With the heated arguments over Johnson's failure to defend his title against deserving black challengers. If Sam Langford had beaten Johnson ,in shall we say 1913, who would he have defended his crown against ? Do you think it likely that he would have given Jeannette , McVey and later Wills , [ if he still held the title ], opportunities? Or do you think the powers that be would have exerted pressure on him to defend against White challengers?
Honestly, it's impossible to say. Who would have thought Johnson would become the champ he did after beating those he beat up until the Jeffries fight. I doubt anyone would have questioned the worth of his opponents before that point. If Johnson was never champ he'd have likely continued to face the best of the bunch for his career. My main point is, if Johnson (who fought a who's who from 1900-1910) can wind up becoming an inactive cherry picking champ, then anyone can.
Personally I think he would of but it may of been very likely at least one of those fights would of been staged in Europe or Australia . This is only a personal opinion with no sources or news clippings.
I suspect that he would have defended his title against McVea or Jeanette, because the timeline would have been more likely to favour it than it did with Johnson. Langford would have given his right arm to get a big money fight with some of the white hopes that Johnson defended his title against, and I am sure that we would have seen him fighting some of the same names as champion. Ultimately however Langford had links to Hugh McIntosh, and would likely have taken a big money offer to fight one of the black dynamite crew in Australia. My take.
