Showing posts with label johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label johnson. Show all posts
"During my training (for Fireman Jim Flynn - 1912) Harry Wills appeared on the scene, seeking a place as a sparring partner. I engaged him, but he remained only for a few days. He proved wholly unable to stand the grind and was compelled to acknowledge that the ordeal was too much for him. He returned to New Orleans." - Jack Johnson
In early 1916, a frenzied group of fight promoters gathered in Barcelona to organize what promised to be a 'sensational encounter' between former world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson (the famous black fighter who was living in Europe, a fugitive from his native land because of charges of having violated the Mann Act) and Arthur Cravan, an outspoken, notoriously eccentric Englishman, who claimed not only to be a professional fighter, but also the nephew of Oscar Wilde. Posters were hung throughout the city to publicize the event. In the controversial match, which took place at the Plaza de Toros Monumental on Sunday afternoon, April 23, we can safely surmise that Cravan fought true to form, that is, leading more with his mouth than with his fists. After six rounds of what must have amounted to little more than a skillful demonstration of shadow boxing - staged more for the benefit of a rolling camera than the disappointed audience - Johnson finally dropped Cravan with an upper-right/left-cross combination. Knockout or not, the audience smelled farce, and because of the guaranteed fifty-thousand-peseta purse, the next day the daily press proclaimed the fight 'The Great Swindle.'
For Johnson, it was just one more relatively uneventful 'ring contest,' as he called it, arranged for the benefit of his pocketbook. For Cravan, it was the main event in his tragically short life; two and one-half years later, at the age of thirty-one, he would disappear off the coast of Mexico, leaving behind only scant traces of a fascinating and adventurous life, one that stretched from the outback of Australia to the inner circle of vanguard artists and poets on both sides of the Atlantic.
Though he claimed to be a light-heavyweight champion (of something, somewhere) Cravan, according to Boxrec, had absolutely no competitive experience prior to the fight. Indeed, his official record notes that he fought only three bouts: With Johnson (knocked out); against Frank Hoche (a draw, June 26, 1916); and against Jim Smith ("The Black Diamond" with only this fight to his credit) in Mexico City, September 15, 1918 (knocked out). With a record of no wins, two losses via knock-out, and a draw his only threat as a boxer was to his own safety.
(By Stephen J. Gertz)
For Johnson, it was just one more relatively uneventful 'ring contest,' as he called it, arranged for the benefit of his pocketbook. For Cravan, it was the main event in his tragically short life; two and one-half years later, at the age of thirty-one, he would disappear off the coast of Mexico, leaving behind only scant traces of a fascinating and adventurous life, one that stretched from the outback of Australia to the inner circle of vanguard artists and poets on both sides of the Atlantic.
Though he claimed to be a light-heavyweight champion (of something, somewhere) Cravan, according to Boxrec, had absolutely no competitive experience prior to the fight. Indeed, his official record notes that he fought only three bouts: With Johnson (knocked out); against Frank Hoche (a draw, June 26, 1916); and against Jim Smith ("The Black Diamond" with only this fight to his credit) in Mexico City, September 15, 1918 (knocked out). With a record of no wins, two losses via knock-out, and a draw his only threat as a boxer was to his own safety.
(By Stephen J. Gertz)
"That’s right, folks, my robust opinions are in The Times while the Manassa Mauler had to harrumph in the obscure New York Amsterdam News. How appropriate. For years I pursued frightened opponents around the world before winning the heavyweight championship at age thirty. Jack Dempsey got his title young and spent the next seven years dodging formidable black fighters, pummeling white stiffs, and fooling around in Hollywood. I don’t begrudge him the latter, but when a man’s most significant victories come over hundred-ten-pound starlets, he’s no champ, at least in the ring. And, please, disregard those who say I was bad as Dempsey in denying black fighters opportunities. I only did that after I became champ. At least I fought my brothers while I ascended.
Study the record. Jack Dempsey, already a lazy titleholder, didn’t fight for three years before skinny Gene Tunney peppered him ten rounds. Dempsey was then an old man at thirty-one. At that stage I kept getting better. That’s why, if Dempsey had given me a shot in 1919, when I was only forty-one, I’d have boxed and confused him and made him stumble around the ring before I dropped the hammer. But of course Jack Dempsey wouldn’t fight me then. Maybe he will now. He’s only forty-six and I’m sixty-three and been losing most of my fights for years.
Joe Louis also irritates me. I don’t know why black folks cheer such an inarticulate guy. They must not remember. If I were twenty-five years younger, I’d tattoo the Brown Bomber."
(1941 column by former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson published in The New York Times.)
Study the record. Jack Dempsey, already a lazy titleholder, didn’t fight for three years before skinny Gene Tunney peppered him ten rounds. Dempsey was then an old man at thirty-one. At that stage I kept getting better. That’s why, if Dempsey had given me a shot in 1919, when I was only forty-one, I’d have boxed and confused him and made him stumble around the ring before I dropped the hammer. But of course Jack Dempsey wouldn’t fight me then. Maybe he will now. He’s only forty-six and I’m sixty-three and been losing most of my fights for years.
Joe Louis also irritates me. I don’t know why black folks cheer such an inarticulate guy. They must not remember. If I were twenty-five years younger, I’d tattoo the Brown Bomber."
(1941 column by former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson published in The New York Times.)
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