[1903] Fans applauded Jack Johnson's challenge to Jeffries-Corbett winner?

No the claim was definitely attributed to Jack Munro, in the National Police Gazette.

Adam Pollack has even tried to establish the whereabouts of Munro and McVea when it would have had to have happened.

To be clear I am not saying that it did happen.

I would be very surprised that it had not garnered more publicity if it did happen.

 

The claim was published on April 30 1904.

Sam McVea was fighting in the Los Angeles area from February 1903 to August of 1904.

Jack Munro was moving around the country a lot more, but he seems to have been operating on the East coast, and I have not been able to find any record of him being in Los Angeles at that time.

His three recorded fights of that period were in Philadelphia and Boston, with him eventually fighting Jeffries in San Francisco.

He fought Tom Sharkey in Philadelphia, on February 27 1904, and Jeffries in San Francisco on 26 August 1904.

He would have moved his base of operations to the West Coast, in order to prepare for the Jeffries fight.

It is just about possible that he fought some sort of exhibition with McVea, between the Sharkey fight and the Jeffries fight.

Having said that it would have made sense for him to lie, because McVea was being touted as a possible challenger for Jeffries at the time.

 

Then either the Police Gazette or Pollack got it wrong.

The real quote is from a syndicated Free Press piece that I've found in two newspapers from early November 1903. One story was titled "Boxing Gossip from Frisco: Johnson Determined to Get Match with Jeff," the other "Jeff Being Chased by Johnson." Both stories featured interviews of Johnson; Munroe was not mentioned in either.

Johnson, of course, fought McVea in Los Angeles on October 27, 1903, two weeks before the articles appeared.

 

Pollack cites the quote and being from the National Police Gazette April 30 1904.

It is plausible that somebody at the National Police Gazette, might have taken a statement made by Johnson, and attributed it to Munro in error.

Have you found exactly the same quote, word for word, attributed to Jack Johnson in another source.

If you have, then obviously that hypothesis would gain credibility.

 

Jeffries told the press he's consider Johnson after beating Munroe. Too bad a Reno like purse wasn't there for him to fight Johnson in his prime. You could say the same for Hart after he defeated Johnson.

 

Adam couldn't find anything to substantiate Munroe's claim.

 

No, and I have personally weighed in on the side of the claim being unlikely.

 

Yes you have ,fair play .

 

Mcvey retired from boxing after losing to Marin in 1904, taking a full year off from the ring in 1905. Johnson vs McVey were really boring low action fights. Sam was just a teenager when they happened so I don't count losing to Johnson under those circumstance, but he could have at least had competitive moments which he didn't. Easy fight for Johnson.

IMO Mcvey's peak years were from 1908-1915, while Johnson was champion. Like Langford and Jeannette, he did not get a title fight. I've often wondered what if McVey who was the initial opponent for Tommy Burns defeated Burns. I don't think Mcvey would hold the color line as Johnson pretty much did.

 

Yes, it's exactly the same quote, word for word, and it appeared in at least 5 papers between Nov. 8 and Nov. 14, 1903. Whoever attributed it to Munroe got it wrong.

 

It obviously Johnson's quote aside from the fact that McVea would eat Munroe.

 

If the exact same quote, was attributed to Johnson, in an earlier publication, then I would be minded to think that somebody at the National Police Gazette misattributed it.

Just to be clear, it is the same quote word for word, not just a very similar one?

 

This quote is from the San Francisco Post on August 18 1903

"Jeffries now fears there is no pugilist on earth who can give him a battle.He laughs at Jack Monroe, and smiles when Jack Johnson is mentioned. The negro may be a good, clever fellow, but he would be outclassed worse than Corbett was.He has a soft punch, and could not hurt the big gladiator in a month.

There is one man who might have a faint chance of success, and that is Sam McVea, the Oxnard giant. He weighs in excess of 200lbs, and has a very hard wallop. He is the only kind of man of whom the champion would stand in the least bit of danger. Punchers liek Gardner, Monroe, Sharkey and Ruhlin are easy game for the champion."

 

Detroit Free Press, Nov. 8, 1903

Boxing Gossip from ‘Frisco

Johnson Determined to Get Match with Jeff

Figures that in Twenty Round Bout he Could Win

(Special Telegram to the Free Press)

San Francisco, November 7.—A refusal or two will not deter jack Johnson, the colored heavyweight, from seeking a match with Champion Jeffries. He is determined to bring Big Jim to time, if such a thing is possible.

In a talk with the writer a few days ago Johnson said:

“I see by the papers I have been saying a whole lot of things about Jeffries. Some of the remarks I am credited with will not improve my chances of getting the match. I wish you would give me a chance to put my case before the sporting people. What I have to say is this: I feel that Jeffries will fight me. He has been advised by certain of his friends to withdraw the color line and I think he will accept my challenge just as soon as he convinces himself that the public believes I am the proper man to oppose him.

Wants Twenty-Round Bout.

“I would like to box Jeffries twenty rounds. That is, I would like to sign articles for the kind of match that has been recognized as a championship match ever since men began to box with gloves for the title. If it becomes necessary to meet him in a fight to a finish, I will not dodge the issue. I will l fight under any conditions he imposes. He can dictate all the terms. The only thing I will insist upon is that the contest shall be for the championship of the world.

“Now I want to tell you why I believe I can defeat Jeffries. It may look like tossing bouquets at myself but I do not think the men Jeffries has been meeting are my equals in the ring. I am tall, I weigh over 180 pounds and I have plenty of strength. I know Jeffries is a wonderfully strong man, but so is Sam McVey, whom I defeated recently at Los Angeles. McVey is a marvel of strength and he expected to rough me in the clinches. I met him at his own game and fought him all over the ring. I believe I will be able to take just as good care of myself with Jeffries as I did with McVey. There is a wrong idea around in regard to my style of fighting. I hear men talking of me as a great fellow at long range, and all that kind of thing, but the real truth of the matter is that infighting is my long suit. I know I can punch hard and I am sure that I will hurt Jeffries if ever we get together. I suppose whoever suggested that I meet him in a finish fight thought to scare me off, but while I don’t care for a finish fight, because you can’t have an affair that kind on a big city where the money is, I believe my chances of becoming champion of the world would be better in a finish fight than in any other kind. The longer I go the better I get.”[...]

 

And FYI, the version of this Jeffries quote that I found has a few minor differences.

From “Jeffries is Very Angry at Munroe,” Buffalo Courier, August 23, 1904.

“Munroe has talked so much and made so many mean cracks that I think he deserves just as hard a beating as I can give him. You know that in all my fights I have held a great deal in reserve. I have never had to cut loose with a punch with every ounce behind it, because I never had to go so hard as that.

Will Pound Munroe.

“I never wanted to be brutal, and my record shows that I have never taken advantage of a weakened man to hurt him any more than I could help. I hammered Sharkey harder than anyone else, for Tom was a glutton for punishment, but even then I did not hit as hard as I might have, for fear of possible consequences. I have always had a horror of being mixed up with a killing in the ring. With Munroe I feel no compunction about slugging him as hard as I can till he stops.