Many claims to fight of the century

Over the years, there have been many claims of “Fight of the Century” with possibly the first being 113 years ago on Boxing Day in 1908, with Tommy Burns from Canada defending his world heavyweight title against Jack Johnson of the United States.

It took place at the outdoors Sydney Stadium in Rushcutters Bay in Sydney, Australia, and it began at 11:15 local time.

Burns, a 1.7m scrapper who was born in Canada but ran away to Detroit when he was a teenager, had held the world heavyweight title since his victory over Fireman Jim Flynn in 1906 and was making his 12th defence.

They fought outdoors in what the promoter Hugh McIntosh and the newspapers called the “Fight of the Century”.

Johnson, 1.88m tall, beat Burns so badly that the police stopped the bout in the 14th round and, per prior agreement, the decision was awarded by the referee based on points. Both wore 4oz gloves.

The result made Johnson the first black heavyweight champion of the world and triggered ugly racial incidents in the United States.

Johnson is also remembered as one of the most controversial boxers in history because of what he did and what happened to him outside the ring. His private life was the cause of many newspaper headlines and legal problems.

He was born in Galveston, Texas, on 31 March 1878. As a boy, he was often bullied by other children; so badly that his elder sister sometimes had to rescue him. Their father was too sickly to bother and his mother was, according to some reports, disgusted by their son’s lack of fighting spirit.

He was still only a boy when he ran away, with hardly any money to survive. He found work as a labourer, a cotton picker and a stable boy for a racehorse owner in the Boston area.

SPARRING WITH THE BARBADOS DEMON

Joe Walcott, the “Barbados Demon”, a one-time world welterweight champion was in Boston at that time, training for a fight. Somehow Johnson, then 17, drifted into Walcott’s camp where the boxer’s wife gave the boy something to eat.

Walcott gave the tall, well-built Johnson a few jobs and soon roped him in as a sparring partner. With the money he received from Walcott, Johnson returned to Galveston and took up boxing.

From 1897 to 1900 he fought several opponents and lost only once. That earned him a fight against an experienced heavyweight, Joe Choynski, who knocked him out in the third round in February 1901.

Apparently, both fighters were arrested afterwards because boxing was still illegal in Texas. But while they were in jail, Choynski took a liking to Johnson and began teaching him the finer points of boxing.

This enabled the naturally gifted athlete to develop what became a distinctive defensive style.

‘BLACK’ CHAMPION

After losing on points over 20 rounds to Hank Griffin in May 1901, Johnson remained undefeated in his next seven fights before beating Denver Ed Martin in Los Angeles to win the heavyweight title for black Americans.

He also beat Sam McVey, a leading heavyweight, twice as he strung together 10 more victories. His only defeat during that time was to Marvin Hart, who won the vacant world heavyweight title three months later by knocking out Jack Root in the 12th round.

For the next three years, Johnson won all his fights. Then he challenged Burns for the world title that he had taken over from Hart.

Burns, however, must have realised that the bigger Johnson would probably be too good for him. He ducked and dived for two years until the Australian promoter, Hugh D McIntosh, offered him a huge amount to defend his title against Johnson.

The clash was probably the first one to be promoted as “the fight of the century” and the result caused much bitterness among white boxing enthusiasts. It turned into a search for a “great white hope” to take the title away from the black champion.

Jack London, a leading American journalist, probably started the move to convince James J Jeffries, a former champion who had retired undefeated, to make a comeback.

Reports of Johnson’s private life fanned the feelings against him while he took on Victor McLaglen, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, Tony Ross and Al Kaufman in no-decision bouts.

In October 1909 he fought world middleweight champion Stanley Ketchell. It was said that Johnson had agreed to let the popular Ketchell go the distance. But Ketchell forgot the script and knocked Johnson down in the 12th round.

Johnson jumped up almost immediately as Ketchell rushed in to finish the fight. An enraged Johnson replied with a right uppercut that knocked Ketchell down and out; his front teeth broken out of the gums. He was unconscious for several minutes.

On Independence Day, 4 July 1910, Johnson faced Jeffries, who had retired undefeated more than five years earlier.

Jeffries, 35, was no match for the champion and was knocked out in the 15th round. The result triggered more racial clashes in several places in the United States.

WIFE COMMITTED SUICIDE

In the years after the bout, Johnson took some huge knocks outside the ring. His wife Etta, a white woman, committed suicide. At the inquest, it was revealed that Johnson had tried to commit suicide on two occasions.

Then he got into trouble for allegedly trying to smuggle jewels through customs on one of his trips to London. To make matters worse, one of his mistresses shot him in the foot after catching him with another woman.

In 1912, Johnson stopped Jim Flynn in the ninth round of a bout in Las Vegas. It was later revealed that he had received a letter on the day before the fight, warning him to “Lie down tomorrow or we’ll string you up”. The letter was signed K.K.K.

On 3 January 1912 he married another white woman, Lucille Cameron. But soon after he became involved with another white woman, leading to his arrest on a charge under the Mann Act, a law that prohibited a man from taking a woman from one state to another for immoral purposes.

He was sentenced to one year in jail but, believing he was a victim of racial prejudice, he forfeited bail and fled to England in 1913.

Life in London was no better. He was even fined for swearing in the street and for traffic offences. After a while he went to France, where he felt more at ease.

UNDERESTIMATED JIM JOHNSON

On 19 December 1913, Johnson went in against Jim Johnson, an excellent boxer whom he underestimated. He regarded the 10-round bout in Paris as a warm-up for a fight with Frank Moran.

He fought badly and was probably saved by the bell at the end of the 10th round. The result was announced as a draw and the spectators booed Jack Johnson, who said he had suffered a broken arm.

The fight against Moran took place on 27 June 1914. After 20 rounds, referee Georges Carpentier – who challenged Jack Dempsey for the world heavyweight title in 1921 – raised Johnson’s hand.

When the First World War broke out, Johnson and his third wife fled to Cuba. Being broke and homesick, he agreed to defend his title against Jess Willard, a tall Kansas cowboy.

They met in Havana on a hot day, 5 April 1916. Willard knocked Johnson out in the 26th round to take over the world title.

Johnson returned to London where it was claimed that he had declared his support for the Germans. He quickly moved to Spain where he ran a café in Madrid and had a few fights to earn extra money during the last years of the war. He even took part in bullfighting.

He then accepted an invitation to fight in Mexico, where he had a few bouts before deciding to go home to the United States. He gave himself up at the border near San Diego and was sent to the Leavenworth Penitentiary to serve his sentence.

After his release on July 9 1921, Johnson fought sporadically until Bill Hartwell stopped him in the seventh round in Kansas City on May 15 1928. He was 50 years old and never fought again.

But instead of settling down, he continued his questionable lifestyle until he died in a car crash near Franklin in North Carolina on 10 June 1946. He was buried at the Graceland cemetery in Chicago.