Sam Langford fought 12 Hall of Famers for a total of 57 fights

im going to have to pick up that book. looks really good

yep, a great fighter. many young kids today dont even know him. started as a lighweight and ended up fighting as a heavyweight. that's what P4P is he's canadian. chuvalo and sam were standouts, eventhough sam is better. chuvalo is one tough fighter i tell you if thats the case, he should be regarded the best fighter of all time.

jack may have espressed his desire to the media about fighting wills, but i dont think he really wanted to step into the ring with wills. ** Don't know how many times you got to be told. Jack and Harry signed a contract to fight. Great pic, bigger 'n Dallas. Harry was paid his guarantee, and Jack was stiffed. Jack effectively ruined his career by leaving Kearns and Rickard to try to fight Wills. I told you, the politics and the money weren't there for the fight. Jack didn't fight for another 3 yrs. Damned shame, but not Jack's fault. He tried and it ended up being the ruin of him.

** Now I'm just as pleased as a buck come ruttin' season that Sam is being given a big shout. I've posted numbers similar to what the thread is claiming about Sam years ago. His record is so excellent and voluminous, that's it's difficult to do a perfect count on him. You couldn't be more wrong about Jack though. This nonsense stems from his early days as a skinny underfed hobo when he first made it to NYC and was bilked by the conmen that ran boxing then. Jack fought a couple of reigning black fighters in Harlem and made a good showing for himself. One of the leeches had attached himself to Jack as his manager in spite of Jack already freshly signed with another manager who was conned into leaving town on an emergency. This leech offers him Sam Langford who was the best heavy in the world at that time. The story comes from Jack himself about his early days so there is no way to verify it. Jack turned it down as he had yet to get paid and had a broken rib. He wasn't that stupid. He rode the rails out of town without a penny in his pocket with his busted rib. So after this big city skinnin', Jack was lucky enough to sign up with Kearns who got him proper sparring which included young black contender types like Gaines, Tate, and Godfrey. Sam was falling into the twilight of his career and half blind when Jack won the title from Willard. Rickard and Kearns controlled his career at that point and saw no purpose in accepting Sam's challenges. Jack was always gracious about Sam and always claimed Sam would knock him out. Johnson was shot, and Jeannette was also in his twilight, but Wills was the big deal. Jack steamed at not being given a crack at him and this led to a giant split with Rickard and Kearns. Jack independently signed to meet Wills in a fight that went bust because the promoter couldn't drum up any backing for the fight because of the politics of the day. Wills got his 50 grand guarantee and used it to buy apartments that supported him in retirement. Jack's check came after Wills' and the account was bone dry, so Jack had nothing to fight for. He was freshly married to a demanding Hollywood actress who took him to Hollywood for 3 yrs and where he made his first millions and the rest is history. There's even a photo floating around out there, a really good one showing Jack and Harry at the signing ceremony. Jack like previous champions Sullivan and Jeffries mouthed the same politically correct lines of the day when reporters pestered them about defending against blacks. But Sullivan reportedly accepted a bout against Old Chocolate Godfrey who never turned up, and Jeffries fought relevant black contenders coming up in his short career and came back well past his best to face Johnson. One of those black contenders he knocked out was Griffin who would go on to beat Johnson a few years later. Jeffries did give him an 4 rd exhibition as champion. Dempsey fought several blacks coming up. Reportedly he KOed Johnson in a donnybrook at a private gentleman's club up in Saskatoon, Canada shortly after Johnson was released from prison, but that fight has yet to be proven since it was a private match and everyone is dead. BTW, I don't blame Wills, but he and his manager blew the opportunity to face Dempsey after his hiatus in Hollywood. They balked at fighting in a eliminator bout against Tunney. Wills lost to Sharkey, and both he and Dempsey were in their twilights. Tunney ended up fighting Tommy Gibbons for the right to meet Dempsey instead. The big ducker of prime black contenders was the storied Jack Johnson, but that sorta ruins the myth of Johnson when you find that out, so you get a lot of denial. Willard cannot be said to have ducked anyone since he only had one successful defense in the four years he held the title. He mostly went on the exhibition circuit after beating Johnson. intersting read, London here's a quote from Wills "My only regret in life is that i never got a shot at Dempsey, im sure i could have beaten him." After knocking out Langford in the 6th round, Wills was ready to challenge in the 1919, but rickard refused to promote the fight saying something along the lines of "a black heavyweight would not be worth a bucket of warm piss" needless to say the fight fell through. i agree with you it was because of rickard that the fight could not be finalized harry was also not shy about his chance "ill take on dempsey at any time in any street he wants to name, and knock him out for nothing" here jack could have made an objection and taken the fight despite tex not wanting it. who the fuck was tex rickard" dempsey's manager and promoter, but it's obvious he didnt want a black challenging for his fighter's title interesting fact is that tex actually promised wills his shot in 1924, but instead backed out of his deal and put firpo instead to face wills. jack may have espressed his desire to the media about fighting wills, but i dont think he really wanted to step into the ring with wills. he said he would fight harry, if tex was willing to put up the money, but did he beg rickard to do it? probably not. did he think rickard would actually stage the fight? nope by the time wills had defeated everyone, dempsey stepped up against tunney. he was already on the decline, and tunney beat him up pretty bad. but harry was also pretty finished. had wills taken the fight instead of gene, then who knows what would have happened. i think it would have been anyone's fight at that moment.

