By Neil Dennis: After Pavlik’s come from behind TKO victory against Jermain Taylor, I could not help but notice a lot of racial undertones in the postings across East Side Boxing’s website. True, I would be willing to bet there were some out there who were backing Pavlik for no other reason than he was white. What’s more, I would stand to say the same about some Taylor fans backing him simply because he is black. But why does it have to be that way? There are great fighters of every color out there now. What’s more, if you looked closer at boxing’s history, it has more often than not been the most democratized sport in the history of the world.
How many years before Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers did Joe Louis come along to show that both blacks and whites could rally around an athlete of color equally? How much longer has there been a strong Latino presence in boxing as opposed to just about any other professional sport? Ironic it is that a sport that was popularized a hundred years ago out of racial tension turned into the sport that all races had an equal chance to make their mark.
Of course, because of Jack Johnson (who arguably was more of “boogie man” to white American society for his love of white women than holding the title), the whole idea of the “white hope” was born.
Since then, ever promoter from Harry Frazee on down have tried to raise that specter of racial tension to gain interest in a fight. For example, Don King and his blatant black versus white campaign that tried to turn the Holmes-Cooney fight into Johnson-Jefferies II. And in that most weirdest of twists, let us not forget Muhammad Ali calling out black fighters he was facing as tools of the white status quo to turn every bout into a statement against white supremacy. This is why it is easy to buy into such stories as Jack Dempsey refusing to fight Harry Wills because he was black. The truth is a shady promoter screwed Dempsey on the proposed purse, forcing Dempsey to back out.
Of course, the idea of racism withing boxing is not unwarranted either. Black fighters were looked at with distain prior to Louis, primarily due to the specter of Johnson. Prior to his defense of his title against Schmeling, Louis himself was forced to endure boxing critics of the time calling him an “animal” and a “savage”. What’s more, there is the subtly of modern racism rearing its ugly head when Gerry Cooney found himself introduced AFTER champion Larry Holmes as the fight was about to begin.
But is it that really here today? From what I can see among the current titleholders, you have a champion from every corner of the Earth. From Filipino phenom Manny Pacquiao to Ukrainian powerhouse Wladimir Klitschko, the idea of “white hope” or any kind of racial or ethic hope seems antiquated and stupid. Personally, I thought that racial tension really wasn’t around anyone in boxing, at least until Kelly Pavlik came into the picture as Jermain Taylor’s next opponent.
The whole thing leading up to this moment stunk to high heaven. For starters, when Pavlik was coming up he was called “The White Tommy Hearns.” Why? Couldn’t he just be called “The New Tommy Hearns” or “Tommy Hearns Reborn”? Why attach a racial stigma? How racist would be to say Larry Holmes was “The Black Rocky Marciano”? They certainly had similar records and respected punching power until Michael Spinks changed things. Why get hung up defining a fighter by his race? Even if camp Taylor and camp Pavlik were mum on the issue, their fans were not.
And that’s the sad thing, as if one race of boxers were better than another. There are great white fighters who saw their comeuppance at the hands of a black fighter. On the same token, there are great black fighters who saw their comeuppance at the hands of a white fighter. The same could be said for fighters of any other race as well; but for some reason, some fool always feels the need to stoke the racial fires. It’s garbage that fuels such idiocy as Ricardo Mayorga questioning Oscar De La Hoya’s Mexican and Latino heritage.
Boxing is really the last place racism ought to be. Boxing has a way of equalizing men and women. It shows that among the best fighters the world has to offer, the finest ones almost always rise to the top regardless their color. Isn’t it time we buried the term “The Great White Hope” once and for all?