Jack Johnson TKO 14 Tommy Burns

Jack Johnson did more harm than good.

 

Yep, it did have a knock on effect for black heavyweight s as we know.
When Joe Louis was up and coming he acted the total opposite of Jack.

But how could Jack Johnson have acted any other way.?
He'd have suffered, probably more than any black man of the Tonto, from racial abuse.
Of course he'd have being angry and struck back at Burns, taunting him.
How could have being any other way really?

 

I have seen this fight several times before. Tommy Burns was obviously hopelessly over-matched there. But he was one tough customer for sure. I have to give him some credit for constantly trying to charge up that hill. That was a different style of fighting than we normally see today, and Jack Johnson was a Master at that style.

 

He was a boxer. That is all.

 

He was an amazingly courageous man.
I mean he would have had to walk around knowing that he could have been assassinated at any minute.
He probably had to deal with racism every day of his life and vicious racism at that yet he was defiant in the face of this.
I’m not saying he was an angel but he was certainly extraordinary.

 

Well of course it started the White Hope crusade to find a vanilla challenger that could defeat Johnson and regain the title for the White race.It directly adversely affected black challengers because the White public had no interest in seeing two Blacks fight for the heavyweight title in a contest in which, whoever won, the status quo would remain the same.With a Black man atop the richest prize in sports, the very symbol of physical superiority.
Because of the rampant racial prejudice then any big White boy ,farm hand etc was seen as a potential challenger and conqueror of the grinning Johnson.
That the most qualified and dangerous challengers to Johnson were also Black was never addressed .
Langford,McVey,Jeannette were the standouts,but because of public
antipathy to them challenging for title honours they had to content themselves battling for the Coloured Championship and any White fighter wiling to get in the ring with them,sometimes only because the trio had to promise not to try quite so hard.Economics dictated that blowing out White boys early was not often good business and is probably responsible for some of the curious results on their records.
Of course resistance to Blacks challenging Johnson meant Jack could avoid his most dangerous foes and defend against, easier less threatening,but more financially rewarding White challengers.
In his position who would not do the same?Why defend against Langford ,Jeannette or McVey for a smaller purse in a fight in which ,if not in top shape, he stood a real chance of losing when he could show up in fair condition to fight somebody like Jim Flynn for $31,500 and not have to overly exert himself?
At his best I think Johnson always beats the Black Trio,but of course his lifestyle dictated that he was seldom at his best.Langford,when he realised he was not going to get his shot lost some of his drive and dedication and his condition suffered accordingly,so it is no given that even a poorly conditioned Johnson would lose to Sam who himself was often carrying excess weight.Jeannette and McVey were different propositions they appear to have kept themselves in good shape throughout their careers.
A French promoter offered Johnson$20,000 to defend against Jeannette in Paris and later increased his offer but with the stipulation that the fight be over the 25 rds limit Jeannette was known as a marathon man always in shape Johnson twice signed to defend against Jeanette in NY where fights were limited to10rds but, at that stage of his career he didn't relish facing Joe over the longer haul.That's my take on it anyway.
The next generation of Black fighters Wills ,Godfrey etc also suffered from the fallout of Johnson's reign.Wills would have had a very good chance of defeating Willard imo, and of course was Dempsey's outstanding challenger for some years but was criminally sidetracked.Joe Louis broke the unspoken law by giving John Henry Lewis a title shot.I don't believe Mike Jacobs was colour prejudiced against Black heavyweight challengers he thought ,rightly or wrongly, that two Blacks didn't draw,and Louis had to pressure him to give John Henry a friend of Joe's, a title chance.Jacobs prejudice was for Green, in crisp dollar bills.

 

London was such an unpleasant windbag.

 

The harm was already there. Johnson didn’t create or exacerbate it. He simply fought and lived as any white man might and Johnson can’t be blamed for the harm imposed and inflicted by others.

 

"I claim the right to pick my own mate"

 

Exactly.

 

If he thought he could have been assassinated ät anytime" why wasnt he? Too much is made of this as though Johnsonś life was on the line 24-7. Was he ever physically attacked or shot at? No doubt he had prejudice against him, but he did bring an awful lot of attention to himself.

 

Shots were fired at him when he was in camp getting ready for Jeffries.He was set about by a gang of toughs in Londons Docklands ,knocked out three and the other 2 fled.