- This article is about the boxer. For the article about the musician, see Jack Johnson
John Arthur Johnson (March 31, 1878 - June 10, 1946), better known as Jack Johnson, was an American boxer and arguably the best heavyweight of his generation. He was the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World, 1908-1915. His record is 113 fights with 79 victories and only eight losses, 12 draws and 14 no-decisions.
Early life
He was born in Galveston, Texas and is reputed to have fought his first fight, a sixteen round victory, aged fifteen. He turned professional around 1897, fighting in private clubs. He was briefly arrested in 1900 as boxing was illegal in Texas.
He won his first title on February 3, 1903, beating 'Denver' Ed Martin over twenty rounds for the Colored Heavyweight Championship. His efforts to win the full title were thwarted as white champions refused to face him. He fought the former champion Bob Fitzsimmons in July 1907 and knocked him out in two rounds.
He eventually won the World Heavyweight Title on December 26, 1908 when he fought the World Heavyweight Champion, Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, after following him there. The fight lasted fourteen rounds before being stopped by the police. The title was awarded to Johnson on a referee's decision as a T.K.O but he had severly beaten the champion. The camera
was stopped just as Johnson was finishing off Burns so that
nobody could actually see Johnson becoming the champion.
As title holder, Johnson had to face a series of fights with "great white hopes", often as exhibition matches. In 1909 he beat Victor McLaglen, Frank Moran, Jack O'Brien, Tony Ross, Al Kaufman, and the middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel. On July 4, 1910 he defeated James J. Jeffries, a champion who had earlier turned him down, with a K.O. in the fifteenth round in front of 22,000 people, earning Johnson $115,000. His victory sparked race riots and certain states banned the filming of Johnson's victories over white fighters.
But on April 5, 1915 the 37 year old lost his title to Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba. With a crowd of 25,000 for the scheduled 45 round fight Johnson was K.O.'d in the 26th round. The temperature was 105 in the ring. Some claimed that Johnson threw the fight but Willard said
"if he was going to throw the fight I wished he'd done it
sooner." He fought a number of bouts in Mexico before returning to the US on July 20, 1920 and surrendering to Federal agents for allegedly violating the Mann Act. He was sent to Leavenworth to serve his sentence of one year and was released on July 9, 1921.
Later days
He continued fighting, but age was catching up with him. After two losses in 1928 he participated only in exhibition bouts. He opened a night club in Harlem which later became the Cotton Club. According to reporter the story is that his wife Lucille Cameron in 1924 divorced him on the grounds of infidelity and then Jack Johnson married an old friend named Ms.Irene Pineau.
Johnson was always a controversial fighter. As a black man, he broke a powerful taboo in consorting with white women, usually prostitutes. Johnson also used his fists outside of the ring and spent lavishly on orgies and drink. Once when he was pulled over for a speeding ticket he gave the officer a $1,000 bill, telling the officer he was going to make his return trip at the same speed he made his going trip and wanted to pay his fine in advance. (New Republic, 1/24/2005)
Jack Johnson died in a car crash near Raleigh, North Carolina in 1946 and was buried next to Etta Duryea in Graceland Cemetery, in Chicago, Illinois. He was admitted to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954.
Legacy
His fighting style was very distinctive, he always began a bout cautiously before slowly building up over the rounds into a more aggressive fighter. He often fought to punish his opponent rather than knock them out, endlessly avoiding their blows and striking with swift counters. He always gave the impression of having much more to offer and if pushed he could really damage an opponent.
Johnson is also a member of the modern International Boxing Hall of Fame, which was erected in 1990 at Canastota, New York.
External link
Review of "Unforgiveable Blackness," a 2005 Ken Burns documentary on Johnson (http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=tube&s=siegel012405)
Extended biography of Jack Johnson available at MarcusGarvey.com or by clicking the following link: http://www.marcusgarvey.com/wmview.php?ArtID=517
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