Randy Gordon: Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder Fight Transcended Race

Randy Gordon, host of Sirius XM Fight Nation’s At the Fights, told Breitbart News that the recent bout between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder showed how boxing had transcended the racism of its past.

Fury defeated Wilder for the WBC heavyweight championship by technical knockout in the seventh round. It was a rematch of their first fight in December 2018, which ended in a thrilling draw.

Breitbart News Sunday host Joel Pollak noted that the theme of race, once so prevalent in boxing, and especially when black and white fighters met in the ring, had been almost entirely absent from the fight.

Gordon agreed:

When Gerry Cooney fought Larry Holmes — 1982, we’re not talking 1882, America was as divided as I’ve ever seen it. It was the blacks against the whites … there was so much hatred in that fight, white Gerry Cooney against black Larry Holmes, that both guys got death threats, and the FBI had sharpshooters on top of the roof at Caesars Palace and at other sites all around at the makeshift arena in that parking lot.

…

There was no racism whatsoever in this [Wilder-Fury] fight, and there shouldn’t be. And again, as I mentioned, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder are close friends, and I think they’re going to be best friends. And I know both of them. And I’ll tell you. I don’t think there’s a racist bone in either guy’s body, in either guy’s camp. And that’s one of the reasons I love this sport. I don’t see it. I work with white fighters and black fighters and all colors. There is no racism in my sport. It’s in other places in the world — not in my sport.

t the Fight on Monday and Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET on Sirius XM Fight Nation, channel 156.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.