Counter-Currents
5,264 words
The white race has been losing ground in a lot of areas over the last several decades, but there is one area where there has been stunning progress, and it’s one that nobody would have guessed 50 years ago: heavyweight boxing. Three of the four major heavyweight boxing titles — World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization, and International Boxing Federation — are currently held by a white guy, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, and the fourth, the World Boxing Council, is held by another white guy: Irish Traveler Tyson Fury.
This is a historical curveball. By the mid-twentieth century, most people had accepted that the heavyweight boxing division would be dominated by blacks forever. Until the end of time. Until the heat death of the universe. When I was growing up, the idea of a white heavyweight boxing champion sounded even more ludicrous than a black President. We’ve seen both in the twenty-first century, but honestly, whites taking over heavyweight boxing was the more surprising of the two.
The most unrealistic aspect of the movie Rocky was that it was a story about a white boxer and a black boxer fighting for the championship on the United States Bicentennial, although the fight isn’t racialized all to hell. Only twice in the movie is Rocky Balboa ever referred to as being white. There is one scene where the black boxer, Apollo Creed, says:
This is the land of opportunity, right? So Apollo Creed, on January 1st, gives a local underdog fighter an opportunity. A snow-white underdog, and I’m gonna put his face on this poster with me.
There’s another scene where a reporter asks Apollo, “Is it a coincidence that you’re fighting a white man on the most celebrated day in the country’s history?” Apollo responds, “I don’t know about that. Is it a coincidence that he’s fighting a black man on the most celebrated day in the country’s history?”
That’s it: two references. In reality, Muhammad Ali versus Chuck Wepner, the real-life fight that Rocky was based on, was explicitly racialized and promoted as such. In Rocky, Apollo is looking for an underdog. In Ali versus Wepner, Ali was specifically looking for a white person to box. Don King promoted the fight under the name Give the White Guy a Break. When Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner were to appear together on TV to promote the fight, Ali asked Wepner to call him a “nigger” live on air in order to generate buzz. When Wepner refused, Ali went on air and accused Wepner of calling him a nigger backstage. Muhammad Ali wanted the fight to be as racialized as possible.
You can buy Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema here.
Rocky is an underdog story, and more so than his age or working-class background, what made Rocky an underdog was the fact that he was white. Rocky worked in the one area of American society where a white person could be seen as an underdog, the one profession it was seemingly impossible for a white man to rise to the highest position. Rocky knew that he could not win, because just as Charlie Brown never kicks the football, white people never win the heavyweight title. Aside from Rocky Marciano’s four-year reign from 1952-56 and Ingemar Johansson’s one year during 1959-60, blacks completely dominated the top position in heavyweight boxing from Joe Louis’ victory in 1937 until the Ukrainian Klitschko brothers showed up at the end of the century. During that time, the most a white boxer could hope for was to go the distance (i.e., not humiliate himself by being knocked out).
While Stallone never referred to Rocky Balboa as a Great White Hope, certainly the audience did. The Great White Hope was a classic twentieth-century white romantic archetype. Like the Charge of the Light Brigade, he is doomed to fail, yet charges forward into the mouth of hell regardless. In one sense, he is a fool — but then again, boxing is a sport where anything can happen. A boxer can get the crap kicked out him for 14 rounds but then land a lucky knockout punch in the 15th and win. And that was part of the romance of the Great White Hope: You know that they are probably not going to win, and yet it’s never impossible.
It wasn’t just white people who liked Great White Hopes, either. Black boxers liked them, too, because they usually lost, and promoters liked them because black-versus-white title fights did good business. Bernard Hopkins once lamented the lack of good white boxers in his division:
If there were top fighters of opposite races at the top of every weight class, boxing would be a lot better today. People would look forward to every fight. Any good black fighter against a good white fighter today, and both had names, it would be a jam-packed sellout. It always sells. There’s a rivalry that we are better than you and we will beat you. It’s a pride thing.
