How good was Sam Langford?

I think its more they want a simple lineage and want to sanitize the complicated history of early boxing. They've done the same thing with the ABA and Tunneys and Grebs belts. I think since today many are annoyed by too many champions they are more interested in having a clear champion then they are in understanding and learning about the sports more complicated history. Especially the period when the boxing world didn't yet revolve around US domestic affairs like the Sun. They see the early days as a simple time period when it wasn't.

Langfords didn't lose either of his titles in the ring. The NSC belt got given to Wells in 1911 and a few months after crowning Langford the IBU got a little distracted by this Austrian guy getting shot. They didn't name another champion until 1919. So its easy to omit from the story of the sport.

Unlike Sullivan(cough*) Johnson was clearly the lineal champ when Langford had his claims and he had a win over Langford as well timed as it was. The lineal champ isn't always the best champ and in 1913 the lineage was not globally agreed upon as this sacred cultural institution. The problem is trying to pretend Langford wasn't a champion. In the time Jack Johnson defended his title 4 times after 1909 Langford fought 40 times. Much of the world considered him "the champ".


I say I don't acknowledge some modern alphabet titles because they shouldn't have been titles. But those are very well documented by the historical record and I'm not trying to pretend they never happened. And it stems from thinking an individual title matchup was clearly unworthy of a title fight. Not because this guy whose number 1 on a lot of GOAT lists wasn't lineal.

 

Dempsey was the heavyweight champion. You're not making anyone squirm.

 

Bro you are too stupid to realize what you wrote is a case-in-point not a counterpoint. Have a great one bud.

 

Most of the taken for granted framing I got abouts challenging is a side effect of the root.

Does not change the fact that it is racist propaganda. It's a nice rationalization and justification but the fact is they avoided allowing a black man fight for the HW title because the HW title was a propaganda piece used by bureaucrats to justify their treatment of citizens.

 

Insults of course. Obsessed with race what a surprise. I'm not your bud "bro."