Here are some of the firightning statistics of the coloured heavyweight championship: Jack Johnson: held it once and defended it succesfully 18 times. Sam Langford held it five times and defended it succesfully 36 times. Harry Wills held it three times and defended it succesfully 30 times. While these fighters may have benefited from the no contest rules of the day in some of these defences they were defending with incredible regularity and against a consistantly high level of opposition. Separates the men from the boys.
Don't really know that much about that part of boxing history, but I have always wondered if those men should have been considered TRUE world champions by their own right. The coloured title, afterall was termed as a WORLD title. Furthermore, some of its holders such as Wills, Langford and Johnson commonly fall into most people's top 10-15 best heavyweights. Additionally, it is the opinion of many that some of the very best heavyweights of the early gloved era were black, despite being locked out of lineal contention by their white counterparts. In conclusion, I agree. Defending the coloured title at the dawn of time certainly separated the men from the boys.
Jack dempsey should of taken a leaf out of harry grebs book and give langford and wills a shot at his title, harry greb never drew the colour line that what was so great him about a true warrior, the strange thing is i think dempsey would of knocked wills and a old langford out
