Top 10 heavies: Social impact

Jack Johnson and it's NO CONTEST.

 

Gene Tunney...he brought intellectual amd bookish props to the heavyweight title....he made it possible to be a bookworm who reads Shakespeare and G.B. Shaw and still be heavyweight champ!!

 

and max baer enjoyed female company

 

Oh definitely turpinr!!! Maxie was the first true playboy champion!!

 

:goodmae west thought so

 

In no particular order:

Ali -- Part of the 1960s culture war vortex
Louis -- Paved the way for black athletes in a variety of sports. Destroyed Schmeling in a politically charged fight.
Sullivan -- Legitimized boxing as a sport
Dempsey -- Institutionalized boxing as a huge attraction during the sport-mad 1920s.
Johnson -- Obvious reasons.

Tyson -- Far less important than the above, but kept boxing healthy in the late 80's and early 90's...and harmed it thereafter

 

I agree completely.

 

Floyd Patterson...the first champion possibly of any weight to obsess on his psyche...the first really inward gazing, self analyzing athlete, to my knowledge.

 

If I had to take a stab at it:

1. Joe Louis-broke the colour bar. That has to rate as a prety serious impact.

2. Jack Johnson-Hugely devisive figure in an early and violent period of the civil rights strugle.

3. John L Sullivan-First global sports star. Legitimised boxing as a sport.

4. Jack Dempsey-Brought boxing to the mainstream.

5. Muhamad Ali-A truly global and controvertial figure in the civil rights strugle.

6. Max Schmeling-A pivotal political tool in European politics of the period.

7. Primo Carnera-See Schmeling.

8. Mike Tyson-A truly global figure, who ultimately brought the sport into disrepute.

9. Max Baer-A hero for the jewish community in the early years of Natzi Germany.

10. Sonny Liston-A devisive symbol at a crucial juncture in the civil rights movment.

I might be wrong about the order, but I think that I have picked the important names. Honourable mention could go to James Corbett Floyd Patterson, Tommy Farr, Joe Frazier and Lennox Lewis. If we include the bareknuckle era, then we would have to consider Tom Cribb, Tom Sayers and Jem Mace.

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

I don't know much about this. Is there a book or documentary focusing on Floyd's psyche?

 

i think people don't realize the impact joe louis had on black people when he was rising through the ranks...and then when he became champ... he gave them something to be proud about that they never truly got to experience... you always hear the announcers in his fights calling him "a credit to his race". in today's times that comment would be very hot button, but i think african americans of the time found some validation in his success

 

Joe Louis had NOTHING on Jack Johnson in that regard.

After Johnson beat Jeffries and riots broke out leaving mobs of black people dead, black newspaper reporters shared the sentiment that a few dead was worth dying in spirit if Johnson lost.

 

I think the validation black people got from Louis' reign was different from Johnson's though... In Johnson's era it was primarily motivated by race... Black people benefited from what kind of champ Louis was. His personal conduct, his long and definitive reign, his involvement in the most internationally charged boxing match ever(Louis-Schmeling II). You don't think black people wouldn't have sacrificed themselves in similar fashion for Louis? The difference was in opportunity.

 

But Louis also did as he was told. He was basically instructed to act "white."

Johnson didn't believe in such barriers. He chose to ignore racism and to be his own person. He thought guys like Booker T. Washington were cowards.

It's a shame that Louis was told how to act, who to marry, and what to do. Johnson did whatever the hell he wanted. The only thing he hurt were people's egos.

There was no fuss by anybody when a white man had relations with a black woman, so why should there be when a black man has relations with a white woman?