When Muhammad Ali came back from his suspension for refusing to serve in Vietnam, he started his comeback trail by fighting two white guys, Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonaven, because he knew that those matches would be safe — and also very profitable. Mike Tyson’s first fight after prison was against white boxer Peter McNeely. Again, safe but profitable.
Here I am going to review some of those who have held the title of Great White Hope in the post-Rocky Marciano era.
Ingemar Johansson
Why he was a Great White Hope: People forget about Ingemar Johansson. It is widely believed that Rocky Marciano was the last white heavyweight champion of the twentieth century, but Ingemar Johansson of Sweden held the title for a year — from June 26, 1959 to June 20, 1960 — after defeating Floyd Patterson in a third-round knockout. As a result of his victory, he was named Associated Press’ Athlete of the Year, as well as Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated.
Before claiming the World Heavyweight Championship title, Johansson was also European Champion, and won a silver medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Finland.
Hopes Dashed: In hindsight, many see Ingemar Johansson’s title victory as something of a fluke, especially after he was knocked out by Patterson in both of their rematches. The consensus is that Patterson did not take preparations for the match seriously, as European boxers were not held in very high regard at the time. On top of this, Johansson was known for being lazy, choosing to spend his time indulging in the celebrity lifestyle with his girlfriend rather than engaging in the kind of rigorous training one would expect from a top-flight contender. Between the first and second Patterson fights, he appeared in the woke war movie All the Young Men starring Sydney Poitier. He was also known for having a shockingly poor diet for a professional athlete. Johansson was able to get by on raw natural ability alone in his early years, but as he aged, his lack of discipline made it harder for him to continue competing at the highest levels.
After the Patterson fight trilogy, Johansson would return to Europe and fight four more times, winning all four matches and reclaiming the European Championship in the process. But he nearly lost his fourth match against perennial no-hoper Brian London, and seeing that his career was going to be on a downhill slope from there, he decided to retire in 1963 at age 31.
Jerry “The Bellflower Bomber” Quarry
Why he was a Great White Hope: Jerry Quarry was the most prominent white boxer during the heavyweight division’s most competitive era. Considered the best counter-puncher in the game, Quarry challenged for the title four times and fought just about every big name of the era, including Muhammad Ali twice (in 1970 and 1972), Joe Frazier twice (in 1969 and 1974), and Ken Norton for the title in 1975. The only big-name boxer of the era who Quarry did not fight was George Foreman, who has said that Quarry was the only boxer he ever intentionally avoided. In 1973, Foreman turned down a million dollars to fight Quarry.
Jerry Quarry was born into an Irish Catholic boxing family in 1945 in Bakersfield California. As an amateur, he racked up a record of 170 wins and 17 losses. In 1965, at age 19, Jerry Quarry won the national Golden Gloves championship by knocking out all five of his opponents. To this day, he is the only person in the history of the Golden Gloves tournament to win all their matches by knockout. Quarry’s boxing career was a mix of surprising upsets and crushing disappointments. His victory over former champion Floyd Patterson in 1967 put Quarry on the map, and he scored several upset victories over black boxers who at the time were tipped to be “the next big thing,” including Buster Mathis in 1969, a then-defeated Mac Foster in 1970, and the hitherto undefeated future contender Ron Lyle in 1973. In 1973, he also defeated Earnie Shavers, considered one of the hardest punchers in the history of the sport.
Hopes dashed: While the unpredictable Quarry was capable of electric performances, he had a tendency to choke on big occasions, with a record of zero for four in title fights. While he did clobber some top contenders of the day, when he went up against the true elite such as Ali, Frazier, and Norton, Quarry looked second-rate.
Add to this that Quarry had confidence issues. He retired multiple times throughout his career only to be lured back into the ring as the size of the fight purses steadily grew throughout the 1970s. He was also known to have developed drinking and drug problems, which put a damper on his career prospects. By the 1990s Quarry began showing signs of dementia as a result of the countless punches to the head he had received throughout his hundreds of boxing matches. He was soon incapable of dressing or feeding himself. The condition worsened, and Jerry Quarry passed away in 1999 at age 53.
