Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson “Fight Of The Century” | Ring Talk with Lou Eisen

In 1910, Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries clashed in Reno, Nevada to contest the world heavyweight crown in what was then billed as “The Fight of the Century.”

Discussing the greatest boxing controversies throughout history, Lou Eisen offers his opinions and insights in this fantastic live-streamed series of episodes. Watch live on TalkinFight.com every Sunday at 2pm ET.

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Transcribed:

[, Music, ] hi, i’m lou eisen, and welcome to ring talk, and today we are discussing the first fight of the century.

We know that for more recent boxing fans, when you say fight of the century, they think of muhammad ali and joe frazier, and that was a fight of the century.

It wasn’t the first one though, because that had two undefeated world heavyweight boxing champions fighting each other, but there was a similarity in some cases between muhammad ali and the man who participated in the first fight of the century.

James j jeffries, the first fight of the century, took place in reno, nevada july 4th 1910 and it was promoted by tex rickard the great promoter of that time and it featured defending world heavyweight champion jack johnson, the first black man to ever win the world title And former heavyweight champion james j, jeffrey jeffries, didn’t really want to be there, but he was sort of forced to be there because no one else could beat johnson because of his superior ring skill.

The only similarity between ally and james jeffries, of course, was that they were both off for a significant amount of time.

However, ali was off for almost four years, because the government and the corrupt sanctioning bodies and state commissions stole illegally took his title.

James j jeffries hadn’t fought in six years.

He had retired.

He did not want to come back, he was.

He was uh old and fat like me, and he um retired in 2004, and in fact he fought uh jack monroe in june of 2004 knocked him out in two rounds, and that was it didn’t want to fight anymore and yeah.

Six years later, you know he was six one and a half six two.

He was 350 pounds, he owned an alfalfa farm.

He didn’t need to come back, but because johnson was doing so well and was really destroying every heavyweight out there uh they needed someone.

They thought could beat him and everyone thought well, it’s jack, it’s james, j, jeffries in fact, jeffrey’s himself and all his fans said well, johnson’s, not the champion.

Jeffrey’S never lost it in the ring, but of course that’s bs, because jeffrey’s retired in 1904, after beating jack monroe, and then they had a talk or excuse me a tournament and after much talk and discussion, the fighters that fought for the title were marvin hart and Light heavyweight jack root, who was originally from germany, heart won in decision and then a year later, the canadian tommy burns beat him, and then two years later, uh johnson destroyed tommy burns and became the undisputed first black man ever to win the world heavyweight title which Unleashed a storm of racism and hatred across not only the united states, canada, but across the world, i should say across the english-speaking white world.

So the way the heavyweight title worked, the first man ever to be considered the first glove the world heavyweight champion was john l sullivan.

Now i have a problem with that, because he was the first white man to be considered a gloved heavyweight champion he’s also the bare knuckle world heavyweight champion.

I don’t consider him the first a lot of boxing historians, don’t because he didn’t fight the best fighters around who were black best fighters around in al sullivan’s time were the canadian george gottfried, the original george gottfried from charlottetown prince edward island.

He was the same size as sullivan in terms of height, five, ten and a half, but solomon would weigh in close to 200 pounds or more, whereas godfrey rarely weighed more than 175.

uh, the other fighter that would have.

I thought i don’t know who would have won if godfrey beat self and there’s no way of knowing they almost fought twice both times sullivan, backed out the other.

One was six foot two peter jackson from australia, a great black fighter who johnson turned down and i thought would have absolutely destroyed.

Excuse me who sullivan turned out and i thought he absolutely would have destroyed.

John l sullivan james j corbett fought jackson in order to get a shot at sullivan and went 66 rounds, and the fight was called the draw because darkness had fell.

It was fought outside, so you have sullivan who’s the world heavyweight champion.

He loses the title by knockout in the twenties fifth or sixth round to james j.

Corbett.

Corbett holds the title and he gets knocked out by bob that simmons, with the left hook to the solar plexus to simmons, holds the title and then james j jeffries, who was a who was a sparring partner for corbett.

