Which of These Men of Color Could Have Been Lineal Champion, with no Color Line?

Sam Langford wasn't Jack Johnson. Johnson floored and carried Sam Langford in 1906, too. Johnson delivered the same drubbing to both guys.

 

Sure, but Langford was 2 years younger when he faced Johnson and had less experience at HW. I don't say that Langford would dominate Burns in similar fashion to Johnson, but I see no reason to question Sam's chances.

 

Wilis and Langford could

 

This.

 

Against?

Name the champ they both beat and what year they beat him?

 

Like Jack Johnson wasn't better when he faced Burns than he was two years earlier?

Tommy Burns was an excellent fighter. I don't see a 150-pound Langford taking the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns.

 

Langford against Burns and Wilis against Johnson or Willard, I'm not sure about him against Dempsey.

 

I agree with Wills against Willard. That would've been good.

I don't see a clear win for really any of the others.

 

At the time he retired yeah but if Hart loses to McVea for the title, maybe Jeffries comes back earlier.

 

The most likely candidate is probably Peter Jackson, because his timing would have been perfect.

He peaked just as John L Sullivan was oven ready to be taken.

Langford, and Wills might well be the best of the bunch, but they would bot have got their short against a strong champion.

It is possible that McVea might have been in the right place/time, to exploit the chaos between Jeffries and Johnson.

For any of these fighters, their chances would depend upon when they got their opportunity.

 

Langford weighed more than 150 lbs at that point though.

 

I will add that if you ranked the lineal champions, plus the great color line victims, some of them would feature it the upper half of the list.

 

I think Wills beats Willard ...

Langford likely beats Johnson post 1912. Not a lock but likely ..

 

I have only seen limited contemporary discussion of Wills challenging Willard.

It seems much more likely that Wills would have got his chance against Dempsey, based on the existing timeline.

The wild card is that with no color line, Wills might get his chance earlier.

We might even get a scenario where Dempsey challenged Wills for the title!

 

I think without the Color Line or racism Dempsey challenging Wills would have been how it played out.

Wills' best wins were before Dempsey was really in the picture.