After months of contentious negotiations with current and past dealings with boxers and lawyers, promoter Don King opened with a flurry of pointed criticism Thursday.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, King lashed out at world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and his lawyer, Judd Burstein, ex-heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and his lawyer, Jim Thomas, and middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

Both Holyfield and Hopkins have rejected multimillion-dollar fights King sought to negotiate on their behalf.

Lewis is suing King and Mike Tyson for more than $350 million, and was granted an injunction preventing King from attempting to deal with Tyson over lawsuits against each other.

King countersued Lewis for $50 million, arguing that Lewis' suit has kept King from collecting fees from HBO on boxing matches he has already promoted.

"What they (Lewis and Burstein) have done is despicable and reprehensible," King told the Daily News. "It has interfered with my settlement talks with Tyson. I have never mentioned any other fights at all in those settlement talks, as they have claimed.

"I'm hurt and humiliated that Lewis would prostitute his name with that shyster lawyer. Everything Burstein has claimed has been fabricated.

"I've helped Lennox make $60 million, gave him $1 million and a Range Rover and he doesn't have the decency to call me and ask me if anything his lawyer has claimed is true."

King and Lewis likely will have to cross paths again if Lewis decides to fight WBA heavyweight champ Roy Jones Jr. in early December. King is Jones' co-promoter.

King is miffed with Holyfield and Thomas for backing out of a proposed bout with Jones. Holyfield, who will take on IBF cruiserweight champion James Toney, said he backed out of the deal to fight Jones because King had asked him to sign a new promotional agreement and he didn't want to be taken advantage of. "In the years that I worked with Evander Holyfield he made $126.8 million, an average of $11.5 million a fight," King told the Daily News. "Does that sound like someone who was being taken advantage of? "I don't know what he's talking about. I didn't ask him to sign a new contract. That's not true. He's a 41-year-old former champion at the end of his career.

"Here's a man who is four-time world champion because of me. What does he gain by fighting James Toney? If he beats him, so what? If he loses, then his career is over."

King said he is still dumbfounded by Hopkins. The fighter said he backed off of a bout against Toney after King tried to cut his $5 million guarantee in half. "This man has turned down $10 million (in two fights) for Felix Trinidad, $6 million for Roy Jones and $4.5 million for James Toney," King said. "But I'm not giving up on him. I still think we can make a big fight for him."