Shane Mosley: The Great Black Hope

The Great White Hope: The term, "the great white hope," reflects the racism and segregation of the era in which Johnson fought. It could be argued that Johnson, the first African American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship title, was the best fighter of his generation. Yet, white reaction against Johnson's win and his very public relationships with white women was so strong that, in 1912, the United States Congress, concerned that scenes of Johnson pummeling white boxers would cause race riots, passed a law making it illegal to transport prizefight films across state lines. "The great white hope" is a reference to the boxer who whites hoped would finally defeat Johnson The following year, Holmes agreed to fight him (Gerry Cooney). With a purse of ten million dollars for the challenger, it was the richest fight in boxing history to that time. The promotion of the fight took on racial overtones that were exaggerated by the promoters, something Cooney did not agree with. He believed that skill, not race, should determine if a boxer was good. However, if Cooney won, he would have become the first Caucasian world heavyweight champion since Swede Ingemar Johansson defeated Floyd Patterson 23 years earlier. This caused Don King to label Cooney "The Great White Hope." The bout drew attention worldwide, and Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney was one of the biggest closed-circuit/pay-per-view productions in history, broadcast to over 150 countries. Bob Arum is using the same tactics King and other promoters used before him with Pacquiao-Mosley- he's building Shane up to be the Great Black Hope. Instead of downplaying or rejecting Bernard Hopkins' racially-geared comments and saying what Cooney said about the race card trumping skills, ability, etc; Arum is bolstering them and more or less mimicking them to the press recently. I think as the hype for this fight really builds, the main selling point will be Pacquiao taking on the 'African-American style' for the first time in his career and the racial overtones will be used to push this onto the masses. "Bernard Hopkins took some criticism for saying what he said, but Hopkins is a good student of the game," said Arum. "It's not any racist kind of thing that he's saying," said Arum. "It's just that the African-American style that we all know -- and, even though not every African-American fights that style -- but the African American style is a distinct style." ^That's how he's planning on getting people talking and excited about a not so attractive bout. Pulling the race card blatantly. I'm sure there'll be a whole lot more where that came from in articles, Sports talk shows, 24/7, etc. Am I the only one who feels like there should be a little bit of outrage about comments like that? What am I saying? This is boxing! :lol1: