This story is from Burt Sugar and considering its his story im not sure of its authenticity, but it goes in 1923, Langford approached Doc Kearns for a fight with Dempsey, Langford was was fighting for twenty years and was now blind in one eye, he asks Kearns for the fight and Kearns replies "Sam, we're looking for an easy fight." this is a guy who was well apst his prime and blind in one ye and they would not take the fight, sam langford, a true boxing great. again i dont know how true it is considering the source, anyone verify it? Sugar told another story where after Langford cornered Johnson after ages chasing him for a shot at the HW title, Johnson replied "that no one wants to watch two black men fight", in essence he drew the colour line against Langford... If true, the Dempsey story sure shows how great Sam was a fighter, even in his condition he was refused the fight, Demspey admitted he was scared of Langford and it was for good reason.
The Langford book by Clay Moyle details Langford's repeated attempts to get a 2nd match with Johnson. Johnson appeared to want no part of Langford. I don't recall that quote from Doc Kearns being in the book but I'm not positive of that. It is very well known that Dempsey thought very highly of Sam. I seem to recall a story about Dempsey and his camp not wanting to fight Langford when Dempsey was still pretty green which would've been well before 1923.
p.s. There's also a quote from Dempsey which states something to the effect of "the only man I fear is Sam Langford"...........Peter Heller's book "In this Corner" has a great quote from Philadelphia Jack O'Brien. He was comparing Stanley Ketchel and Sam Langford. It wasn't terribly complimentary of Ketchel but O'Brien raved about Langford and said (I'm paraphrasing somewhat from memory.): "when Langford showed up in the other corner, you knew you were cooked"
I've never heard of Langford approaching Kearns for a match with Dempsey but I do know that Dempsey certainly feared Langford. One quote I've heard said by Dempsey is "The hell I feared no man. There was one man I wouldn't fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford." I've also read that one of Dempseys managers previous to Kearns, John 'The Barber' Reisler had planned to match Dempsey up with Langford as Reisler apparently had managed Langford at times and would take a big cut on such a fight but Dempsey flat out refused to fight Langford. As far as Jack Johnson not wanting to fight Langford a second time there were many excuses he used to avoid the match up. Not too sure if I've heard him use that exact line though.
I know the quotes and most people believe they are true. I've also read a similar thing in an interview with Dempsey in an old copy of The Ring. I actually think Jack was being kind. Sam was a greater fighter but at that point in his career he would have been bacon and eggs to Dempsey. He may have been spooked (a bit like the rumours of Tyson with Old Foreman - if true) but I guess, and so do toehrs, that there was a lot of respect from Jack to Sam.
True,but When reporters asked Sam Langford, who would win the match between Jack Dempsey and Harry Wills [cancelled], Langford replied 'well my money is on Jack, for he is the greatest heavyweight I ever saw ". An opinion from a great fighter,about the prime Jack Dempsey[pre Tunney]
for me its certain that jack would beat wills, a more interesting bout is sam and jack, who wuld take that i wonder?
