Did Jack Root Deserve A Shot At Vacant Title?

Yeah I'm pretty sure Walker beat Omaha Jack Davis, Billy Woods, Charles Turner, and others, boxing as Soldier Walker. He wan't great but not a complete novice either.

 

I know the results, just giving you the general feel at the time. A loss like O'Brien#s didn't disqualify a fighter like it does to-day, look at Burns for example.
Hart, Root and Johnson were the main three, ant two would be acceptable, Johnson would probably be favoured over either of the other two, but not a terribly unacceptable match-up in my opinion.
Johnson had lost to Hart who had lost to Root and Gardner. As you say Root and Gardner had split a series but Root had only ever lost to Gardner, had clearly won their last encounter and held other solid wins, most notably over Kid McCoy. Some had Bob Fitz in the mix too.

 

Hart's recent victory over Johnson really put the kibosh on Jack's claim and Root having beaten every man he faced, including Gardner, Hart and McCoy was a pretty obvious call.
Hindsight says different of course and Hart's first move on claiming the title was to bar "N*****s". I think he knew he wouldn't get a verdict over Johnson again. But to answer your second question, "Yes."

 

Interestingly Root was a three to one favourite and apparently in the lead when knocked out. Gardner and Johnson challenged the winner from Ringside while Jeffries collected $1,000 as referee compared to a total purse of $5,000!

 

After his loss to Hank Griffin during 1901, Jack Johnson didn't lose another bout until his setback to Marvin Hart during 1905 despite being fairly active and facing some good fighters. With such a resume, would Johnson have been denied a shot at the vacant world heavyweight title after losing to Hart if he was white? More to the point, was it fair? Should Joe Louis have been denied a shot at the title solely based on his knockout loss to Max Schmeling despite compiling such a tremendous record up to that time?

- Chuck Johnston

 

The probability is that Johnson got "jobbed" against Hart but it was only a few months prior to the Hart-Root affair. If Johnson and Hart rematched for the title, Root with the win over Hart and the seemingly better record of the three would be hard done by. The way it turned out suited to keep a black fighter from the title, sure it was convienient, but at that precise time Johnson was no more intitled to a shot than Hart or Root.

 

Actually the analogy runs pretty accurate, should Louis have got the shot at Braddock before Schmeling a la Johnson ahead of Hart against Root?

 

Yes, a viable case can be made that Jack Johnson and Joe Louis should have to wait in line for their shots at the world heavyweight title after losing recent bouts, but both certainly remained quite deserving.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Immanently reasonable post :good

 

Maybe. I'm going to look into the author of that article a bit. I don't think Tommy Burns was Italian? I thought his surname was spelled Brusseau. Like French Canadian, not Brusso like an Italian spelling?