Holmes, Cooney, race

[Scott9945]

Minter Hagler had an unpleasant air to it too

The crowd got nasty after that one ended, if I remember correctly.

[Clegg]

I seem to recall reading several years ago about there being some controversy (or at least attention) about Coetzee, the white South African, having a world title fight in South Africa against a black boxer during apartheid. I'm afraid I don't remember many details, and obviously it doesn't compare to the other fights mentioned, but I figured I'd throw it in there.

I think that the controversy was in America, as IIRC South Africans (white and black) supported Coetzee because he was well-liked by all races in his country.

During the time that I've been watching boxing (15 years), I think Mayweather-Hatton is the fight which had the most obvious racial undertones, particularly in terms of support seemingly being split along colour lines. The Golota-Bowe riot also seemed racial in nature.

[joseph5620]

After Johnson-Jeffries was Holmes-Cooney the most racially charged fight in history?

More than 70 years after Johnson-Jeffries and huge leaps and bounds in racial harmony in America Don King worked the race card to such perfection for Cooney-Holmes that white supremacists threatened to shoot Holmes and black supremacists threatened retaliation. Police snipers were placed on every nearby hotel in Las Vegas on fight night and racial tension was once again at the fore front of a major fight. What are your thoughts on this and is it in fact the second most racially charged fight in history in spite of the era it occurred?

A lot of people avoid away from this topic so I respect the fact that you brought it up, Jab. But I respectfully disagree that the racism angle was all on Don King. Sports Illustrated unfairly put Cooney on the cover of their magazine. Time Magazine featured Cooney and Sylvester Stallone on their magazine while Cooney never did anything in the ring to deserve that. They even introduced Holmes first in the ring. Cooney split the purse (10 million) with the champion Holmes only because of his color. If not for the low blow deductions Cooney would have ridiculously been ahead in that fight based on the scorecards.


Racism was coming from all angles in that fight. And as much as I dislike Don King, he didn't create it. He obviously fueled the fire but it was already there. It existed then and it exists now. Look at all of the racist Bigppoppapump allows to stay on NSB as an example.