While the perpetual bridesmaid Jerry Quarry never achieved the top prize, with his good looks, likable personality, entertaining fighting style, and white skin, Quarry was nevertheless an enormously popular crowd favorite in his day.
Oscar “Ringo” Bonavena
Why he was a Great White Hope: Oscar Bonavena was an Argentine of Italian ethnicity who was called “Ringo” due to his Beatles-esque haircut.
As a boxer Bonavena was good, but nothing to write home about. He dispatched journeymen with ease, but lost every time he was put up against anyone you’ve ever heard of. To his credit, Bonavena went the distance with three different champions: Joe Frazier twice in 1966 and 1968, Jimmy Ellis in 1967, and Floyd Patterson in 1972.
Bonavena was perhaps better-known for his flamboyant personality and for being one of the only boxers to out-taunt master taunter Muhammad Ali. At a press conference before their 1970 bout, Bonavena repeatedly called Ali by his slave name, “Clay,” and called him a coward for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali was livid and observably lost his cool.
Ali would be Bonavena’s only defeat by knockout, but even this comes with a disclaimer. After knocking down Bonavena, rather than going into a neutral corner like he was supposed to, Ali stood over Bonavena so that he could immediately knock him down again. This is highly illegal. After the second knockdown, the referee could be seen trying to guide Ali into his corner, but Ali refused to do so. After the third knockdown, it was a TKO victory for Ali
Hopes dashed: In 1976. Oscar Bonavena was murdered at a Reno brothel after a dispute with the owner, whose wife Bonavena was banging. While at 33 he probably had his best boxing days behind him, he was on a seven-match winning streak at the time of his death.
Chuck “the Bayonne Bleeder” Wepner
Why he was a Great White Hope: Polish-American Chuck Wepner of Bayonne, New Jersey is famous for being the inspiration for Rocky Balboa, and the first Rocky movie was based on Wepner’s 1975 title fight with Muhammad Ali. Besides that, he’s also had two biopics made about him: Chuck in 2016 and The Brawler in 2019 (The Brawler is the better of the two, in my opinion). He was known as the Bayonne Bleeder because he cut easily.[1]
Like Rockey Balboa, Wepner also worked as a debt collector for the mafia before his big break. Unlike Rocky, however, Wepner was not a complete unknown before his fight with Ali. He was at least known to boxing fanatics for his fights with future champion George Foreman in 1969 and former champion Sonny Liston in 1970 (it would be Liston’s last fight before dying under mysterious circumstances). Wepner lost both fights. Wepner landed the Ali fight because the latter wanted to fight a white guy, and Wepner just so happened to be the highest-ranked white boxer in 1975. After an eight-match winning streak, which included a victory over former champion Ernie Terrell, Wepner was ranked eighth in the world at the time.
Wepner is one of only four people to ever knock down Muhammad Ali, which he did in the ninth round of their fight. After the fall, Wepner turned to his manager and said, “Start the car up, Al! We’re going to the bank! We’re millionaires!” The manager replied, “You better turn around. Your guy’s getting up and he looks pissed off.” Ali claimed the knockdown was the result of Wepner stepping on his foot and pushing him. Photographic evidence would appear to confirm Ali’s story, but the referee didn’t see it, so it’s still considered a knockdown in the history books.
Wepner did not technically “go the distance” as Rocky Balboa did. The fight was stopped with 19 seconds left in the last round — but that was close enough for Wepner.
Hopes Dashed: After his bout with Ali, Wepner became a local celebrity in his hometown and took up a rock star lifestyle of drugs, drink, and groupies. After the runaway success of Rocky, Wepner’s fame multiplied — as did his self-destructive habits. His wife divorced him soon afterwards.
After the Ali fight, Wepner won his next three fights against three forgotten no-names before suffering a three-match losing streak, starting with minor Great White Hope Duane Bobick in 1976. In the hope of staying in the public eye, Wepner agreed to a novelty boxing versus wrestling event match with Andre the Giant. The match would be the inspiration for Rocky Balboa’s fight with Thunderlips, played by Hulk Hogan, in Rocky III.
