fighters who should be criticized the most for drawing the color line?

Black is black ,I want my baby back.


The ink is black ,the page is white.

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony .

 

Who broke the color line in boxing? Who would you consider the Jackie Robinson of boxing?

 

George Dixon?

 

Good call.

 

A wise ass punk like u my hero??? Haha my United States Marine Corps son is my hero.
Sorry pal u don't even come close to being anything to me except for maybe something I stepped in.

 

who was it in your opinion Suzie?

 

does he have to be black ?

 

Exactly how much of the competition was eliminated in Jeffries' or Dempsey's day? I don't see "a lot of competition" eliminated during either of these two major color bar champs. I do see a little high quality competition, tho.

 

Was there really a huge call for him to defend against Martin? Jeffries had beaten Armstrong who fought on relatively even terms with Martin, and in fact, KO'd him in 3.

When Jeffries retired, McVea only had a dozen fights and more than a few of those were losses... most notably to the next guy...

Johnson had his chance against Hart in what was supposed to be an eliminator. Say what you will about Greggains' decision, Johnson had the opportunity to force the fight and didn't. The press seemed to think neither Johnson nor Hart were candidates worthy of threatening Jeffires at that time. Johnson has the best case on paper but contemporary reports, at least as I have seen them, did not show him as championship material at the time Jeffries retired.
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Again, one very high quality opponent, not "lots of competition." You could stretch it a bit and add Kid Norfolk maybe.

 

Crazy is it might sound, there seems to have been more media interest in potential matches with Martin and McVea, than there was with Johnson.

They were seen as people who might give Jeffries a good fight, while Johnson was seen as somebody who should get a title shot based on his wins, but nobody was very excited by it.

A bit like how there was much more interest in seeing Lennox Lewis fight David Tua, than the more qualified Chris Byrd.

 

Except that by 1905 Johnson had collectively beaten these two 5 times, KO'ing both and having neither return the favor.

I don't get where you're coming from. Are you saying softer touches in McVea and Martin would have been more palatable to the public?

 

Hence Jeff didn't bother to face Hart either.

 

Cast your mind back to when Lewis was champion.

He was handing belts to guys like Byrd and Ruiz, yet people wanted to see him fight guys like Grant and Tua, because they thought that they might have a chance.

The same seems to have been the case here.

I am just going by what I have read.

 

And you think people thought that McVea and Martin stood a better chance than the guy who proved comprehensively to be their superior? I don't quite get it.

To the bigger picture, how much does Jeffries' record suffer for not having met the 1900-1905 versions of McVea, Martin and Johnson?