jack wasnt the only one. im not defending him, but it was a trend back in those day to not give blacks a shot at the title. jack dempsey also openly avoided black fighters, and actually hasnt fought that many even before he got the title harry willis wanted to fight dempsey badly, but jack would have none of it. his managers especially werent happy about the prospect of a white champ giving a back fighter the shot ** Now I'm just as pleased as a buck come ruttin' season that Sam is being given a big shout. I've posted numbers similar to what the thread is claiming about Sam years ago. His record is so excellent and voluminous, that's it's difficult to do a perfect count on him. You couldn't be more wrong about Jack though. This nonsense stems from his early days as a skinny underfed hobo when he first made it to NYC and was bilked by the conmen that ran boxing then. Jack fought a couple of reigning black fighters in Harlem and made a good showing for himself. One of the leeches had attached himself to Jack as his manager in spite of Jack already freshly signed with another manager who was conned into leaving town on an emergency. This leech offers him Sam Langford who was the best heavy in the world at that time. The story comes from Jack himself about his early days so there is no way to verify it. Jack turned it down as he had yet to get paid and had a broken rib. He wasn't that stupid. He rode the rails out of town without a penny in his pocket with his busted rib. So after this big city skinnin', Jack was lucky enough to sign up with Kearns who got him proper sparring which included young black contender types like Gaines, Tate, and Godfrey. Sam was falling into the twilight of his career and half blind when Jack won the title from Willard. Rickard and Kearns controlled his career at that point and saw no purpose in accepting Sam's challenges. Jack was always gracious about Sam and always claimed Sam would knock him out. Johnson was shot, and Jeannette was also in his twilight, but Wills was the big deal. Jack steamed at not being given a crack at him and this led to a giant split with Rickard and Kearns. Jack independently signed to meet Wills in a fight that went bust because the promoter couldn't drum up any backing for the fight because of the politics of the day. Wills got his 50 grand guarantee and used it to buy apartments that supported him in retirement. Jack's check came after Wills' and the account was bone dry, so Jack had nothing to fight for. He was freshly married to a demanding Hollywood actress who took him to Hollywood for 3 yrs and where he made his first millions and the rest is history. There's even a photo floating around out there, a really good one showing Jack and Harry at the signing ceremony. Jack like previous champions Sullivan and Jeffries mouthed the same politically correct lines of the day when reporters pestered them about defending against blacks. But Sullivan reportedly accepted a bout against Old Chocolate Godfrey who never turned up, and Jeffries fought relevant black contenders coming up in his short career and came back well past his best to face Johnson. One of those black contenders he knocked out was Griffin who would go on to beat Johnson a few years later. Jeffries did give him an 4 rd exhibition as champion. Dempsey fought several blacks coming up. Reportedly he KOed Johnson in a donnybrook at a private gentleman's club up in Saskatoon, Canada shortly after Johnson was released from prison, but that fight has yet to be proven since it was a private match and everyone is dead. BTW, I don't blame Wills, but he and his manager blew the opportunity to face Dempsey after his hiatus in Hollywood. They balked at fighting in a eliminator bout against Tunney. Wills lost to Sharkey, and both he and Dempsey were in their twilights. Tunney ended up fighting Tommy Gibbons for the right to meet Dempsey instead. The big ducker of prime black contenders was the storied Jack Johnson, but that sorta ruins the myth of Johnson when you find that out, so you get a lot of denial. Willard cannot be said to have ducked anyone since he only had one successful defense in the four years he held the title. He mostly went on the exhibition circuit after beating Johnson.

a damn shame for kirk, he could have joined the club, instead he joined the line at mcdonalds LOL yeah he was talented, no question about it. He has speed, decent power and knew how to put punches together. Too bad he had no discipline.

He was a Nova Scotian boy, like me. He and Yvon Durelle are celebrated fighters from the Maritimes in Canada. We were all hoping Kirk Johnson would be the next one, but you know how that ended up!hehe a damn shame for kirk, he could have joined the club, instead he joined the line at mcdonalds

yep, a great fighter. many young kids today dont even know him. started as a lighweight and ended up fighting as a heavyweight. that's what P4P is he's canadian. chuvalo and sam were standouts, eventhough sam is better. chuvalo is one tough fighter i tell you He was a Nova Scotian boy, like me. He and Yvon Durelle are celebrated fighters from the Maritimes in Canada. We were all hoping Kirk Johnson would be the next one, but you know how that ended up!hehe

jack wasnt the only one. im not defending him, but it was a trend back in those day to not give blacks a shot at the title. jack dempsey also openly avoided black fighters, and actually hasnt fought that many even before he got the title harry willis wanted to fight dempsey badly, but jack would have none of it. his managers especially werent happy about the prospect of a white champ giving a back fighter the shot Yeah and guys like Dempsey rightfully get knocked down some spots because of it. But Jack had a perfect opportunity to further the sport and he chose to make more money instead. I think the 15 rounds he went with a 156 lb Sam made him want no part of one weighing 185.

One of the reasons I don't care that much for Jack Johnson, he wouldn't fight Sam when he was champ, said there was no money in fighting black fighters. It took all the way to Joe Louis for a black man to advance black boxers in the sport. jack wasnt the only one. im not defending him, but it was a trend back in those day to not give blacks a shot at the title. jack dempsey also openly avoided black fighters, and actually hasnt fought that many even before he got the title harry willis wanted to fight dempsey badly, but jack would have none of it. his managers especially werent happy about the prospect of a white champ giving a back fighter the shot

yep, a great fighter. many young kids today dont even know him. started as a lighweight and ended up fighting as a heavyweight. that's what P4P is he's canadian. chuvalo and sam were standouts, eventhough sam is better. chuvalo is one tough fighter i tell you

I hate situations like these. They piss me off. It's one thing claiming to be ducked, but when you actually beat so many noteable people in order to get a shot and don't get one pisses me off.

One of the reasons I don't care that much for Jack Johnson, he wouldn't fight Sam when he was champ, said there was no money in fighting black fighters. It took all the way to Joe Louis for a black man to advance black boxers in the sport.

He fought world champions from welterweight to heavyweight (Walcott, Ketchel, O'Brien, J. Johnson) and never got an official title shot himself.