with the news that his father was in a nursing home, “severely depressed,” and recovering at a slower pace than expected.
His suffering is now over, Elbaum leaving behind many fond memories in its place.
