When accepting the Golden Globe for "Best Actor In A Miniseries or Made For TV Movie" a tearful Ving Rhames called fellow nominee Jack Lemmon onstage and praised him for being such an inspiration. He then shocked the audience, as well as Lemmon, by giving him the award.
The movie was in the middle of filming on June 28th, 1997, when Holyfield vs. Tyson II (1997) occurred in Las Vegas. During that fight, Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield's right ear twice, causing significant damage to Holyfield's upper cartilage. Because of this incident, John Herzfeld extended the scheduled film shoot of Don King: Only in America (1997) from 30 days to 31 days, with the last day of filming dedicated to reenacting the notorious boxing match plus adding Don King's commentary about the incident through Ving Rhames's portrayal.
Director John Herzfeld lobbied to have Darius McCrary portray Muhammad Ali. At first, HBO executives were against the casting choice, fearing that McCrary would be too recognizable because of his main role as Eddie Winslow on Family Matters (1989), which was still in production during the pre-production and filming of Don King: Only in America (1997). Not only did Herzfeld successfully persuade HBO to keep McCrary in the role, but he later cast McCrary in a supporting role in his next movie, 15 Minutes (2001).
Earnie Shavers is spelled Ernie Shavers in the movie.