What if Tommy Burns/Sam McVea fight that was negotiated before the Johnson fight hadn't fallen through and McVea had become histories first black heavyweight champion? How would Johnson be remembered? How would McVea be remembered? Would colored heavyweights have suffered as much down the road with less boisterous McVea breaking the color barrier instead of Johnson? Would Johnson be considered just another good fighter instead of an all time great had he not been the first black champ? I think there are both many assumptions and logical conclusions that can be drawn from these questions. What are your thoughts?
It is a good question. Actually it is a big if that McVey beats Burns but assume it happens. Johnson almost certainly gets the shot at McVey soon afterwards. Withouth the black vs White paydays, and assuming Johnson fights more, rather than going on the run, you would expect Johnson to reconfirm his dominance over McVea, Jeannette and Langford. In fact, you would think with more fighting, he would probably be every chance of beating Willard. and maybe even giving Wills a shot. Even if he does, it is worth noting that without the stigma attached to a Johnson fight, he probably gets big dollar fights against Wills, Willard and Dempsey rather than being forced to jail and struggling to get comeback opponents. AT the end of this, he probably rates as high or higher than he does now, anyway.
How do you think this would effect black heavyweight contenders down the road? As great as Johnson was he set black heavyweights back at least two decades by not only winning, but taunting the white establishment. Im no expert on McVea but I haven't read anything to make me think he was as (no pun intended here) colorful as Johnson and would have taken the distinction of being the first black champion away from Johnson, which combined with his brash personality became an unreachable itch for many white Americans at the time. In my mind the ramifications are endless, Im just interested in the opinions of others.
I dont think we see too much differenc, in the sense that i think Johnson still dominates for the same time. But i see McVey, and Langford, and possibly Jeanette as getting a shot against Johnson. Also, Wills almost certainly wouldnt have been denied a title shot, whether it was against Willard, Dempsey or someone else. I am not 100 percent certain, but i think that Godfrey might have stayed avoided. So far as the lineage goes, i dont see too much difference. Incidentally, it is also often forgotten that many people (even in America but certainly elsewhere) actually considered Peter Jackson as the World Champion, long before Jack Johnson. In fact, the respect that he is shown by nearly every fighter including Jeffries leads me to suggest that if Johnson had not stood to make so much money from the coloured line and promoting the racial tensions, there wouldnt have been a coloured line. Another interesting What if situationm is what if Jeffries had actually won in Reno. What would happen then. Would Johnson have been reinstated, would coloured fighters have been given a fair chance, etc. A Jeffries victory, imo, would have seen a complete end to the coloured line. Quite ironic really.
And a Jeffries win also means no ban on the interstate transport of boxing films, which might result in extant footage today of greats like Britton and Greb.
Yeah, along with the riots this is easily the worst thing to come out of the whole mess. Killed documentation of some great boxing for sure.
I lean towards the idea that McVea would have won. I don't honestly think that white america would have found McVea any more acceptable as a champion than Johnson. He might have been a bit more careful about how he conducted himself, but they would still have objected to the principle of a coloured champion. Like Johnson, McVea would have been offered much larger sums of money to fight the white hopes than he was to fight the most dangerous coloured contenders. He would also know that that the day he fought Johnson was the day he ceased to be the champion. If he did fight Johnson, it would be to cash out as Burns did. In all, we might well have seen a title reign not unlike Johnsons. Johnsons resume might well benefit from this, since he would have continued to fight the top contenders multiple times in an effort to force the issue. We would almost certainly have seen Johnson Langford II. I suspect that McVeas luck would run out eventualy as champion. He probably beats Jeffries, but eventualy I suspect he takes the fatefull fight with Johnson or Langford. He would only be able to make so much money fighting the white hopes, and when McIntosh comes to him with a cheque for $50 000, it proves too great a temptation.
