Jack Johnson's title run

Burns was so afflicted with the jaundice that he no longer qualified as a WHITE man. Under the prejudices of the day, his yellow hue cast him down among the oriental hordes, he was rendered a "Chinaman" and left to his humiliation at the hands of the giant Negro savage.

Also, he was Canadian.

 

The links you have kindly provided, which are ringside reports, give a totally different picture to the account published by the other poster.Where he mentions Johnson having damaged ribs. I know this to be untrue and the source of it was Burns himself. Burns might have drawn one round ,courtesy of Johnson doing little, he was totally outclassed and outmatched, ringside observers said Johnson could have stopped him in the first round if he had chosen to.

 

I have no real reason for posting this, but i just found this tiny article.

[url]http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26295614?searchTerm=lang%20johnson%20boxing&searchLimits=[/url]

It sure is a shame that this fight didnt come off.

 

Indeed it is,but £4,000 was not a huge sum for defending your title, even in those times.

 

This may be so ,but they are not proof that concrete offers were made to either party.
The $30,000 that Burns demanded to defend against Johnson was an unheard of record sum ,I highly doubt that two black men contesting the title, would have been offered even a fraction of of that , let alone $50,000.
Johnson was offered around $6,000 to defend against Langford in the UK, and $4000 in the US,as another poster has just posted.
I do not believe the American public were interested in watching two blacks fight for the title.
Otherwise, why all the clamour for a White Hope?
Johnson's only big purse, was received for defending against Jeffries ,a white challenger.

 

I think the lack of drawing power of coloured fighters is grossly overestimated. The whole colour thing was nothing much more than a marketing gimmick (much like .Cooney used it) and a way to duck deserving fighters without losing faith (in some sense the Klitchskos have each used the family excuse to duck their number 1). Black fighters regularly drew huge gates in those days and had big followings. The difference is that it was easier to market a coloured argument to the non hardcore fans. Particularlly when the main coloured fighters had already been beaten and outclassed by the champion (This is why Jim Johnson was the first coloured fighter to get his chance).

And one thing i have never understood, if the whole world was so racist back then, why did coloured fighters win so many decisions (newspaper or otherwise). Sure there were some controversial ones but Langford and co had plenty of decisions rendered in their favour. Certainly more than they lost.

 

NO, I know, but just the fact that it was reported as "Agreed". Obviously it was not correct.

 

I think the Heavyweight Title was a unique case whites would tolerate blacks being champion of the lighter divisions ,but the heavyweight Champ was a symbol of masculine supremacy, once a black had won it the white hope era started, to find a white challenger to defeat him .
If two blacks fought for the title whoever won, the world ,and ,[ more importantly to them,] America ,would stiill have a black champion at the top. Big purses were not available to black heavyweights, particularly in the US. Sam McVey spent from March 1907 till 1916 out of the States scrabbling for fights in France, Belgium and Australia.
Sam Langford fought black adversaries multiple times precisely because whites did not want to face him.Just as Jeanette and McVey faced each other.
Jeanette 14
McVey 14
Wright 5
Jim Johnson 12
Wills 17
And that is not counting fights with Tut Jackson,Jim Barry etc.
Langford's biggest purse was for fighting Iron Hague a white man in the UK,I am too lazy to look up how much it was ,but I can assure you it was
a fraction of the sums being airly bandied about by another poster.
As to Langford getting close decisions,many thought he beat Gunboat Smith in the encounter in which Smith got the verdict.
Langford was in 40 drawn contests that we know of, is it possible he may have deserved some of the verdicts?
Is it further possible he fought quite a few contests," under wraps", as the Ketchel fight is supposed to have been, for example?

 

McIntosh was bank rolled by Snowy White for the Johnson Burns fight.
It is a fact that McVey and his backers could not come up for the cash to challenge Burns, though they did make a substantial offer to Jeffries whilst he was champion.
I simply do not believe there was a big enough financial incentive for promoters to put on an all black heavyweight title fight.

This is not meant to excuse Johnson for not defending against his standout black challengers.
Newspaper clippings are interesting but not primary sources when they just repeat what publicity hungry backers and promoters tell them,I place no credence in them.
In 1908 Burns asked for and received $30,000 to defend against Johnson, Johnson had been ringside and publicly challenging Bunrs for over 2 years he was clearly the standout challenger, yet he received $1,500 for his purse as challenger, this was because Burns huge purse swallowed up virtually all the money.I cannot envisage any promoter offering 2 black men $50.000 -$100,000 to fight for the title.
Langford ,for example got his biggest payout for fighting , white Iron Hague in the UK.
Gunboat Smith had a good run of 11 months, [dec 1912-Nov 1913 ,]but , closer inspection of it , reveals , he fought a relatively inexperienced Wllard ,and , like wise his Moran victory was before Moran had beat any meaningful opponents.
The best win Smith acheived , was over Langford ,but this was a very disputed victory,and Langford avenged it emphatically with a devastating ko.
Smith went to the UK as the White Heavyweight Champion, reporter Sydney Coulson asked Smith when he would be facing Jack Johnson ?
Smith was irritated by the question and replied, " Johnson will wait ,and the longer he waits ,the better."
For the record Smtih never challenged Johnson ,I think he knew better.
Defeats to 3 light heavies,Levinsky,Dillon ,nd Carpentier ,certainly do not bode well for Smith' s chances against Johnson.
Smith's form fell apart in 1914,so there was a very narrow window of under a year when he could be called a realistic challenger for Johnson.
Indeed If Smith were,black I do not think his name would have even surfaced, in public discussion regarding tite shots.

I think Johnson would have handled Smith comfortably,and,if he were in shape ,stopped him.

 

Boucher,

I understand your point about purses, but dont forget Harry Wills was drawing massive crowds from memory one of his fights drew 50,000 people. Johnson vs Lang drew 15000 (again from memory) to Melbourne, before he won the title. While obviously Lang being the home town hero was a big part of this, Johnson played his part too. I am sure that McVey and Langford and Jeanette also would have drawn some big crowds (alhtough I could be proved wrong). Peter Jackson (before this) was a massive draw and the most certainly the biggest draw and most popular fighter in Australia and right up there i presume in the USA as well. I am not saying there were big offers or that the black white angle didnt make it easier to sell a fight because it did, but good coloured fighters would still draw in the right circumstances, it seems to me.

 

But not against each other.:good