is on PBS Monday Jan 17th. Its a documentary by Ken Burns on the first black heavyweight. Just thought I'd give the UG a heads up.
Ken Burns is one of the best documentary film makers there is.
According to a review in the WSJ when Johnson won the title there were riots resulting in 26 dead.
Pretty crazy and hard to understand
yeah he bet on mma too much
I just read the book. It is a tremendous read.
Should be a very interesting documentary.
TTT, I saw Ken Burns being interviewed/plugging a show on the same network (PBS) by that guy who used to do the news or something on BET. But I think I'll watch it anyway.
The book was great.
"if by "his behavior" you mean beating the shit out everybody put in front of him, fighting on barges and sandbars, because white politicians wouldn't sanction him, and being avoided by jack demspey and every other good white fighter because they were scared shitless of him, then i agree with you."
Jack Dempsey would have sucked his own dick to get a heavyweight title shot against Jack Johnson. When Johnson lost his belt to Jess Willard in 1915, Jack Dempsey was literally a FUCKING HOBO hopping trains from mining town to mining town picking up fights against local toughs after a hard day's labor. Dempsey wasn't even a blip on the heavyweight scene until late 1917, by which time Johnson had left the United States.
Cool...
I remember a joe louis documentary that was on PBS a couple of months ago that had an excerpt on jack johnson. One story that was pretty funny,and I'm going by memory here because I don't have an exact qoute, was johnson was speeding on a highway and was pulled over by a cop. So the cop says "Your fined $50 for speeding" Jack Johnson then gives the cop $100 dollars and tells the cop "I'm coming back the same way" then drives off. lol
By all means I am not racist, but wht women=blk mens kryptonite!
Spidey
I thought it was the other way around, black men=whitewomens kryptoninte..
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll have to try to catch this.
LOL @ UWE's smackdown of Gator.
Welcome back!
TH
Buddy Hackett! I love your act! Do the bit with the oriental massage, please!
First of all, Joe Choynski fought at around 170lbs during most of his career, and Johnson spent most of his career around 185lbs. And according to the Cyber Boxing Zone's record, Johnson had more than 50 fights in between when he lost to Joe Choynski and when he won the title from Tommy Burns, during which he may have learned one or two things and somewhat improved his in-ring skills.
And just FWIW, but Joe Choynski was a double-tough fighter who went 20 rounds with Jim Jeffries, the most violent brawler of the age. He's also a member of Ring Magazine's 'Boxing HOF'. And he wasn't just "white" - he was Jewish.
Up With Evil just bitch slapped the correct with that last post.
Jess Willard, who did not start boxing until he was 29 years of age is the guy who beat Jack Johnson for the title. Willard killed a man named Bull Young in his 25th pro fight.
However, on July 4th 1919 in Toledo, Ohio Jack Dempsey almost killed Willard to win the title. Willard suffered seven knockdowns in the first round, a jaw fractured into eight peices, 4 broken ribs, permanent hearing loss in the left ear and huge cuts that absolutley poured blood.
Dempsey would have probably done Johnson worse. In what has been called Johnson's greatest fight, it took him 15 rounds to beat Jim Jeffries who had been retired for several years, lost close to 100 pounds in training and had no tune up fight(s).
Johnson's greatest contributions as a boxer and athlete are for the most part social, and it was despicable how he was treated by my forefathers.
It needs to be said:
This thread is incredibly depressing.
What happened to Jack Johnson is the same, in essence, as what has happened in about half the posts on this thread.
Nobody learns anything, lol. Life is, truly, grand.
On a lighter note, some of you guys might use this opportunity to actually find out some things about American history.
Most of you probably would assume otherwise, based on ignorance of history - though redskull may or may not know this - but the rioting redskull claims is of whites, out for black blood.
You are talking about the tail end of the lynching era, here, when you talk about Jack Johnson and American history. This is a fundamental consideration in talking about Johnson as a cultural/political figure. Someday, even idiots in America will know this.
I dunno about the rest of you, but I am not gonna wait around for that day, lol.