Is the "great white hope" still a thing?

REED Doesn't Know Bob Arum Enough to Deem Him RACIST or Not, but it's CLEAR He's PISS POOR @ Promoting Black Fighters, By and Large...

No - Ali, Ray Leonard, Hearns, etc., DON'T Count Either, REED's Talking In Terms of BUILDING a Black Fighter's Career from Scratch...Arum's Done a LESS Than Stellar Job, Considering the Talent He's Had in His Stable...

For Better or Worse, Floyd is THE Biggest Money Earner in the History of Boxing, Yet He Fought in Ballroom's and On PPV Undercards w/Arum...It Wasn't Until Floyd ALREADY Had 1 Foot Out the Door That Arum FINALLY Got Floyd the PPV vs. Gatti...But That's How He Operates; When You're Disenchanted w/Arum, THEN He Gets You a Meaningful Fight, ala, Crawford vs. Porter...Like an Unfaithful Husband Bringing Flowers and Candy to His Wife...

Al Haymon Didn't Do Anything GROUNDBREAKING to Build Floyd's Brand, He Simply ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED Floyd to Be Floyd, and the Shit WORKED!!!...If He Ever Did Interviews or Sought Face Time, Haymon Might ALSO Label Floyd "Hard to Work With", But They've Grossed MORE Than a Billion Dollars Together...

There's NOfuckingWAY Arum Doesn't Look Back on his Time w/Floyd and Wonder "What If?"....

During the HEIGHT of Guillermo Rigondeaux's Pro Career, When He was Universally Considered Top 10 Lb for Lb, Arum BITCHED About Rigo's STYLE...Promoter's DON'T Do That Publicly...Instead of Simply MATCHING Rigo w/Perpetually AGGRESSIVE Guys, Arum UNDERMINED His Own Product Instead...

Same Way He UNDERMINED Floyd w/the "Slave Wages" Comment...Floyd's ACTUAL Quote Was "....Compared to What Prince Naseem is Making, That's Slave Wages"....Nonetheless, Arum LED the Charge of Negativity AGAINST Floyd....

Openly Talked Shit About Terence Crawford, Who's Also Being Under Promoted....Virtually IGNORES Shakur Stevenson, While AIDING Oscar Valdez in Covering PED Allegations and Preventing Him from Being Stripped of His Title...

Ain't Saying He's RACIST, Just Saying Bob Arum is PISS POOR @ Promoting Black Fighters...







REED

 

If Jake Paul profits reputationally from beating black opponents, its because people rate good black opponents more.

Remember.... Bernard Hopkins said you're a nobody till you've beaten good, slick Black fighters.

Its a subtle distinction... You're not famous because you beat a Black guy and it makes everyone feel better, rather Black fighter's are a recognized benchmark.

As Eddie Murphy said, White folk be like "this is real!! "



Same with middle distance and long distance running.

There was a time when Alberto Salazar was the bar. Now its a Kenyan.. Or an Ethiopian.

American sporting expressions have been in transition since the late 80s. I'd say they peaked in 1988 with the "Miracle on Ice" and Seoul....

After that, a lot of the hard core political and strict ethnic stuff died out. Suddenly Oscar was the shit. Nobody gave a fuck about Gerry Cooney if they'd ever cared.

It had a few minor resurgences in 1996 for example with whole Kerry Strug vs Russia thing.

Turns out she was more afraid of Larry Nasser than she was of the Russians.

King gave it a go with McNeely but it was forced and awkward. People were more concerned about getting the Holyfield fight sorted.

Haye gave it a go with his Drago routine but again it was all very comical.

 

In order for this great white hope thing to still hold true today it would mean that the sport of boxing would have to be dominated by black athletes like the NBA and NFL. Or in this Case the HW Champion. But we know that's no longer the case. The best HW champions are white European (Fury and Usyk) and the rest of boxing is ran by Hispanics and Eastern Europeans.

 

Nobody really cares. It's a century old thing... Older than that, really.

Over here a majority of people would prefer big black AJ to be champ, than Fury.

And they don't even know who Usyk is