Keith McKnight arrived at the boxing gym a tall (6-foot-6), skinny (165 pounds) 17-year-old. I introduced him to boxing, and trained him for eight years. I was his coach and trainer throughout his amateur days, and later shared those duties with several other trainers during his pro career. As an amateur, Keith compiled a 32-7 record and won numerous regional tournaments, including the Golden Gloves. When he turned pro, he grew to 220 pounds.

Keith is a very popular, good-natured young man. He loved to play practical jokes on others and he loved to laugh. Almost every day, he had a new joke to tell everyone.

McKnight would become one of the most graceful boxers you would ever see. He had tremendous God-given, athletic ability. He was blessed with height, speed and great coordination. He had quick hands and was very mobile and elusive. His only physical problem was that he was thin. Critics said he did not hit hard enough, that he lacked courage and he wasn’t physically strong enough to compete as a premier heavyweight. Plus, he was white, and good, white heavyweight fighters were rare. Ever since the days of the great Jack Johnson, the first black man to win the world heavyweight title, people have been searching for the next "Great White Hope."

Mark Gastineau is a former all-pro defensive end in the National Football League who played for the New York Jets from 1979 until ’88. A ferocious pass rusher, he accumulated 100.5 quarterback sacks in his first 100 starts in the league. In 1984, Gastineau set the record for most sacks in a single season (22), which stood for 16 years until the New York Giants’ Michael Strahan controversially broke it in 2001, as Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre seemingly allowed Strahan to sack him.

Gastineau retired from professional football and began a career in professional boxing. Those who managed his boxing career wanted to capitalize on his name and build an impressive record for him against hand-picked opponents. Their goal was to secure a huge payday against former heavyweight champion George Foreman. Because of his sheer size, brute strength and athletic ability, Mark would have won some professional boxing matches against the right opponents without any training.