Did Racism Rob Boxing of More Golden Era's in the early days?

If 1 ignores who held d belt in 1 time and concentrates in who was d vest @ that time , 1 isn't too effected by racism , only d belt was .
But belt does not decide for me .
For 1 example it is clear that Langford , Thompkins , etc were d best of their era regardless of belts .
Also , it is also clear that Foreman's "lineal" title was absolutely meaningless .
Even Archie Wright's title was worthless , as he wouldn't agree 2 lose 2 Charles d 3rd time ..
Charles could have easily made 175 during most of that era and dethrone Wright.
Wright was not even d #2 LHW of his own era/reign .
D recent 2 examples don't have much 2 do with racism but they have 2 do with d obsessive attention that belts and titles get and their meaninglessness .

 

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

hmmm this is interesting whilst it would have granted us a golden era it would also have robbed us of a number of greats.

if all these guys fought each other 1 or 2 would have come up short and not be seen as great as they are today.

I mean from the timescale we have

jeffries
johnson
hart
burns
mcvey
jeanette
wills
langford
fulton
willard
dempsey

if all these men fought each other regularly that list would be much more reduced.

 

No question.

 

We wuz robbed by many things, and we continue to be robbed.

- Racism.

- Corrupt managers.

- Tanking fighters who sold out not because they were threatened, but for money.

- Mr. Grey and co.

- Television, which closed down the breeding grounds and opportunities for apprenticeships in the local clubs.

- The sanctioning bodies/WBA, WBC in the 60s robbed us.

- Their ******* offsprings have done serious damage to the legitimacy of championships and thus the sport as a whole.

- Modern pimp-gangsters King and Arum robbed us.

-Oscar De La Hoya, a pimp-gangster on the rise, who is robbing us now that he insists that Ring Magazine be located with his arm's reach.

......
Is that all? Nah. When Jimmy Cannon said the boxing is "the red light district of sports," a truer statement was never spoken.

 

We all know that its fact!

Jack Johnson also stopped the progess of black boxers too so he was much a cause as well...

 

"Golden era" is a very subjective thing.

I'm sure people who saw Sam Langford, Bob Fitzsimmons, Joe Gans, Stanley Ketchel, Jack Johnson etc. looked back years later and declared it as golden era and better than anything that came after.

 

by being so independant he froze out black heavyweights for 2 decades.

he also refused to fight the other top black fighters, although the case can be made that he believed he had already proven his superiority.

 

Don't forget the Murderer's Row

 

I am not so sure about this.

Several coloured fighters may actually have had their legacies benefited from the line, and the fact taht they fought each other so many times.

For Example, How would Harry Wills legacy have fared, if he only had his first 3 matches against Langford, and if had been knocked out as an old man against Dempsey?

Would Langford, McVey and Jeanette lookas good if they fought each other say three times and that was it. Especially if one or two of them got a shot at Jack Johnson and was beaten.

And if not for fighting the coloured fighters so often, would Jim Johnson and Clarke be remembered as fondly?

 

Jack Johnson abused the colour line more than any other fighter.

Before Johnson, the colour line was of minimal effect. Peter Jackson was never given a shot at Corbett because of it, but that is the only really serious wrongdoing, and even then it was a money thing more than anything else.

 

I imagine the good would outweigh the bad.

In Wills's case, he would have been a heavyweight champion I would think. He would have beaten Willard, old Johnson or whoever would have held the title in the late 1910's, before Dempsey got his shot.

Langford could have held belts at middleweight, light heavyweight and atleast challenged for the heavyweight title. He already holds the distinction of having faced champions from lightweight up to heavyweight but actually fighting for the titles in high profile bouts would have made him better known.

 

I'm not so sure you could point to racism as the reason for these guys being kept at a distance. There were too many black champions (and other non-white champs) as well as non-white fighters getting title shots. I'm talking about the late 20s to the late 40s.

Many factors contributed to their being blanked, the biggest of which was they were a maximum risk/minimal gain proposition. Wesley Ramey, a white fighter, belongs in that category too.