Uh takes the title from fitzsimmons and actually, when you there’s a tape, you can see the clip of fitzsimmons knocking out um james j corbett, and then you see how huge jeffries is because he answers the ring to help corbett get up the referee for that fight.

By the way was a western gunman, wyatt earp and then after you have fit simmons jeffries beats him.

Jeffrey’S wins in 1898 retires in 1904.

There’S really no one of any consequence left for him to fight no one that he can make money with, and then they have, as i said, uh marvin hart beats.

Uh jack root then loses to tommy burns.

Who loses it to jack johnson and then the boxing world and everyone else in the world has a major problem.

They can’t allow in their minds why people can allow this black man to be the world heavyweight champion, because it’s the symbol of world supremacy and virility and the the guiding thought process back then was the fact that white people were superior to black people physically and Mentally and for johnson to be on top destroyed that theory and white people could not accept it and in fact, when johnson beat burns, he beat him every round.

The fight was declared a points victory, but really he destroyed him and the police stepped in and stopped.

The fight before the referee could count burns out.

Burns was on the canvas in the 14th round on rush cutters, bay, sydney, australia.

So now, after that happens, jack johnson has the title: he’s beaten, tommy burns and then he fights philadelphia, jack, o’brien uh and then he fights to a drive fights a guy named tony ross to a draw.

He beats al kaufman who’s, really a sparring partner for him.

Knocks out stanley catch on 12.

and uh, the quechua fight was an interesting fight because that fight they had a prior agreement, which was quite common back then, where catch all it wasn’t written the quechua said and johnson said: listen.

We won’t go and try and knock each other out.

What we’ll do is we’ll just put on a good boxing display for 20 rounds, but the thing about stanley catcher, who everyone called steve everyone that knew him.

He never lived up to those agreements.

So during the 12th round he tried not johnson out, he threw a hard right hand.

I think he missed, but johnson went down from ducking the right hand, he lost his balance and fell and when johnson got up, you could see the unmistakable anger in his face and he raced right towards catch hill, hit him with the right hand and stretched him Catch holes out for a good 20 minutes and then, while the referee’s counting, you see johnson retreat to the ropes and start brushing off capsule’s teeth from his glove at that point.

Actually, before that, when he beat tommy burns, the american author jack london, who wrote call of the wild was watching the fight in australia and he was disgusted by how easily johnson destroyed burns and he’s watching this fight, and he said it’s up to you, jeff.

That’S what they call jim jeffries.

You have to emerge from your alfalfa farm and wipe the golden smile off johnson’s face, and they refer to it as a golden smile because he had gold teeth.

He had his teeth: uh replaced with gold teeth, his front teeth and johnson be burned so easily and was talking to the reporters and laughing and joking.

It wasn’t really a big effort on his part.

In fact, probably at that point, johnson was just a little bit past, his prime, so we we have uh him winning the title and then finally reported saying: let’s have a big fight.

Let’S have jack jim jeffries.

Jim jeffries will redeem the white race, jim jeffries.

The great jim jeffries who’s never lost who’s destroyed, everyone he’s ever fought will beat jack johnson and jeffries and jeffrey’s supporters, fans and the media said well he’s still the world champion.

He still holds the world heavyweight title.

He never lost it in the ring.

That’S how they thought backman, even though he had officially retired, they thought.

Well, you can’t say johnson’s the champ, although you can and that’s how that’s, how um trenchant? That’S how entrenched excuse me they’re the racism ones.

They just do not accept the fact that a black man was the best heavyweight fighter on earth.

In fact, the majority of black fighters back then were the best fighters on earth in every weight division.

So they they make this uh a bout for reno nevada.

It was originally going to be, i think, before in california, but uh the the governor said no we’re not going to allow that here, governor gillette, let’s have my starbucks coffee.

He said we’re not going to have to fight here, won’t allow it.

They don’t want race riots, jeffrey starts, making derogatory comments in the press.

Johnson and he’s done this for the previous four or five years can’t hit, has no chin typical black fighter he’s got a yellow streak, doesn’t like it to the stomach.

