Sam Langford is often described as Jack Johnson's nemesis. It's said that after he won the title Jack avoided Langford. Well in 1909 on July 13th in a 6 rounds no decision fight, defending his claim as the Coloured Champion, Sam Langford fought an old opponent of Jack's ,Klondike Haynes. In the first round Klondike dropped Langford with a left hook,in the second round Langford floored Klondike.In the fourth round Klondike again dropped Langford with a hook. In the fifth round Langford dropped Klondike twice. The fight was a nodec but most gave Langford the verdict .Johnson was stopped by Klondike in five rounds May 1899 after flooring him in the first round., he drew with him over 20 rounds in December 1900 and stopped him in14 rounds in1900. Klondike was in a bad patch when he lost the NWS dec to Langford 9 years later, he had won just one of his last 6 fights. My point is given Langford's performance against a going back Klondike , was he a real threat to Johnson in1909 ? Langford did ko Klondike later.
Was he a real threat ? I don't know. He was probably better equipped than he'd been when he had faced Johnson 3 years earlier, getting bigger and stronger.
Langford did knock down Klondike six times, and according to ringsiders, Klondike fouled on a few occasions to avoid being KO'd. He did KO Klondike in two rounds four months later. You could equally ask if Johnson was equipped to beat Langford given his own sub par performance the same year against Jack O'Brien, whom he failed to knock down despite a 40lb weight advantage, and which some ringsiders felt he lost. Clearly it was neither man's finest hour and probably no reflection on how a Johnson-Langford bout would go. At the very least, both would have been in better shape.
We know Johnson was not in shape for O Brien he described his own condition as being," as fat as a Japanese wrestler". What leads you to believe Langford was not in shape for Klondike?
Then I will accept that because he is objective and impartial Impartial enough to say that prime for prime Johnson beats Langford.
He was listed at 205 for the fight, same weight as his bout with Ketchel. And for those who might say there was no weigh-in, then why the very specific 172 1/2 weight for O'Brien? Furthermore, it was a 6 rounder not a 20 rounder. That's almost a Fat Willie Meehan distance. Johnson was outhustled and outsped by a very long in the tooth lightheavy who would go 3-6 over his final 9 fights. It's really hard to paint a forgiving picture out of that.
For whatever it's worth, I do think Langford was a threat to Johnson in 1909. Probably more so than anyone else was at the time at least. I would have liked to see how the fight that was to take place between the two men at the National Sporting Club after Johnson's defeat of Burns would have played out had it gone forward. The Australian trainer Duke Mullins worked with both men (Johnson & Langford) during their stays in that country and said "Johnson was never anxious to talk about Langford and normally changed the subject quickly whenever Sam's name was brought up. However, one day when dismissing Langford from a conversation, Johnson said there were dozens of easy money white men for him to meet without having to fight a tough guy like Langford." While Johnson told Duke that he felt Joe Jeannette was the toughest man he ever saw, he admitted to him that Langford was the most dangerous. Duke's own opinion was that Sam had an even-money chance with Johnson before Jack became champion (Dec. 1908), but that as Sam's weight increased and he lost some of his speed, he would have had a tough time dethroning Johnson. By Mullins way of thinking Johnson was the greatest fighter the world had ever known. So, that say's a lot to me, since Mullins worked with both men. In January of 1913, Australian promoter Hugh McIntosh provided the following quote: "he (Langford) is far and away the best heavyweight in the world now. I have tried time and time again to get Jack Johnson to meet Langford but Jack would never accept terms or sign for a meeting with the little black fellow. When I would get Johnson near the point of a match with Langford he would stall me off with some excuse. Finally I made things so hot for Johnson that he admitted to me that Langford was too tough a game to tackle, and he passed the little fellow up. A match between Langford and Johnson would have drawn no end of money in Australia. A good man can make a lot of money in my country, and had Johnson boxed Langford in Australia he could have easily have carried off $50,000 for his end." Somewhere else in my book on Sam, I recall another quote from McIntosh in which he said that Johnson told him he was wasting his time trying to get him to agree to a match with Langford because that little black smoke had a chance to win against anyone. So, it seems to me that Johnson felt Sam would have a punchers chance against anyone including himself. My personal take remains that had the two fought again after Johnson became champion Sam would have stood a puncher's chance. I believe there were periods of time where Sam should have been considered the number one contender and received an opportunity to meet him again. But, had they met again I'm of the opinion that Johnson would most likely have fought cautiously, taking advantage of his greater size and emerged with a victory by decision. But, we'll never know. I just finished Adam Pollack's 2nd volume on the career of Johnson and found it interesting to learn that his fight against Jim Flynn in July of 1912 was more difficult for him than I'd previously known. It appears that Johnson wasn't the same fighter at that time that he'd been two years earlier. Was McIntosh's quote that Sam was the best heavyweight in the world in January of 1913 his real opinion at the time, or just sour g****s because he couldn't get Johnson to agree to a match with him? I don't know.
Spectators and reporters said Johnson was considerably heavier than his advertised weight and commented on his surplus flesh. O Brien himself afterwards said Johnson was not in top shape. Several newspapers accused Johnson of carrying O Brien and when he had him in trouble laying off and allowing him to recover.Some of these papers were Philadelphian ones ,O Brien's home town.two days before the figth O Brein weighed 167lbs and the day prior to the contest said he expected to weigh between167 and 170lbs. O Brien had outpointed Ketchel over the first 5 rounds of their first fight, he was very speedy . O Brien was described as being in terrific shape, Johnson as terribly fat and blowing like a porpoise in his few public workouts My source is the second volume of Adam Pollack's Johnson biography which I hope you will accept.It's all in there. Adam has many contemporary accounts of the fight including Johnsons flooring of O Brien, O Brien's face after the fight and Johnson's unmarked one. If you want a clearer picture of what actually occurred, and particularly Johnson's condition I suggest you read his book.
