With the rise of modern heavyweight champions, race was at the centre of nearly every important heavyweight drama. First came John L. Sullivan, who refused to cross the colour line and face a black challenger. Then came Jim Jeffries, who swore he would retire 'when there are no white men left to fight'. When he came out of retirement to fight the great Jack Johnson, Jeffries declared: 'I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro.' Jeffries seemed to have the support of all of white America, including the press, led by Jack London, who wrote that 'Jeffries would surely win' because the white man 'has 30 centuries of traditions behind him - all the supreme efforts, the inventions and the conquests, and, whether he knows it or not, Bunker Hill and Thermopylae and Hastings and Agincourt'.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/s...072750,00.html
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