In Graeme Kent's book "The Great White Hopes", he states that in Langford's fight with Lang with rabbit's fur to neutralise his hitting power. Kent says Langford could not understand how punches that floored Lang ,did not keep him there. Promoted and managed by Hugh D McIntosh ,Lang was matched with Langford in 1911, at the Olympia in London. McIntosh said he would put the winner in with Johnson. As Kent tells it Langford dropped Lang in the 2nd,3rd and 6th rds, but was baffled why he could not put the Australian away. Lang was dsq.d in the 6th for hitting Langford as he overbalanced ,throwing a punch and was momentarily down . Back in the dressing room,Sam decided to take a closer look at the gloves which, by the way were white.Slitting them open with a knife he found them stuffed with rabbits fur to negate his power. Taking them to McIntosh's office,Kent quotes him as saying , " Oh Mr McIntosh,you are a wicked man". Anybody have any primary source info on this? Here's a link to the fight. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SvbTck039Y[/ame]
Lang was on his way out, and it does seem that Langford's gloves were over stuffed like small pillows for the fight.
I'd like to see Clay Moyle's thoughts on this. Their gloves appear to be the same size to me. What, were they 8 ounces instead of 5? Please. Langford had plenty of pop in his punches in that fight. You can see that Lang wants no part of getting hit by him. It is a lot harder to knock out a guy when he's constantly backpedaling away from you or clinching.
The white colour appears to make them look like pillows on the fuzzy film. Lang was castigated for his negative , lack of ambition performance. I too would like to hear what Mr Moyle has on this. I make no claims, just thought it was interesting.
Tried to post some of my notes concerning the Langford-Lang fight earlier today but the text was too long. Here it is in two posts: Author Andrew Soutar (I believe this was from his book ‘My Sporting Life’: “When Sam crawled through the ropes he appeared disinterested in the proceedings. He swapped a joke or two with his seconds, got to his feet, and waved a hand to a friend in the audience. This was all part of Sam’s modus operandi. He knew that he was putting fear into the heart of the big Australian in the other corner; he was conveying the impression that the fight was as good as won before it had begun. The effect on Lang was remarkable. Before he left his corner at the clanging of the gong he appeared to be wondering which of the ring-posts the “tar-baby” was going to pick up and hit him with. (Hugh McIntosh later recalled that “I close my eyes and as vividly as if I were back at Olympia again, I can see him (Langford) lazing from his corner to meet Bill Lang, the big Australian. Lazing is the only word to use. Sam looks half-asleep. His immense shoulders droop wearily as though the weight of all the negro blues songs ever written are bearing them down. His white gloves are swinging aimlessley in the neighborhood of his knees.” When he came to the center of the ring he didn’t appear to have the slightest notion of how to put up a guard. He was like a rabbit fascinated by a shoat. The little black walked straight up to him, arms down by his side, the most daring opening I have ever seen. But Langford had summed up his man. Quick as the strike of a snake, he brought up his right hand to Bill Lang’s head, and down the Australian, wallop! Lang struggled to his feet and dived into a clinch. He was very loath to break away at the command of the referee. Where had the Goliath gone, the little David pushed him and punched him around the ring as thought it were a schoolboy he was cuffing for having misbehaved himself.” (Hugh McIntosh: “Then, suddenly, he slides into action for all the world like a great black panther, and the white gloves are bounding off Lang’s ribs and chin from a bewildering variety of angles.” The fight by rounds: Round one – Lang led off with a light left and rushed into a clinch. Then Sam began hostilities in earnest. He landed a left to the ear and followed it up with two punching swings to the body. Lang clinched again. Sam rushed him to his crner with a succession of blows, and when the bell rang Lang seemed distressed. He had langed about one blow to every four of Sam’s and had taken a bad pummeling. Soutar: “I don’t believe there was a moment when Sam couldn’t have dropped the big man if he had wished. I firmly believe that if Jack Johnson had been in Lang’s place he couldn’t have done much with “the tar baby” that night.” Round two – Lang came up looking fresh but after landing a light left to Sam’s nose was forced to go on the defensive. Sam ran Lang around the ring, landing cleanly several times. He cornered Lang and slugged him repeatedly, laughing during the process. Finally, Sam put over a wicked right swing and Lang went down for the count of nine just before the round ended. It was plain to all that Lang was badly outclassed. Soutar: “Sam Langford’s corner, by the end of the second round, had become a sort of smoking-room corner in any village inn. His seconds were swapping stories with each other, and appearing to have not the slightest interest in what was going on in the ring. Lang’s seconds were staring at each other in blank amazement, because their man appeared to have forgotten every lesson he had ever learned about boxing.” Round three – Sam resumed where he had left off the previous round. He whipped over a maze of blows and every one found it’s target. A sharp left to the face was followed by a jolting right to the jaw and Lang went down again. He got up at the count of eight just as the bell rang. His face was now bleeding and his eye badly swollen. (per Boxing magazine Langford smiled broadly as he walked across the ring to his own corner, and seemed by now to be absolutely sure of victory.) Round four – Lang came back gamely in the fourth and started to swap punch for punch with Sam. For a few seconds his fans took hope, but it was a false alarm. Sam began to take charge again. He let up slightly however, and seemed to be amusing himself at the spectacle of Lang’s feeble efforts. The round a tame one ended up with Sam laughing.
