Requiem for a Heavyweight is a dark and depressing tale of misplaced loyalties and one human’s inhumanity to another.
The Emmy Award-winning play and 1962 movie tell the classic story of Mountain McClintock, the punch-drunk and aged-out fighter who faces the reality of life after boxing. His manager Maish is the personification of everything that is evil about a pariah who has spent his career living off Mountain’s blood, sweat and tears in the ring.
In a final dastardly act, knowing that Mountain is washed up, Maish bets against him. But the loyal Mountain soldiers on for all 15 rounds, taking a terrible beating, thinking that he can win for Maish’s sake. As the story ends, Maish talks the ever trusting Mountain into the ultimate humiliation of playing the clown by going back into the ring as a professional wrestler — stripping him of whatever dignity has left. Loyal to a fault, the curtain goes dark as the once noble Mountain enters the ring dressed as an Indian Chief. How much lower can he go?
The recent appearance of Cleveland boxing promoter Don King on behalf of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump raises the same question, how low can he go?
The 85-year-old King’s TV appearances and groveling minstrel-esque walk-ons for Trump are classic examples of a man far past his prime trying to re-live his glory days of an era long gone. Repeatedly appearing in the same disheveled-looking, graffiti adorned-denim jacket and his trademark hair, King is being clowned — he just doesn’t realize it. In his prime, he promoted big-time fights, many of which were held at Trump’s venues, when Trump needed King to bring the rich and famous to his struggling casinos.
Over the years King has likely played the role of Maish in dealing with his own aging fighters. Now the tables are turned. That role is now played by Trump, who, not knowing any other black person, dusted off King as a surrogate (or perhaps more properly called sycophant) to shuffle before the American public and sing his praises. And like Maish’s treatment of Mountain, he throws him out into a media circus where he can be subjected to a final humiliation.
This fact alone should tell you something about Trump. Other than a few jack-legged ministers who walk a thin line between pimping and preaching, and the professional “Uncle Toms for Trump” he digs up to appear on the cable news circuit, it seems that King is the only Negro that Trump can find, other than fellow ex-con Mike Tyson, to attest to his racially diverse circle of friends and supporters. Even Dr. Ben Carson seems to have dropped off Trump’s radar screen in recent weeks. And even those Negroes who have traditionally been for sale to the highest bidder in other campaigns have maintained enough racial pride and personal integrity to turn Trump down.
In response to a recent question by CNN host Michael Smerconish as to how King would promote this past Monday night’s presidential debate, King went on a mindless tirade that labeled the debate a battle between liberty and tyranny, as Smerconish smirked and graciously allowed him ramble on. King expounded several minutes of gobbledygook and gibberish with references to the thirteen colonies, taxation without representation, and the suffering of black men and white women. He concluded by saying that all of America’s problems will be solved with the election of his longtime friend Donald J. Trump.
Rather than ridicule King, I think that he is a man to be pitied. Having sold his soul to the Republican Party in a Faustian deal years ago, King has had no choice over the years but to dance to their tune. At age 85 one would think that he had paid off his debt by now.
Coupled with his appearance at a local church where he dropped the “N” word for the benefit of a national audience and continued to grovel at the feet of feet of his “Great White Hope,” King is now the very image of the tragic Mountain in Requiem — a man who should be pitied.
In horse racing, once great stallions sometimes end up in a can of dog food or a glue factory — they shoot horses, don’t they? Maybe that’s a little kinder than having a once noble beast relegated to the indignities of having to be a humiliated nag.
For a man who, in the 1970s and 1980s, was at the top of his game in terms of the boxing world; whose image appeared in Madam Toussaint’s Wax Museum in Las Vegas; who promoted some of the biggest fights in the history of boxing, it’s pretty sad that he has resorted to cooning in his later years. And even sadder — he doesn’t even realize how he is being played the fool.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection and was recently appointed to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
4 Responses to “Requiem for a Heavyweight – the Humiliation of Don King by C. Ellen Connally”
Alice Gould Butts
Way to tell it, Ellen!
Everett Prewitt
A great analogy. How desperate can either one of them be to see any benefit from one another?
Alexis Jones
This is a beautifully written analogy of a declining African American business man. Good bad or indifferent he did breakthrough barriers but not without losing his soul. It happens when greed Trumps common sense morals but not without a price. Unfortunately, the price for him is becoming and excepting his plight as nothing more than a whitewash NEGRO. This is a sad commentary to a man who in many ways made his own mark in the world but could never overcome the stigma of a label given to his ancestors to Keep them in their places. Sorry to see that regardless of his accomplishments he can only envision himself as Trump’s Negro.
Delores Richison
Your Honor not only has it been a pleasure knowing you through my late Father Tony Richison, this article is spot on and if was still living I’m quite sure he would have applauded you as I do. The truth is the light he would say. Thank you for this interesting analogy of how sad Don King has become knowing that he has lived through terrible times of inequality in his 85 years of life.