There seems to have been interest in matching him with Billy Papke, Frank Klaus, twin Sullivan and obviously Stanley Ketchel.
One VERY logical middleweight Sam was not keen to fight, was Jack 'the giant killer"Dillon. They were both powerful and feared , but for whatever reasons, never met.Tis a shame.What a titanic battle that would have been...
In the sense that, he gave the champion all he could handle and may have got a shade (I think he got a shade), you could argue yes. At least Johnson beat him and then refused to face him. If you arguably best the champ in a non-title fight then can't get the title fight, something is amiss.
"One VERY logical middleweight Sam was not keen to fight, was Jack 'the giant killer"Dillon." Burt, did you come across this somewhere? I never ran across any articles about the possibility of matching the two, or anything about Sam being reluctant to face Dillon, during my own research.
C,yes I can recall in an old Ring Magazine ,that a contributor who was around those days,claimed that Sam Langford was reluctant to fight middleweight [at that time] Jack Dillon. Dillon at his 160lb prime was much feared those days..Dillon got his nickname by taking on bigger men as Al Weinert, Tom Cowler [Corbetts protege],Fireman Jim Flynn , and licking them often, hence his name 'Giant Killer". It was so logical that Sam Langford, and Jack Dillon, to have met, but the contention of that old writer,whose name escapes me,eluded to Langford not wanting the matchup. That would have solved many questions, for sure...
for what it is worth, http://news.google.com.au/newspaper...g=4462,6936198&dq=langford+dillon+fight&hl=en
Great post ... while these things always require as much research as possible to verify the validity it is a nice find !
'Fight Dillon, are you nuts? Are you trying to kill me? F*ck that I don't care if it makes me MW Champ I want to face that big ***** Jack Johnson for chump change instead'
In 1910 when this match was mooted in the piece, Dillon was good but would be better, he had beaten a couple of boys who would later be names ,but they were green when he beat them. Langford had allready beaten rated heavyweights by 1910,I think he thoroughly thrashes Dillon at this time.
Who can tell? But photos of Jack Dillon portray's him as sawed off shotgun with a crewcut,on top. Omnimous looking guy was Dillon.What a titanic slugfest between the two, both in their 160 pound primes ! Oh yes... As great as these two were. Bob Fitz ,at his best would have licked both at 160 pounds.At those halycon days Fitz was held in the highest regard ...A "fighting machine on stilts, was old Fitz...