That’S what they said about black fighters back then they don’t like it to the stomach and when one person asks joe lewis about, i hear i hear black fighters, don’t like getting punched in the stomach and joe lewis once said.

Who does so? It was a racist, stupid, idiotic comment and jeffrey’s is hesitant.

When people ask him he’s, you know he’s 350 360 pounds 6-2 he’s got a successful alpha alpha farm.

He doesn’t need the grief of losing the weight and getting into shape.

What does he care? He’S got his money, he’s got a successful farm, he can sit there and insult johnson all he wants.

In fact, they’ve met before uh several years before jack johnson knocked out uh jim jeffery’s brother jack jeffries in two rounds in california and james jeffries, who was the champion.

The boilermaker was sitting in a bar with friends when johnson walked in after the fight, and he said you’re next and jeffrey said sure.

Let’S go down to the basement.

With my friends and fight and johnson said i ain’t no seller fighter.

I am a boxer, in other words, i’m not going to let you and your friends jump me down there and say that you beat me you’re going to have to fight me legitimately.

So john johnson wants to fight.

He would have fought him back then, but jefferies was scared of fighting him.

He didn’t you know he didn’t want to take on any good challenger, most of whom were black, and so at that point he retires.

As i said, and then when we get to six years later in 1910, he still doesn’t want to fight jack johnson he’s still happy with his life living on a farm.

Big belly eating four five: six good meals, a day laughing with his friends who come up to his farm, to tell him how great he is and jeffrey’s the boilermaker uh keeps getting all these pleas from different people.

You got ta fight, you got ta fight.

You got ta redeem, the race you got ta fight, he keeps ignoring until tax record, comes along and says, listen, here’s the deal! I’Ll pay you whatever you want.

You want a hundred thousand dollars i’ll pay, you i’ll i’ll, give you half up front and gold and he keeps offering them more and more and more and more money.

To the point where jeffrey says, i i i you know, this is more than i made in my entire career combined.

I can’t turn it down, so they have a press conference in new york, where one writer wrote that johnson had to be the loneliest man in the world, because he was the only black man in a room full of about 200 whites and they have all the Money and the money that both fighters are getting paid and gold was on display in a bank in new york, previously been on display in bank in las vegas and or excuse me in reno nevada, where the fight was being held and they signed the articles to Fight and jeffrey still, disparages johnson can’t fight he’s slow he’s got no defense.

This was the interesting thing about jeffrey’s, criticizing johnson’s defense jeffries had now defense whatsoever, and never did.

He was just a big behomoth that came straight forward.

He had his left hand out, like straight left, hand would be out and his right hand would be underneath and he would just walk to guys.

He took phenomenal punishment.

I mean bob fitzsimmons cut him to shreds.

You know busted his nose cuts under him, both both eyes under and below both eyes, but jefferies was so strong.

He could stand it and eventually caught up to him and knocked him out same with corbett.

The first time they fought 23 pounds.

Corbett was beaten.

The life out of him and then jefferies caught up to him and knocked him out, and he fought him again in a rematch and knocked him out.

I think an eleventh round.

So it’s it’s! It’S incredible that uh that these guys, that you know, could fight like that for that distance and that jeffries could take such a pounding.

But after a while taking poundings like that short in a fighter’s life.

So we get to this match and match is signed, and i was thinking about this last night.

This is an interesting thing.

The most terrifying thing about to to people today would probably be public speaking, that’s what they always say.

So somebody says to you whether it’s your public speaker or a lawyer trying your first case or a doctor doing your first surgery or whatever it is.

If you have some big event coming up in four or five months, it’s not going to scare you now, because in your mind you can’t conceive of it being here.

You think four months will never happen.

Six months will never happen.

So i’m fine, but the day of the event, then you’re nervous, because there’s no more four six months to wait it’s here, and this is what happened to jeffrey.

So jeffrey’s is training and he’s being trained by uh, james, j, corbett, jack kowinski or excuse me, joe kowinsky, now joe kowinsky, the great jewish fighter was the only one of the few fighters, not the only but one of the few fighters that fought him to a Legitimate draw and just broke his cheekbone, he said he’d excuse me, yeah broke his cheekbone fractured his eardrum and jeffrey said.