Sylvester Stallone wrote a part for Wepner in Rocky II. Wepner was to play Chink Weber (get it?), a veteran boxer who is Rocky’s sparring partner and who is jealous that the fairy-tale opportunity went to Rocky rather than himself. While the audition was supposed to be a formality, Wepner showed up high on drugs and the producers insisted that Wepner’s part be written out of the script. In 1985 Wepner was arrested for possession of four ounces of cocaine. He could have avoided jail time by ratting out his supplier, but being an old-school street guy, he took the years instead. While in prison he ran into Sylvester Stallone, who was there doing work for his prison movie Lock Up.
In 2003 Wepner sued Sylvester Stallone, as the Rocky film series had grossed over a billion dollars and yet Wepner, who the story was originally based on, made nothing. In 2006, the case was settled for an undisclosed amount — which was apparently enough to make Wepner comfortable. He’s still living, now aged 84.
Bronze Chuck Wepner statue in Bayonne, New Jersey
Scott “The Human Punching Bag” LeDoux
Why he was a Great White Hope: He wasn’t. He was fairly pedestrian, but I’m including him anyway because that’s a hell of a nickname. He did take off Howard Cosell’s toupee once. That’s pretty cool, I guess.
“Gentleman” Gerry Cooney
Why he was a Great White Hope: Gerry Cooney inspired more hope in more white people than any other Great White Hope that came before him. Many predicted that he would be the athlete of the 1980s. As his manager Dennis Rappaport said, ”There will be America, apple pie, Wheaties, and Gerry Cooney.‘.
When Gerry Cooney faced Larry Holmes for the for the title in 1982, he was undefeated with a record of 25 wins with 23 knockouts. The Cooney vs. Holmes fight was explicitly marketed by Don King as a race war: an undefeated white boxer versus an undefeated black boxer. Both fighters received death threats, and on the day of the event, snipers were placed on the rooftops in the area of the arena in case the Klan or the Black Panthers or whoever showed up. Muhammad Ali, a Black Nationalist, surprised people by backing white Gerry Cooney over black Larry Holmes, the man who took his title from him. “Cooney is not only the white man, he is the right man,” Ali said.
Larry Holmes was more willing to play into the racial angle of the fight:
There are white fans who are praying for a white champion. Those fans believe Cooney is the man that can beat me. If they believe that, then they’re dopes, and Cooney is their hoax.
Of his opponent, Cooney said:
He likes to fan the racial thing. He said I was stupid for a white boy. You know, there’s enough racial prejudice without him starting more of it. Now, Ali would do that to help build the gate. And Ali’s a regular guy. Holmes tries to imitate Ali, and he can’t. Ali made you laugh, this guy makes you ill.
For his part, Cooney disliked the pressure of being appointed Champion of the White Race: ”It’s terrible to be labeled a Great White Hope. A fighter should be judged on his ability.”
A New York Times article from 1982 entitled “Racial Hype for a Title Fight” quotes Eddie Davis, Cooney’s friend and one of only two people to defeat Cooney as an amateur (the other was Eddie’s brother, Johnny Davis):
I see it all the time, white people going over to him and saying, “We’re counting on you, Gerry, don’t let us down.” He ain’t only fighting for himself, they want him to fight for his race. I’m sure Larry is getting the same thing, but it really shouldn’t be that way.
In the end, Holmes pummeled Cooney for 13 rounds until he was a bloodied mess and Cooney’s trainer, Victor Valle, was forced to step in and stop the fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uIDJOHxlwM
Liberals like talking about how racialized this fight was. President Reagan even had a phone installed in Cooney’s dressing room so that he could congratulate Cooney after his win. He made no such arrangements in Larry Holmes’ dressing room. The most egregious insult was when the ring announcer broke with tradition by introducing the champion, Larry Holmes first, and challenger Gerry Cooney second — the only title fight in the history of heavyweight boxing where this was done. There is also a widespread belief that the fight was fixed for Cooney. Cooney had three points deducted for low blows. Had he not had those points deducted, he would have been winning on two of the three judges’ scorecards despite clearly losing most rounds. This was, after all, a Don King event, and a Cooney victory would have meant a guaranteed rematch with another massive payday for all involved (Cooney vs. Holmes broke pay-per-view records).
