The Great White Hype
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The 1996 movie The Great White Hype stars Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Berg, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davies and Jamie Foxx .
Jackson stars as Rev. Sultan, promoter of a champion boxer roughly based on Don King, who decides that he needs something new to boost the marketability of the boxing matches. He looks for a white contender and finds the only man (played by Berg) to ever beat the champ (he beat the champ when he was an amateur) ; the problem is that he isn't a boxer anymore.
However, once Rev. Sultan convinces him to fight, he goes into heavy training while the confident champ takes it easy and falls out of shape. The movie is loosely based on the Larry Holmes/Gerry Cooney fight of 1983, and the concept is based on the Henry Tillman/Mike Tyson amateur fights during the boxoffs for the Unites States American team. Tillman beat Tyson twice, and although he did not have a successful professional career, Tillman became the last person to beat Tyson until he lost to Buster Douglas in 1990.
The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
