Sam Langford-Stanley Ketchal

[JAB5239]

Langford is not the crux of what i am saying.. it is that black fighters of that era was known to go through the motions with their black opponents which turned-off the white spectator as they deemed fights between 2 blacks as not being "on the line"..

White fighters did the same thing and had purses with held or contest stopped because of it. There is just as much documented proof to this as to colored fighters.

Johnson vs Langford was not as called for as Johnson vs Ketchel or Johnson vs Jeffries or Willard for that matter.

I would argue there was at least as much interest in a Sam-Jack fight as one with Ketchel. While white America may have screamed for white fighter to come along and whip Johnson out of prejudice, Langford was the one most highly thought of and capable of doing it in that same white America's opinion. Newspaper articles of the day support this.

I will concede there was WAY more call for a jeffries fight. That I don't believe can even be disputed.

[Barn]

I would argue there was at least as much interest in a Sam-Jack fight as one with Ketchel. While white America may have screamed for white fighter to come along and whip Johnson out of prejudice, Langford was the one most highly thought of and capable of doing it in that same white America's opinion. Newspaper articles of the day support this.

I will concede there was WAY more call for a jeffries fight. That I don't believe can even be disputed.

Yeah the White public believed Johnson was too extravagant and Langford would act "as he was supposed to" so fancied the idea of him over Johnson and the fact he was the most capable at the time also.

[Kid McCoy]

The newspaper reports are inconclusive. You can find reports giving the edge to either man. In any event, Langford was probably holding back (some reports say he didn't use his right at all) and I wouldn't be surprised if Ketchel was to some degree too. It was in the interest of both men not to fight flat out when this was only the warm-up for a lucrative middleweight title fight due to be held in San Francisco that summer. Shame Ketchel was killed before we got to find out who was really the better man.

I would argue there was at least as much interest in a Sam-Jack fight as one with Ketchel. While white America may have screamed for white fighter to come along and whip Johnson out of prejudice, Langford was the one most highly thought of and capable of doing it in that same white America's opinion. Newspaper articles of the day support this.

Hugh Mackintosh offered Johnson big money (comparable to what he earned for Jeffries or Ketchel) to fight Langford on more than one occasion. He wouldn't have done that unless he thought there was big interest in the fight. Interestingly, most of the big offers for the fight were from outside America: France, Australia or Britain.