He’D never been hit like that before so he’s helping train jeffries and you can see black and white tapes of how the training, which is kind of funny and jeffrey’s is he’s, got to lose his weight he’s 350 360.

.

He wants to get down to 220, which was his fighting weight, and so he’s he’s continually training, uh he’s running long distances and the longer training camp goes the more irritable he gets.

He doesn’t want to do this, he doesn’t like being here and to make matters worse.

John o’sullivan comes up the training camp because he’s covering it for syndicate of new york, newspapers and there’s a great clip of him, throwing or trading volleys of punches jokingly with james j corbett.

He beat corbett for the or corbett beat him for the title.

He hated corbett and corbett hated him.

In fact, most people hated corbett, fitzsimmons hated corbett, kowinski hated him for a long time until they made peace and so sullivan, shakes corbett’s hand on the tape they make peace and then sullivan.

A couple days later is banned permanently by jim jeffries from his training camp.

Because he wrote how on earth does anyone think that a guy like jim jeffries has been off for six years can beat a champion like jack johnson in his prime? It’S an impossibility, and he he was right, but jeffreys didn’t want that kind of negativity around him.

So he’s training he’s doing the medicine, balls, sit-ups, push-ups and bob armstrong, uh, well-known black fighters in his training camp and helping him get in shape and he manages to start losing the weight he manages to get off the weight down.

He goes from 360.

You know within a month or two to 320, then to 300 280 and he gets down.

He gets finally gets down near fight time to 320 or to 220.

.

That’S his actual weight.

He he’s in shape, but his body looks tired and drawn languid jack johnson enters training camp, maybe five pounds over his fighting weight, so he’s going to come in at 195.

and johnson is running long distances every day.

He’S sparring a lot he’s not taking a chance.

Johnson also has a an exercise which a lot of fighters did back.

Then they don’t do anymore, not for a long time.

He would have chicken run around and he would have to grab the chicken, and so it was to work on his legs and his eye hand coordination, because you know a chicken running really quickly will dart back and forth very difficult to catch him.

But johnson was particularly adept at this.

Johnson has al kaufman in his training camp he’s got a bunch of people, but he’s he’s in shape and the reporters that are watching him are thinking.

Jeffries doesn’t know what he’s getting into, but i think jefferies did know what he was getting into.

Jefferies was viewed by the press and by himself as the redeemer of the white race.

I’M the white hope i’m fighting this fight to show white people are superior to black people, which was the height of racism and stupidity and when they asked johnson that he wouldn’t he wouldn’t answer, because essentially johnson, he didn’t look at it.

The way other people looked at it, he thought i’m i’m fighting for.

Why all fighters fight for money and recognition.

I can’t redeem anyone.

I can’t help anyone of my own race, i’m a free man i’ll, do what i want and there’s a great scene in the movie, the great white hope written by howard sackler, which they say happened.

I i’ve never read about it actually happening where a reporter says.

Well, you know he’s the redeemer of the white race, our you, the redeemer of the black race, and he said no.

My mama told me, mr lincoln, done that ain’t that why you shot him and that was written in the movie.

But i’ve never been able to find actual evidence of johnson saying that in real life we get to the day of the fight.

And it’s a brutally hot renal nevada day it’s well over a hundred and in a strange turn of events.

The champion jack johnson comes to the ring first, and he comes to the ring.

First, that was agreed in the contract.

Jefferies is superior because he’s white and he’s the crowd favorite, so he gets to enter the ring first and johnson didn’t care.

You know as long as you paid me.

That’S all i care about.

You can enter the ring whenever you want and he enters the ring and standing in his corner.

I think he has kid cotton and i believe, although it’s not mentioned sam mcveigh, it looks like on the tape, the other great black, one of the other great black heavyweights, along with joe jeannette and sam langford of that era, uh sam mcveigh is in his corner And johnson is smiling and laughing he’s got his robe on his glistening, bald head he’s talking to the reporters he’s talking to former fighters who were introduced before the fight, there’s a great picture of all of them lining up and billy jordan, the great announcer.

