June 11, 1982 is a day that I will never forget. It is also one that I believe tells us all we need to know about how tonight will turn out. Please read to the end and hopefully you’ll catch my drift :)
The most important thing to remember? Don’t believe the hype.
In 1982 the world of boxing was as racially polarized as it has ever been. Larry Holmes was the heavyweight champion of the world and It had been 22 years since a white fighter had held that title. A fact that unsurprisingly had a certain segment of the population antsy to the point of rage. Enter to this reality “Gentleman” Gerry Cooney— The great white hope who had up to this point won his first 25 professional fights..
Now I don’t want to say anything bad about Gerry as a person. He was in fact a true gentleman and his charitable endeavors post boxing cement that legacy. The thing is though for as good of a man Gerry was he just wasn’t that good of a boxer. He was an OK boxer I’ll give you but nowhere near as good as Larry Holmes.
Larry Holmes was a great fighter who to that point had compiled a 39-0 record. Larry’s biggest strength was an incredible long, straight jab. Not the most crowd pleasing weapon like a big right hook but a precise workmanlike punch that slowly but surely wore down his opponents.
Gentleman Gerry never had a chance. In boxing there is an axiom that styles make fights and Gerry was a slow plodder with a big punch and a big heart but poor defense. He had never been in the ring with an opponent of Larry Holme’s caliber. Holme’s jab would be more than enough to keep Cooney at a distance until the inevitable happened and Cooney was felled. Everybody who knew boxing and could look at the fight objectively knew that’s what would happen but somehow the general public never got the memo and on the day of the fight Holmes was just a meager 8:5 favorite in a match he surely couldn’t lose.
There’s many reasons for that of course. The first obvious one was that like in all prize fights those promoting the fight have a vested money interest in the fight being seen as competitive. Thus the reason why despite his inferior pedigree Cooney was given equal billing and received the lions share of publicity and magazine covers. His 25 wins were portrayed as remarkable and his skill exaggerated even though truth was his was a “padded” record if there ever was one. Another factor just had to do with Larry Holmes himself. Larry was very good fighter but easy to dislike. Like I said before he didn’t have the flashiest arsenal in the world, he just won. Another thing going against him was the fact that his predecessor with the belt was Muhammad Ali. Holmes was good but he was never going to be Ali and it was easy for people to hold that against him. Then of course there was the elephant in the room that needs to be mentioned. A press corp dominated by white males hardly made for the most objective opinions.
To make what’s turning into a long story short— the hype was polarizing and endless and by the time fight day occurred the nation was holding it’s collective breath in anticipation of what was about to come.
To say it was anti-climatic would be underselling it. No amount of hype was going to make Cooney a better boxer. When the the bell rang for round one the only thing that was left were 2 boxers and their skills and weaknesses alone in a ring displaying to the world the only reality about the fight that mattered. Holmes dominated the fight, easily taking control in the middle rounds and dropping Cooney by KO in round 13. He would go on to may more years as champion while Cooney fought only sporadically after.
Why am I bringing all this up now on the eve of the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? Easy. To make the point again about not believing the hype and also to remind all of you who are understandably nervous of one important thing. Styles make fights and...
THIS IS THE MOMENT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.
Tonight it is just them. Our two candidates toe-to-toe with nobody to prop them up. Hillary Clinton is vastly more talented than Donald Trump is and the a debate plays to all her strengths. She has the experience on stage from debating skilled challengers one on one. She knows the issues inside and out not because she learned them but because she lived them. There is no way that after 90 minutes people will say that Trump was more competent or had a better temperament to be president. No way. She’s prepared and ready and he’s either going to go belligerent and expose himself as a fool or play it straight and expose himself as intellectually inferior. That’s it. If anything the upside is even greater for Hillary because the public perception of her is based on things that are mostly false and she will have the opportunity tonight to show a different reality. That and the fact that Donald Trumps so-called strengths tend to piss a lot of people off. Remember DONALD TRUMP’S POLL NUMBERS DID NOT RISE AFTER REPUBLICAN DEBATES IN ALMOST ALL INSTANCES THEY FELL.
But what about the moderator you say? It doesn’t matter. In fact it’s probably better if Hillary does the exposing all on her own. Remember the speech in San Diego? Ouch
But what about the media? It doesn’t matter. It’s like the conventions— the media spun like a dervish hesitating to call the trainwreck of the Republican convention what it was but it didn’t matter. People tuned in and what was seen could not become unseen. In fact this is even better because it will be somewhere around 100 minutes before the media can even say a word and by then the cake will be baked.
My prediction- reality hits hard tonight, Hillary wears Donald down with preparation and facts and wins decisively by KO.
