Heavyweight champions if the color line had *never* come down?

True, but to my knowledge, there weren't nationwide, lethal boxing fan riots over Holmes failing to rematch Witherspoon, or Bowe throwing his belt into the trash.

 

They weren't asking for much. Just that Johnson lose in a fair fight to opponents who couldn't beat him.

WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GIVE THEM ONE SIMPLE THING?!

 

That may be true, but getting back to my initial point, even though the public may have been too stupid to see the consequences of their preferences, the promoters and fighters might not have been. The public were willing to riot and prosecute people of the wrong color (partly) for winning said championship. So they couldn't have nice things like integrated championships.

The public was willing to permit heavyweight champs to draw the color bar and still be considered legit champions. They grumbled, but they weren't stripping people. Conversely, the modern public would probably try to get a modern fighter stripped if he spoke out *in favor of* a color bar, even though the modern public also likes competitive fights.