You know it’s a letter rip and announced the fighters and there’s a picture of bob simmons standing beside stanley, ketchum tommy burns and all the former champions james j corbett, jeffrey’s gon na want to come out of his dressing room.

He was now immortal to her.

I i’m not gon na do this, i won’t.

I won’t do it, you can’t make me do it, i’m not doing it.

I’M not going out no way.

No, how nope you better! You signed a contract, i don’t care about the stupid contract, i’m not coming out.

Finally, because they couldn’t agree on a referee, they had to use the promoter text record record, entered the dress, room and says to him jim.

If you don’t come out, you won’t get paid and i’m going to sue you and you’re going to have to give back the 50 grand or more that i’ve already given you, you have to come out.

These fans are waiting for you and he comes out he’s dressed in a dark suit, no tie wearing all black and, of course he gets to the ring and they you know it’s a strip away suit.

They take it off and you can see you know he’s holding his stomach and he’s lost the weight.

But his body is old.

You know he’s not an old man by by any stretch of the imagination, he’s only 33 34 but in boxing terms, he’s old because of the wars he’s been through and he’s scared and he’s in the corner and they’re blocking his view from johnson and and they’re.

Putting the tape on and the gloves they agreed beforehand that they would not shake hands.

Both men are introduced and as they’re sitting in the corner, there’s umbrellas over them because it’s a brutally hot sun people are people in the corner are waving towels and jeffrey’s.

You know catches a glimpse of johnson who’s, perfectly calm and smiling and talking with people and shaking hands, and it just scares the daylights out of him.

So finally, they get the gloves up, they introduced the fighters or the gloves are on and you can see jeffrey’s.

You know johnson’s in his corner, shaking his head bouncing up and down on his feet, throwing you know, punches getting ready to start and there’s jeffrey’s like a bump on the log sitting on the ropes, leaning back.

You know you know he does not want to do this and the bell rings and the fight starts and they come out slowly and you can see the past and future meet in one instant, whereas jeffrey’s comes out with his hands underhanded in the old fashion and Johnson comes out in the new fashion, with his hands like this and from the beginning.

It’S it’s.

The blowout johnson has no problem.

Um jabbing him keeps jabbing and jabbing and jabbing jabbing and landing right hands.

You know a minute in jeffries is already bleeding from the nose.

His lips are already getting shredded, johnson’s laughing at him and talking to him, here’s one, mr jeff, here’s another one.

Mr jeff here comes a jab, mr jeff get ready for a right hand, mr jeff, and he just keeps pounding him.

While this is going on.

James j corbett is in the corner and he screaming at the top of his lungs he’s literally frothing at the mouth.

There’S spittle and foam coming out of his mouth johnson you’re, nothing, but a no good down, yellow curd and he yells the n word thousands of times out of the worst racial epithets and he keeps shaking his fist.

And if he doesn’t beat you i’m going to kill you and and as he does this every time he does this johnson says to he’s he’s beating the hell of the jeffries.

He says he hang on mr jeff, as he keeps his left hand in his face.

What was that again? Uh jim and jim, says it again.

He goes okay and then wham hits jeffrey’s right in the face for everyone cell corbett is yelling.

Johnson is always hang on a second mr jeff say that again and then wham hits him in the face.

Again, every word elicits a tremendous power punch from johnson on the face of jeffries, and you can see at the end of the first round.

Jeffrey goes back to his corner and he’s oh, he can’t he can barely breathe he’s taken.

You know 20 rounds of punishment in the first round and, as you go back to the corner, you know johnson, just waves to him.

Jeffrey jeffries goes to his corner.

Slumps in johnson goes back, he’s smiling he’s talking to everyone.

You know reminds you of ali and they come up for the second round, and corbett is now even more furious, yelling stuff johnson hears it and then just keeps pounding him again, pounding him and pounding him and pounding him and he’s using.

I i used to say he was using jeffrey’s face as a tetherball, but it was worse than that he’s using jeffrey’s head as a speed bag.

That’S how quickly his face is moving four five, six, seven, eight punch combinations back and forth, and you know jeffries who never, as i said earlier, never had any defense to begin with.