Holmes vs. Cooney was also a rare occasion when the challenger and the champion received an equal share of the prize money, and many found this to be more evidence of racial favoritism. Larry Holmes did not seem to mind, as even with the 50-50 split, it was still the biggest payday of his career:
I really don’t have anything to prove, not to Gerry Cooney and not to anyone in the world. You know, after I knock out Gerry Cooney, they’re gonna come up with somebody else. So I gave Gerry Cooney a chance, I gave him half the money. Don King split this promotion. He’s white, he can help bring in a big gate. This is why Don agreed to go down the middle with Gerry Cooney.
So how did it come to pass that so much of white America came to put so much of their hopes and dreams into Gerry Cooney? Cooney was a working-class Irish Catholic from Huntington, Long Island. His abusive, alcoholic father made him take up boxing at a young age, and he was good at it. As an amateur, he racked up a record of 55 wins and three losses. He won multiple international tournaments and won two New York Golden Gloves tournaments in 1973 and 1976. In 1975, the Soviet boxing team visited the United States and Cooney knocked out one of their top fighters, Nikolay Aksyonov, in two minutes and 24 seconds. As a result of that win, Cooney was invited to try out for the US Olympic team, but he declined, as his father was ill at the time, and Cooney did not think he was good enough to represent his country, anyway.
After turning professional in 1977, Cooney began a long winning streak of steady wins by knockout. Starting in 1980, Cooney’s reputation exploded after demolishing three black household names in a row.
The first was Jimmy Young. Young was a top contender throughout the 1970s, and his most notable victory was in 1977, when he beat George Foreman so badly that the latter retired from boxing after the match. In 1976 he fought a title fight with Muhammad Ali and lost by unanimous decision, despite Young landing twice as many punches Ali. The decision was booed by the audience, who felt Young had been robbed. But on May 25, 1980, Gerry Cooney beat the daylights out of Jimmy Young for four rounds until the referee ended the fight due to Lyle’s excessive bleeding. By the end of the match, Cooney’s boxing trunks were drenched in Young’s blood.
The next was Ron Lyle. Lyle learned boxing while he was in prison for a gang murder. He was pardoned by the Governor of Colorado after saving the life of a prison guard who had been taken hostage by fellow prisoners. He turned professional at age 30, but quickly became a top contender. He lost two title fights, one against Muhammad Ali in 1975 and another against George Foreman in 1976. Nevertheless, Lyle was still considered a top-tier opponent. On October 24, 1980, Gerry Quarry knocked him out two minutes and 49 seconds into the first round with a body shot. The purpose of punching a boxer’s body is usually to get him to drop his guard so that one can then knock him out by punching him in the face. It’s quite rare to knock someone out with a body shot, but Quarry hit Lyle with a left hook to the body that was so powerful that it cracked Lyle’s ribs.
Cooney’s crowning glory was his 1981 match against Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier are generally considered the holy trinity of 1970s boxing, but if you had to pick a fourth, it would probably be Ken Norton. Norton is one of two people — the other being Joe Frazier — to beat Ali in his prime, which he did in a 1973 match where he broke Ali’s jaw. Ali won their first rematch by a close split decision and their second rematch by unanimous decision. Many people believe that Norton should have won their third fight, one of them being Muhammad Ali himself, who said at the time:
Kenny’s style is too difficult for me. I can’t beat him, and I sure don’t want to fight him again. I honestly thought he beat me in Yankee Stadium, but the judges gave it to me, and I’m grateful to them.
Larry Holmes fought Ken Norton in 1978 and won a close split decision after 15 grueling rounds. On May 11, 1981, Gerry Cooney knocked out Ken Norton in 54 seconds.
So that’s where the hype came from.
