The Great White Hope (film) over their marriage and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912. Set between 1910 and 1915, the story follows Jack Jefferson, patterned after real-life boxer, Jack Johnson, going on a hot streak of victories in the boxing ring as he defeats every white boxer around. Soon the press and racists announce the search for a "great white hope", a boxer who will defeat Jefferson for the heavyweight title. Meanwhile, Jefferson prepares for a few more matches, but he lets his guard down by courting the beautiful, and very white, Eleanor Bachman, and when everyone, including Jack's black "wife", discover this, the
The Great White Hype all involved in the fight (citing the Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney battle in 1982 and the playing of the race card in that instance as a precedent), and he vows to either find or "create" a white contender in no time at all. After failing to find a white boxer currently in the sport suitable by any means, he discovers that Roper actually lost to a white boxer, Terry Conklin (Peter Berg), back in his amateur days. The Sultan and his unethical crew (which contains actors Cheech Marin, Jon Lovitz, Salli Richardson and Corbin Bernsen) find Conklin in Cleveland,