Round five – Sam started in with plain determination to finish the fight. A few passes and Lang went down from a crushing right to the body. He was up at the count of nine, but no sooner on his feet than he went down again in the same spot. (James Butler recalled that when he saw Sam crouch and grin at Lang he knew what to expect. He went after Lang like a tiger and ten seconds later Lang was down again. ) The bell saved him from being counted out. Sam grinned continously as Lang floundered around like a novice. By the end of this round Lang’s eyes were almost closed. (Per Boxing magazine Lang came up groggy for round five and Sam went after him at once. Sam was simply hailing blows home as hard and fast as he could, driving the tottering Australian round the ropes. Three times he was sent to the boards in this disastrous round, and each time he appeared to have been sent there for good.) Soutar: “I think it was the third or fourth round when I saw Sam Langford do something that I had never seen before and never expect to see again. He misled the whole of the spectators as well as Bill Lang. Now, he hadn’t punished the Australian to any extent; he seemed to have done no more than cuff him about the ears; but he had most certainly taken the heart out of him. Perhaps it was something his seconds had said to him that put a little fire into Bill Lang: he dared to mix it with the “tar baby,” and to the amazement of everybody, the negro suddenly dropped his arms by his sides. Yes, in the middle of a mix-up he dropped his arms to his sides, as though every ounce of strength had been taken out of him by a blow that nobody had seen. What was more, he deliberately stuck out his chin as though inviting Lang to belt it as hard as he could. The big six-foot powerful Australian raised both right and left to swing to the point of the chin; and Sam Langford took no fewer than four blows on that chin of his. He frightened even his own seconds. And then, he deliberately half turned his head and impudently winked at his seconds. Lang’s blows expended, he stepped back, and Sam Langford stepped in. Bang, bang! Went two gloves. The Australian was down on the ground, wondering if somebody had flung a bucket at him. But the fight wasn’t over. The two men went to their corners; Lang’s seconds trying to pump courage into him, but he had come to realize that he hadn’t the ghost of a chance to get the elusive “tar baby.” Round six – Lang in desperation from the battering he was taking began to lose his head and fight wildly, resorting to rough tactics. Sam took a viscious swing at his opponent and slipped in doing so. While he was on his knees Lang punched him with his left on the back of the head and was promptly disqualified. Soutar: “When Lang came up for the next round he swung wildy at the bobbing head. Langford slipped and dropped to one knee. I am not going to say that Langford was fooling; and certainly Lang was not in a condition to know exactly what he was doing. Anyway, he saw a kneeling figure and he brought down a wallop on the back of the neck. There was a shout raised all over the house: “Foul!” Sam Langford appeared to be more concerned than Bill Lang. He pleaded with the referee to let the fight go on. He didn’t want the victory to come to him in that manner. Little Sam went to his corner, and before he left the ring he lit up a cigar, a nasty looking black one.” Then he did a lot of foul things, and, in the sixth round the referee stopped the fight and said “Langford wins on a foul.” The end came suddenly in the sixth, when Sam missed a left swing aimed towards a well beaten looking Lang and fell to the canvas on hands and knees. While in this position, a dazed Lang struck him and was immediately disqualified by the referee. Afterwards Sam gave the following statement: “I never doubted that I would bet Lang tonight. I slipped and fell once, but it was due to the slippery condition of the floor and not Lang’s blows. I am sorry a foul ended it. I would rather have fought to a finish.” Lang apoligized for the foul and claimed he was too excited at the time to know what he was doing. After the fight Lady Constance said “It was delightfully exciting while it lasted, but the finish was decidely disappointing to me. I don’t believe Lang fouled intentionally. He was so dazed he didn’t know what he was doing. He’s a plucky chap and took a terrific beating. Langford is a magnificent boxer. The hard blows he got didn’t seem to bother him at all. I wish it had gone to a finish, though Lang certainly couldn’t