Jeff Harding’s famous win over Dennis Andries gave Donald Trump a lesson in climbing off the canvas
DONALD Trump shifts uneasily in his seat as the pressure builds toward bursting. It is one of the great moments in Australian sport and Trump, the man who made political history this week, was taking mental notes under that vast orange bouffant.
In the biggest fights — no matter how many times you get knocked down or bashed off course — you are never beaten until the final bell.
It’s June 24, 1989, Round 12 of the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title fight between Australia underdog Jeff Harding, a keen surfer from South Grafton, and Dennis Andries a hard- as-nails West Indian lion.
Like Hillary Clinton in the presidential race three decades later, the raging favourite has given the brash outsider a pounding for almost all of the contest, exposing him as raw and inexperienced on the big stage.
Like Trump, Harding leads with his chin and as the battle enters the closing stages the favourite is so far in front the result seems a foregone conclusion.
Back in 1989 I was ringside to see one of the great moments in Australian boxing but it was also an object lesson for Trump, then a brash real estate investor sitting in a row of heavyweights next to promoter Don King, world champ Mike Tyson and Aussie great Jeff Fenech.
Trump had made Atlantic City the world capital of boxing thanks to his hotel and casino interests, topped by Trump Plaza, Trump Castle and the Trump Taj Mahal, then the largest casino in the world.
More than 200 contractors were still owed $70 million when the Taj Mahal opened and Trump needed to take $1.3 million a day just to make the interest payments, something no other casino had ever done.
Big fights drew the high rollers. Trump hosted and even grappled on WrestleMania and the rough and tumble hype would flavour his speechmaking on the way to the White House.
In 1988 Trump bid a record site fee of $US11 million to stage the Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks fight at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, adjacent to Trump Plaza.
It was then the biggest grossing fight of all time, even though just 10 punches were landed and Tyson won in 91 seconds.
Tyson became the promoter’s Trump card, also knocking out Larry Holmes, Carl Williams and Alex Stewart in Atlantic City. When Tyson was eventually accused of rape, Trump defended his actions and Tyson came out swinging for Trump in the Presidential race.
On June 24, 1989 Trump hosted Harding’s unlikely shot at Andries.
Having worked Harding’s corner alongside trainer Johnny Lewis for most of his early fights I travelled to Atlantic City for the big showdown well aware that it would take something extraordinary for Harding to defy the odds.
The flight into Atlantic City, 200km south of New York, was shrouded in fog.
But suddenly the heavens parted and before us was an array of sky scrapers brandishing the name ``Trump’’ and an immense yacht, the Trump Princess. The city boasted wealth and extravagance but it was all a con.
A block behind the ritzy high-rise hotels and flashing neon was a different America, the desperate urban poor, the disillusionment, drugs and guns.
Trump was selling his gilt fantasy to the world but on fight night there was no artifice. Baseball greats Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio were ringside, too, as another pair of sluggers, Harding and Andries, went for the throat.
It was a fight as ugly as the Trump-Clinton election battle.
For 11 rounds Andries was in front, hammering home his advantage.
But Trump and everyone else that afternoon sensed the mood of the people changing.
In his corner before the start of Round 12, Harding’s trainer Johnny Lewis told his battered fighter to dig deep. Like Trump 27 years later, Harding threw everything in the last round and with a seemingly unassailable lead the favourite was chopped down in stunning fashion.
Trump leapt to his feet, astonished.
It would take a long time before he could replicate that win.
Spiralling debt proved too much and despite a big loan from his wealthy father, Trump was soon $900 million in the red. Within a year of opening his Taj Mahal went bust and he eventually pulled out of Atlantic City as the big fights left for Las Vegas.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s casino companies made four trips to bankruptcy court, each time persuading bondholders to accept less money rather than be wiped out.
Stock and bondholders lost more than $1.5 billion.
But Trump could never be counted out.
``Atlantic City fuelled a lot of growth for me,” Trump said in an interview in May. ``The money I took out of there was incredible.”
Originally published as When an Aussie showed Trump how to win