Hopes Dashed: Since the Holmes vs. Cooney fight, there has been much debate as to how justified the hype surrounding Gerry Cooney was. On one hand, he had an undefeated record with an incredible knockout rate. On the other, he fought mostly nobodies, and of the more illustrious names he did fight, most of them were over the hill. Ken Norton and Ron Lyle were 38 years old when Cooney fought them, which is ancient by top-level boxing standards. What muddies the waters further is that in the year in between his fight with Ken Norton and his title shot against Larry Holmes, Cooney began drinking heavily and using cocaine, vices which would ultimately destroy his hopes for a comeback. We will never know what might have been had Cooney stayed clean and kept his focus.
Although perhaps it was in the cards all along. Cooney had a lot of confidence and self-esteem issues resulting from his father’s emotional abuse. As Cooney later said:
I grew up in a rough Irish Catholic family. My father was a big drinker. There’s a lot of abuse that took place. I learned a lot of “you’re not good enough,” low self-esteem, failure. I took that with me all my life. I hid behind it through fighting. It created a big hole right in my chest and I felt empty. When I first drank, the alcohol filled that hole and made me feel attractive, funny, confident. I drank for the next 20 years. A very big mistake.
Cooney went on an apology tour where he said he was sorry to everyone for letting them down. Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith commented:
Who was Cooney fighting for — the neighbors or himself? If it was himself, why would he feel the need to apologize? Was it for his father? “I never fought because of my father,” he would flare one moment. “I started to box before he pushed me. It had nothing to do with him.” And then, in an unguarded moment of anguish with a friend, it tumbled from his tongue. “My father would never have lost to Holmes.”
Cooney suffered a nervous breakdown following the Holmes match:
I grew up in a house where I learned five things from my old man: “You’re no good. You’re a failure. You’re not going to amount to anything. Don’t trust nobody, and don’t tell nobody your business.” When I lost to Larry Holmes, I felt all five of those things smacked me right across the face.
Another problem that held back Cooney’s career was his refusal to sign with Don King, who owned most of the other top contenders. Cooney would fight five more times after the Larry Holmes match. His next fight after Holmes did not happen for another two years. He scored a couple of knockout wins against two literal nobodies, and another in 1986. There were reports at this time that he was showing up to training inebriated. In 1987, Cooney finally faced another serious opponent in Michael Spinks, which ended with Cooney losing by TKO in the fifth round. His final fight was on January 10, 1990, when he lost to a 41-year old George Foreman on his comeback trail.
One person who has defended Cooney’s legacy is his old rival Larry Holmes:
In the years that followed, I’d get into arguments with people who would try to tell me Gerry Cooney was a bum. I really felt otherwise. That he never did get to be champion puzzled me. I believed in him. I even bet and lost five grand on him when he fought and lost to Michael Spinks. And I lost another five grand when George Foreman knocked him out. Ask me what happened to Cooney, and I’m still at a loss. Something on the mental side, I suspect. Maybe, as some experts said, Cooney never really wanted to be a boxer. In the beginning, he was pushed into it by his disciplinarian father. Against me, he was doing it for white America. Maybe the reasons Cooney walked into that ring were never compelling to him. I don’t know.
Tommy “The Duke” Morrison
Why he was a Great White Hope: Tommy Morrison is best remembered for playing the villainous boxer Tommy Gunn is Rocky V (fun fact: he also had an uncredited role as a resistance fighter in They Live). But in the early 1990s, he had some legitimate buzz for being a Great White Hope. His career’s high point came in 1993, when he won a unanimous decision against a 44-year-old George Foreman for the vacant World Boxing Organization title. This technically made Morrison the first white champion — albeit not the undisputed champ — since Ingemar Johansson, and the first white American champ since Rocky Marciano. There has not been another white American champ since.
Hopes dashed: He got AIDS.
Then the Klitschko brothers showed up in the late 1990s and would be followed by a number of fighters from the former Eastern Bloc who would take over the heavyweight division in the 2000s.
