Which early fighters life stories do you find the most fascinating?

Jack Johnson's for sure.

First black HW champion in history, in an era that still had people remember the times when black people were slaves.

Openly had sexual relationships with women at a time when one would get lynched for even looking at one's direction.

Hated by basically all white America and somehow did not recieve a bullet between his eyes with his outrageous antics.

Learned how to fight in battle royales.

Most oscar bait movie of all time, this would be. But what a film it would be.

 

Mike Donovan met Abraham Lincoln, fought in the Civil War, fought John L. Sullivan and played a role in his development as well as in the development of Corbett and Fitzsimmons, trained Roosevelt.

John Morrissey was a gang leader in the gold rush, then became champion, then eventually got elected to congress.

 

I’d love a Jack Johnson film but I also know that the creators wouldn’t approach it with any objectivity

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_Hope_(film)

 

In brief

Glaukos was a farm boy. His plow broke. He fixed it without a hammer. His pops watched him hammering spikes with his fists and sent him to the Olympics. He struggled with the polish of well trained fighters but his chin held and his punch proved too strong for any man.

His son became a two time champion at Olympia.

Glaukos would be installed as a governor by a tyrant leader in Greece whose name I've forgotten. Tragically, Glaukos and his people would find their end by way of genocide.

 

They actually made a movie about him . James Earl Jones was the star
the movie "The Great White Hope". early 70's.

 

Yes, amazing isn't it that he was never killed by the racist whites of the day.......or maybe we need to rethink things.

 

Again they already made a film, but you're right the film they would make today wouldn't be objective, it would be so woke, it would bomb.

 

Literally thousands of cases of Lynchings after the Civil War, Jim Crow, "share cropping " and entire communities wiped off the face of the country would beg to differ with you.
Jack Johnson was simply lucky....
And was smart enough to know where to go....
And most importantly, where NOT to go.

 

I'm talking about Johnson, he survived despite his inyour face attitude, so yeah if someone really wanted to get him he wouldn't have.

 

I know you're talking about Johnson.
But as I wrote, he knew where to go,
and more importantly where not to...
Or at least when to act the fool ,
And when not to.

 

That's an extremely suspect statement... as is saying that a film about the struggles of a black man born in 1878 would bomb for not being "objective" and being "woke".

What objectivity do you think would be missed and what exactly do you think needs to be rethought about Gilded Age America ?

 

On one occasion someone broke into his hotel and shot at him with a rifle… A neat scene that happened in real life…A white featherweight (or lower) bottled him on the top of his dome for not giving him a towel before a fight, Johnson told him he wouldn’t do the same *clunk* he took a knee naturally… Johnson went out to fight right after this assault - it’d be interesting to see his formative years looking up to con men and heading a small street gang in Texas.

 

uh, it wasn’t for a lack of desire to kill him on their part.