have lasted much longer.” Soutar: “If he (Sam) had met Jack Johnson, and how he fought for the privilege of meeting him! I am quite satisfied in my own mind that he would have become champion heavyweight of the world.” British sportswriter, Trevor Wignall, recalled that the bout was “As near an approach to mayhem as ever I saw. It was no wonder Johnson sidestepped Langford. What that short-statured, long-armed black boy did to the battleo from Sydney was a sin and a shame. I cannot recall a fight that had more ferocious moments, or in which more blood was spilled. It spouted over me every time Langford connected and at the close Lang looked as if he had been run through a chopping machine.” James Butler recalled that the best that could be said for Lang was that he did not lack courage, but that he was hopelessly and utterly outclassed. Inside of two rounds he was terribly marked, and blood was flowing from a dozen cuts and gashes. But McIntosh still advised Butler not to take any notice of all the blood. “Bill always bleeds as soon as he’s touched, just you watch him, he hasn’t got going yet!” And big Bill never did get going. Butler said that Sam was in a class of his own, and that he saluted him, black fighter and "white” man! (( Black Dynamite – Lang fought as desperately as he could, but there was no stalling off Langford, who round after round poured in a resistless bombardment to Lang’s body and sorely battered face. A terrific hook to the jaw spilled Lang on the floor in the sixth frame. He was down again from a right on the chin, as soon as he had staggered to his feet.’ Lang swayed and tottered like a falling tree in a storm. Langford swung his right for the jaw. As luck had it, Bill escaped that one, for Langford had misjudged the range and missed. The force of his own blow overbalanced Sam and he slipped on one knee. Before he could rise, Lang, bleeding, bewildered and groggy, let go a wild swing which just grazed the top of Langford’s skull. There was nothing behind the punch, and it is questionable whether Sam even felt it. But, according to the rules it was a foul, and referee Eugene Corri promply stepped in and declared Langford the winner. Sam said to the referee, “That’s all right, Mr. Corri, I don’t want to win on a foul. He’ll go out next punch.” “No, no, Langford,” Corri said, “he has lost.” Corri afterwards said it was a great relief to him when he was able to call a halt, veteran as he was and used to seeing fighters take a lot of punishment, he dreaded seeing Langford put over a finishing punch, which might have had serious results for the unfortunate Lang. He later recalled that after the fight when he asked Sam what he thought of the champion of Australia, Sam replied “Well, he’s very fast on his feet, but his brain ain’t fast. While he was thinkin, I was hitten im.” Sam was dissatisfied with himself, because he felt he should have whipped Lang earlier. He couldn’ t understand why his punches seemed to lack something of their deadly efficiency. He had noticed when he entered the ring that the gloves provided for the bout were white. He guessed the reason for that. Hugh McIntosh had ordered white gloves so that Lang’s punches would show up better against Sam’s dark body in the pictures taken of the battle. (The Knockout magazine – McIntosh for his part said that while making final preparations for the fight he decided the fight would make a more attractive spectacle and would be easier for the audience to follow, if the contestants wore gloves of white leather. (Note: Seems like it would only be easier to follow against the darker mans skin!) He did notice during the fight that between rounds Sam intently examining the gloves.) There was a mystery somewhere and Sam’s curiousity led him to hang on to the mitts he had used and take them to his hotel room. There he cut them open and discovered that the wily McIntosh had had the gloves stuffed with rabbit fur instead of hair, a substitution which robbed Langford’s punches of much of their sting. “I nevah knew till I licked Lang how many ways there was to work the rabbit punch, Mistah McIntosh!” “What do you mean, Sam?” queried the promoter in apparent surprise, but Sam only grinned and strolled away. After all, he had won decisively, and was content to let it go at that. ))) (The Knockout magazine – McIntosh later claimed that because fighters had a bad habit of working the padding back off their knuckles to give their blows more dangerous effect, he had the ones for this fight filled with a patent stuffing.)