I believe that covers the major Great White Hopes of the second half of the twentieth century. I’m sure those who are bigger boxing nerds than I am can think of a few more. An honorable mention should go to Andrew “King of the Crotch Punch” Golata and Randall “Tex” Cobb.
You can buy Greg Johnson’s Toward a New Nationalism here.
But before we go, we should ask: How did white people take over heavyweight boxing? Are Eastern Europeans really that good, or have blacks lost interest in boxing?
There is some anecdotal evidence from gym owners that blacks are not getting into the sport as much as they used to. One possibility is that their material conditions have improved. Boxing has historically been a working-class sport. Getting punched in the face for a living is not something most people would choose to do if they had any better options. Many blacks took up boxing to “get out of the ghetto,” and maybe today they find other ways to do that.
Heavyweight boxing has lost a lot of its audience to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in recent years, and certainly some blacks who might have become boxers in previous generations have gone there. While the current heavyweight UFC champ is black, blacks are not anywhere near as dominant in UFC as they were in heavyweight boxing in the twentieth century. Thus I don’t think that would explain it entirely.
Another possibility is that blacks’ domination of heavyweight boxing was a source of racial pride, and the flood of white champions on the 2000s meant that the sport no longer “belonged to them” — and thus lost its appeal.
Note
[1] There is a popular belief that white boxers cut more easily than black boxers. I have tried to find a definitive answer as to why this is to no avail. Some say it’s so because black skin is thicker, but I’ve also heard that it’s just that blood is more visible white boxers bleed. Some also say this is the case because whites have sharper bones. If someone has a definitive answer to this question, I’d be curious to know.
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10 comments
Nice trip down memory lane for me. I would add that Gerrie Coetzee and Franz Botha (both South Africans) held pieces of the heavyweight belt in the 80s (Coetzee) and 90s (Botha).
I became a Botha fan after seeing him on the undercard for Tyson vs Holyfield. Thought about including him but it ended up on the cutting room floor. Didn’t know he held a piece of the title.
I recall thinking Cooney was competitive enough in the fight against Larry Holmes until he ran out of gas in the later rounds. Most thought he would be champ someday as Cooney was very young when he fought Holmes. But he had lots of injuries and seemed unmotivated after that.
George Chuvalo – a Canadian – fought Ali and sent him to the hospital (though he lost a decision).
You beat me to it. Ali called George Chuvalo the toughest man he ever fought. He couldn’t be knocked down.
In hindsight, I should have included George Chuvalo. His name came up a few times in researching this. Jerry Quarry’s loss to Chuvalo was a major setback in his career.
Also honorable mention to British boxer Henry Cooper who is another one of the four people to knock down Muhammad Ali.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QluJJaU1vA4
Christian white guys to boot.
Standing ovation for this gem! Being one of Counter Currents cinephiles maybe you’d consider reviewing some of all time greatest films about the sport (please don’t include Rocky)? Bogart’s last film, The Harder They Fall is one I’d consider in the top three. The Setup and Chuck Wepner’s favorite Requiem for a Heavyweight are also great.
The original 1931 version of The Champ is my favorite. Or maybe the Charles Bronson movie Hard Times but that’s technically about bareknuckle prizefighting. Honestly, I thought Cinderella Man was excellent.
When Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner were to appear together on TV to promote the fight, Ali asked Wepner to call him a “nigger” live on air in order to generate buzz. When Wepner refused, Ali went on air and accused Wepner of calling him a nigger backstage. Muhammad Ali wanted the fight to be as racialized as possible.
Nothing sums up the character of that overrated pile of subsaharan shit like that story. I swear to god I can’t handle another movie/documentary/public blowjob to this thankfully dead gasbag. Yeah yeah, he “challenged White America blah blah blah” come up with some new material, sports “journalist” shitlibs. Okay, I feel better now.
Mr. LeBlanc: apologies if I missed it in your article, but do you have a theory as to why the popularity of professional boxing has been on the decline since, oh, I guess after the Tyson years. Do you think there’s a causal relation to the rise of white dominance in the heavyweight class, or can the blame be solely placed at UFC? Just curious as to your thoughts on this.
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