It’S utterly helpless it doesn’t.

He doesn’t know how to put his hands up to he’s trying to, but it’s not making any difference.

He doesn’t know exactly where to place his hands and johnson’s too fast for him anyways there’s a lot of slip punches, doesn’t know how to slide punches.

That wasn’t part of it back then for jefferies anyways.

It was for other fighters, but not for jim jeffries.

It was for johnson jeffrey’s is throwing punches, but he can’t land johnson is less than 10 inches from him and he can’t land.

He does land some good body shots and he does land a couple of good hooks, but they have no effect on them, and the other thing jefferies can’t believe is that when they clinch jeffries is supposed to be this, you know behemoth this mountainous man, the boilermaker.

This grizzly bear they call them who who could manhandle anyone well johnson, has no problem, locking him in a clinch lifting him up off the canvas and placing him somewhere else.

He can’t believe that johnson is not only quicker than him, but in infinitely stronger than he is, and this this massacre goes on.

For the you know three rounds four rounds.

Five rounds, six rounds, seven rounds.

John jeffries has spent johnson’s just having fun.

At this point.

You know he had agreed a tax record.

I won’t take him out early and there was a good reason for that.

If he did, he could have got lynched.

You know there would have been a riot everyone.

There was solidly behind jeffries and corbett keeps yelling all these racial epithets at him.

And finally, after the eighth and ninth round, jefferies comes back to the corner and his face is a mask of gore blood from cuts under and below the eyes blood from his ears.

His nose is smashed, didn’t have a mouth guard back then.

So his lips are shredded blood’s pouring out of his mouth.

His tongue is cut and he says to james j corbett.

I need a favor and he said sure, jim anything.

What is it shut? The hell up, that was the favor he wanted from corbett every time you insult him.

He takes it out of my face.

Shut up, but corbett wouldn’t shut up.

Corbett was so self-absorbed and so narcissistic that he kept up this stream of racial abuse towards johnson.

For the rest of the fight and johnson just took it out on jeffries and jeffries took a ferocious beating to the body to the head.

Johnson was just having fun, there was nothing, jefferies could do, jeffrey’s spirit was destroyed, his face was destroyed, his body hurt, and then we get to around the 15th round and before the 15th round, johnson’s coroner says: listen if this keeps up and you keep destroying him.

Like this there’ll be a riot and you may not survive that right get him out now right now and he goes out and you can see when he comes out.

He’S no longer smiling.

Johnson has a determined look.

He rushes right towards him.

Lanza bevia punches and right near about five six feet from johnson’s corner against the far ropes.

Jeffries goes down first time in his career he’d gone down.

In fact, it was the first time he’d ever been hurt.

No one had ever heard him or staggered him or buzzed him he’d taken heavy shots from guys like fitzsimmons, who was a man of steel from the waist up and from kowinski, but he just he withstood it easily, but he goes down and back then there was No neutral corner rule, so johnson is standing over him, but as he’s standing over him, rickard keeps trying to push him back and johnson uses his arm to push rickard’s arm away, keeps batting it away and rickard says, move back and johnson according to the worlds, doesn’t Have to jefferies gets up finally to one knee and johnson hits him a couple more times in the throat and the head, knocks them back through the ropes.

At that point.

Jeffrey’S corner man kowinsky sam berger, who is his head trainer, who was also the first american heavyweight to win an olympic gold medal in 1904 and james j corbett, come with a couple other people and they lift them up and push him back into the ring.

That should have been a disqualification even back, then the rules said you have to get into the ring under your own power.

These guys help him back into the ring.

Johnson hits him jefferies moves to his right and then to the side ropes and then to the far ropes and johnson keeps pounding him and james j corbett is yelling to johnson.

Don’T do it jack leave him alone.

Let him have some dignity.

Don’T do this? Please don’t do this, it’s unbelievable! That he’s asking a guy he’s been insulting for that long for almost an hour a favor.

He hits him again.

He goes down.

Jeffries goes down again.

He gets up and jeffrey’s corner man with sam berger, leading the way get into the ring and rickard stops to fight.

