It had been more than two decades since a white man had won the world heavyweight boxing title.
The eccentric promoter Don King knew not only that, but that the United States was still a country with deep racial divisions. So when Gerry Cooney — a stout, white New Yorker with a punishing left hook — agreed in the summer of 1982 to face the reigning champion, Larry Holmes, who was black and from the Pennsylvania rust belt, King knew what he had to do.
“If it’s an antagonistic fight between two blacks, it’s one thing,” King said in a recent interview.