Heavyweight Dreamer

In December 1913 Jack Johnson held on to his World Heavyweight title by means of an extremely dubious draw with his namesake Battling Jim Johnson. At the end of the tenth round of a tedious contest Jack Johnson quit claiming he had broken his arm. The fight was then declared a draw even though standard boxing rules dictated that Jim Johnson should have been declared the winner and new World Champion because Jack Johnson had refused to continue fighting. Today Jim Johnson would have won by a technical knockout. Instead Jack Johnson held on to the World Heavyweight championship until he finally lost to Jess Willard in 1915. Jim Johnson meantime slowly became a footnote in sporting history as the fight between the two Johnsons was the first time two black men had fought for the World Heavyweight title.

Things could have been different if Jim Johnson had been rightly judged to have beaten his namesake. A stroll through boxing history shows that the lineage of the World Heavyweight title would have been very different during the period 1913 to 1925 if Jim Johnson was retrospectively awarded victory over Jack Johnson. Jim would lose his title to the legendary black boxer Sam Langford in March 1914. Langford would reign for just over a month before in May 1914 he lost to the up and coming Harry Wills a man who was studiously avoided by the White Heavyweight champions Willard and Dempsey. Langford would regain the Championship from Wills in November 1914 before losing it to his great rival Joe Jeanette in April 1915, another man who never got a shot at the official World Championship because of his colour.

A year later in May 1916 Sam Langford would become the first man to win the World Heavyweight title three times (62 years before Ali offically achieved this goal) by beating Jeanette. In January 1917 Langford lost the title to Bill Tate. However the indomitable Langford took the title back from Tate in May 1917 becoming the only man to win the World Heavyweight title four times. A month later in June 1917 Sam became the only man to lose the title four times when he lost to Fred Fulton. Fulton would be the first white heavyweight champion since Tommy Burns lost to Jack Johnson in 1908. In December 1917 Fulton lost the title to little known Harry "Texas" Tate. In a January 1918 rematch Fulton avenged his defeat to Tate and regained the Championship.

In a surreal twist Fulton lost to the up and coming Jack Dempsey in July 1918. At this point logic would suggest that the two versions of the World title would merge and Dempsey would become undisputed champ in 1919 when he defeated Jess Willard. This story however has another few twists, in September 1918 Dempsey lost to Willie Meehan, a white journeyman he had frequently struggled with. Meehan's reign as champ was short, Fred Fulton took the crown from him in November 1918. Fulton's third reign as champ was his longest, lasting until July 1920 when Harry Wills beat him to become champion for a second time.

Wills second reign as champ lasted until January 1922 when he lost to Bill Tate. Tate's second spell as champ lasted until June 1922 when was defeated by Jack Thompson. Thompson's reign was similarly brief, George Godfrey took the crown in December 1922. Godfrey's time at the top was even shorter. Jack Renault beat him in March 1923.

Renault hardly had time to declare himself champ before he lost to Ted Jamieson in June 1923. Jamieson managed to stay unbeaten until May 1924 when he lost to future World Middleweight champ Tiger Flowers. Flowers then lost the title to his legendary rival Harry Greb in August 1924.

Greb held the title until Gene Tunney outpointed him in March 1925. Tunney's defeat of Greb meant that when he stepped into the ring with Dempsey in 1926 it was essentially a unification bout between the two rival claimants for the World heavyweight title. Tunney's victory possibly could be construed as proof that his alternative version of the Championship was the more legitimate. Certainly the quality of some of the champions is undeniable: for example Langford, Jeanette, Wills and Dempsey.

I developed this alternative version of the Linear championship based on actual results recorded in BoxRec. Jim Johnson's first defeat after his draw with Jack Johnson was against Sam Langford. Using the principle that a heavyweight champ cannot have a non title fight. I had the title change hands each time the 'title holder' lost. Obviously this produced a few odd names such as Harry 'Texas' Tate and Willie Meehan but overall the genuine big names of the era all appear on the list, partly because the line follows by coincidence the Coloured Heavyweight Championship. What is significant is the appearance of big name white fighters Fulton, Dempsey, Greb and Tunney.

I accept that if Jim Johnson had officially got the decision Jack Johnson would have done his utmost to get a rematch. However Jack Johnson was at the peak of his unpopularity in 1913 and I really can't see Jim Johnson's management risking a chump change re-match with Johnson in Paris when they could return the title to the USA and generate a far more profitable match with a white hope or failing that tour the world fighting the likes of Langford and Jeanette.

The main drive of this piece is to illustrate that Johnson, Willard and Dempsey's title defences barely scratched the surface of the talent operating during the period 1913 to 1925.