Josh Hokit, a 231-pound former NFL fullback, stepped off his back foot, spun from his hips and slammed his right fist into his opponent’s left ear. The impact sounded wet and sharp as it echoed over the White House lawn.
In the massive crowd just metres to the south, tens of thousands of mostly young, mostly men “oooooo”d as one as Hokit stepped in and swung again. He hit his foe, a larger man named Derek “the Black Beast” Lewis, with a left hand to the face, then another behind the ear — CRACK — and another, before Lewis, stiff-legged and wobbling, toppled to the floor of the chain-link cage. The referee stepped between the two men. Hokit swaggered away. His chest heaved. He walked out, still topless, glistening in the 30 degree heat, to the ringside seats where he shook hands with the President of the United States.