Requiem for a Great White Hope

By Norm Fraueneheim-

The third Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate, the only fight worth watching throughout a barren October full of cancelled and postponed bouts, was anther example of how closely politics and boxing are linked by language, tone and turmoil.

History, too.

The more I watched Trump, the more I thought of a Great White Hope. He’s just another one and – if the polls are accurate – he’ll go the way of James J. Jeffries and Jerry Quarry.

Jeffries, the original White Hope, quit in the 15th-round against Jack Johnson on July 4, 1910, in Reno, Nev. Then, there was Jeffries’ successor, Jerry Quarry, who was saddled with an unwanted title in losing to Muhammad Ali in Ali’s 1970 comeback from a suspension for refusing to be drafted during the Viet Nam War.

Over more than a century, The Great White Hope has become a piece of Americana, memorialized in a Broadway play, later a film and then part of a Ken Burns documentary, Unforgivable Blackness, for PBS.

It’s an old story. A current one, too.

It was all there, all over again, Wednesday in the face of Trump, who had tried to cast doubt about Barack Obama’s right to be president by questioning his birthplace and now confronts Hillary Clinton for the political arena’s heavyweight title.

Trump turned each of the debates into a boxing new conference. It’s as if he learned the art of insult, confrontation and chaos during his days as an Atlantic City casino owner in business with Don King and Bob Arum.

Arum, by the way, had tickets to the debate at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, according to ringtv.com. Hope he got good seats. Arum, a Clinton supporter, says Trump still owes him $2.5 million for Evander Holyfield’s 1991 decision over George Foreman.

The fact that Trump and Hillary came to Vegas for the last faceoff in their trilogy couldn’t have been more appropriate.

It’s where Mike Tyson took a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. It’s where a parachutist named Fan Man dropped into an outdoor ring like the 82nd Airborne midway through a Holyfield-Riddick Bowe bout. It is a where rigged – one of Trump’s favorite words – is another way of saying buyer beware to every customer entering one of The Strip’s casinos.

It’s where boxing and politics met all over again, with pundits using words created by boxing writers.

The media, pre and post-debate, were full of head fakes and body blows and KOs. Pre-debate, I listened to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who sounded more like Michael Buffer than sober pundit. Matthews pounded the hype drum, saying everything but “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble.’’

After the debate, the various networks included moderators and guests who had to shout above crowds that shouted and chanted like rival fans at post-fight news conferences.

I heard Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who sounded a lot like Trump’s Towel Boy. Hannity’s analysis favoring Trump reminded me of former ringside judge C.J. Ross, infamous for one card that favored Timothy Bradley in a controversial decision over Manny Pacquiao in their first fight and another that scored Floyd Mayweather’s one-sided victory over Canelo Alvarez as a draw.

I’m not sure what Matthews was hyping. I’m not sure what in the hell Hannity heard or saw. But I am certain that I had witnessed another Great White Hope still on the wrong side of history.