Jefferies can’t go on he’s, he’s a mask of blood he’s crying he’s not crying because he lost he’s crying because he’s in such acute pain, johnson’s hand is raised by rickard rick.

You know you could see johnson pulling his arm down, don’t keep my hand up too long.

I don’t want to get killed and jeffrey’s.

You can see uh they put a towel on him to put to put a robe on him and they lead him down through the ropes.

His legs are shot, so he has to be helped to walk down the ring and help to go out of the ring and help back to his dressing room, and he won’t talk to the press just won’t and a while later they interviewed him about the fight And jeffrey says you know i was wrong.

I never could have beaten jack johnson in a thousand years.

It’S the best fighter that ever lived.

If i had fought him a hundred times, even in my prime, he would have knocked me out a hundred times and that’s a testament and that’s what happens.

Often you see in a schoolyard fight where they become people, two guys become friends after jeffrey’s realized.

That johnson was his superior in every way, even if they fought years before it still or some people are saying.

Well, you know, jeffrey’s was stronger, you know it would have made a difference.

Johnson was the future jeffries was the past.

Johnson was the guy that he fought a smart fight.

He stood in front of jefferies and pot shot him, but he also kept turning him, not allowing jeffries to set or throw any punches and when jefferies did set himself.

He clinched him.

It wasn’t a case of too much johnson and not enough jeffries.

It was the case of all johnson and no jeffy’s and johnson said hey.

You know he was a great fighter in his prime he’s, a good man but uh i’m the best in the world, and it’s my turn now to be the champion of the world and of course this was two years into johnson’s title ring and he held the Title again for many more years till 15th, after jeffrey’s he beat fireman jim flynn, frank moran, who, who was the only guy that um jess willard, beat before he lost to dempsey.

He beat jack murray and then, of course he has the fight with jess willard and he loses jefferies goes back to his farm with his money and doesn’t fight again, although his farm and his his complex of buildings where he lives becomes a boxing arena in the 20S and 30s uh jeffries, actually outlived jack johnson johnson died of a car crash in north carolina on june 10, 1946 jefferies died from a stroke march 3rd 1953.

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The two men never really saw each other again.

They never spoke again um, but it’s interesting how once johnson beat people they became? I wouldn’t say amenable to him, but more appreciative of his incredible skill.

This was the fight of the century.

This is such an important fight that people in the united states, canada, australia, whenever african americans african canadians african australians, if they were walking on the street, especially on a streetcar, a public place, and they had a newspaper article saying that that extolling how great johnson was And how easily he beat jeffries and they were smiling while reading it or laughing, they were beaten and they were attacked and in many cases in the states they were lynched, they were killed just for enjoying the victory you, you know you couldn’t look at it.

You couldn’t show any sign of appreciating what johnson had done.

There were newspaper editorials everywhere in the states saying if you’re a black person, don’t think just because jack johnson won that you have any more rights or any more worth today than you did yesterday, you don’t and johnson was saddened by the news of how many race Riots broke out but, as he said, it’s not my fault, i’m not fighting for me.

The problem isn’t me: the problem is the racism that has gripped america.

You can’t blame it on me, i’m a fighter.

My job is to beat people and make money, and that’s it uh.

As i said, this was the first fight of the century.

There’S a plaque there in reno nevada to mark, because the stadium’s long gone to mark where the fight took place.

Thousands of people are at the fight women were allowed in and it was covered by press hundreds of members of the press from all over the world.

It was telegraphed everywhere, in fact, in new york in other major cities – toronto.

Other cities montreal you actually had a black man and a white man in front of the press, building high up on a ledge of the building, acting out what happened in each round according to the telegraph report and when it came in that jeff johnson had won By knockout you could see the crowds which were 95 percent white, just sag and a big groan came out, but but the blacks in the crowd couldn’t react.

They would have been attacked, so they just had to turn and walk away.

So that was july.

4Th 1910.

A fight that still lives on to this very day.

You can get it on youtube.

Please watch it, i’m lou eisen! This has been another episode of ring talk.

I hope you enjoy it.

Please, research and look up this fight, it’ll be worth your while enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Bye