HomeOld_PostsThe colour line in boxing: Part Two...as blacks outshine whites

The colour line in boxing: Part Two…as blacks outshine whites

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Jack JOHNSON had been disliked by whites because he did as he pleased; smiling and mocking his white opponents while beating them.
He also dated white women and this was the thing which made him most vulnerable because most whites and blacks alike were against miscegenation.
When he was champion, he also drew the colour line/bar and would only accept white challengers because his agenda was to prove and exercise black superiority.
According to Johnson, blacks were the tougher and more skilled fighters but facing whites was more lucrative.
After loss to Jess Willard, and Willard’s loss to Jack Dempsey in 1919, whites again drew the colour line and denied Johnson and any other blackman a shot at the title.
Over a decade later, Joe Louis, a blackman, defeated Max Baer, a top contender for the world heavyweight title.
Louis became the number one contender and was given a shot at the title.
After Dempsey’s retirement in 1929, the bouts were full of match-fixing, gambling and poor athletes.
It had been eight years since the sport of boxing had seen competent contenders for the world heavyweight title and it was this reality that trumped the colour line.
Blacks were excited at Louis’ victories and were not met with aftermaths of violent reactions by whites.
Louis was conditioned to be an anti-Jack Johnson.
His manager was a Jewish man called Max Jacobs.
Louis was trained not to smile or mock whites during and after fights and to never cross the racial boundaries in terms of miscegenation, entering segregated zones or even taking pictures with white women.
Johnson did not take much offence and offered to train the upcoming black world champion.
Louis and his management refused.
They hated what Johnson stood for and they had declared their disdain towards him in public on several times.
After Johnson was rejected by Louis, he told the media Louis’ upcoming opponent was going to win.
He had studied the fighters and explained exactly how Max Schmeling was going to knock Louis out.
Amazingly the event took place just as he predicted and Louis lost by a knockout in round 12. However, in 1937, Louis defeated James Braddock by an eighth round knockout and became the new boxing heavyweight champion of the world.
He also beat Schmeling in a rematch and would defend his title well throughout his career.
He held fundraising fights for the US troops during the Second World War and even participated in the war, though he did not go into battle.
The US betrayed Louis in his later years by tarnishing his image and leaving him struggling in debt.
Since the Joe Louis era, boxing has been dominated by blacks. Rocky Marciano, not of Caucasian but Italian descent, was an exception.
White hopefuls, like Joseph Maxim, reigned for a short time.
Maxim was defeated by a blackman named Archie Moor.
Moor was defeated by a blackman, Floyd Patterson. Patterson was defeated by a blackman, Sonny Liston. Liston was dethroned by Muhammad Ali and the dominion of blacks in the world heavyweight boxing division has continued to this day.
Blacks, like Sugar Ray Robinson, also hogged the limelight and middleweight divisions.
When Ali refused to serve in the US-Vietnam War, the US feared for another Johnson.
Seeing that they were failing to defeat Ali in the ring, they sought to attack him by legal means.
Ali was suspended from boxing and stripped of his title for four years.
He was hated for being Muslim, a revolutionary and his unwillingness to be controlled even by law.
Ali was nothing like Louis.
During his suspension, he saw a re-enactment of the life of Johnson in a theatre and said: “I totally identify with Jack Johnson.
“Take out the white women and replace it with Islam and you can see that his is my story.”
Post-suspension, Ali called himself the ghost of Johnson. He shocked the world after winning against George Foreman to regain the title in the legendary ‘Rumble of the jungle’ fight in Zaire (DRC).
Besides Ali, blacks such as Joe Frazier, Foreman and Larry Holmes dominated this era and there were no white hopefuls in sight.
The whites, for decades, had been stripped of the title and prestigious position of being called the physically dominant race.
This continued to the Mike Tyson era which again had blacks like Buster Douglas, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones further dominating the world heavyweight division.
Tyson faced similar woes as Johnson and Ali.
Initially he splurged, but he eventually became Muslim.
He was weakened by serving a three-year prison sentence in his prime years and could not recover from the career stoppage.
Whites failed to dominate the sport of boxing which was regarded as the ultimate test of masculinity.
The sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) was formed to broaden the white hope prospective.
In 1976, Ali had challenged a Japanese martial artist to a fight in which they drew.
Bruce Lee also influenced the formation of the sport of mixed martial arts by incorporating Western boxing techniques with various forms of martial arts.
MMA top organisations like UFC downplay and underpay black champions in the sport regardless of how well they perform and the opposite is true.
Black fighters such as Tyron Woodley, Anderson Silver, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones, among others, have performed exceedingly well but have not gotten as much promotion and media exposure as some white fighters. This is also because the search for the white hope is in play in MMA.
Black fighters, though competent, cannot uphold the cause of the white majority in the West. This is why, throughout the career of Floyd Mayweather, most people in the West have sought for anyone, particularly non-blacks, to defeat him.
Mayweather embodies the free spirit of the likes of Johnson and Ali.
Though not very religious, he is spiritual and believes God is wholly behind his success and often thanks Him after every fight in the same manner as Ali.
Mayweather is as lavish as Johnson and his nickname is ‘Money’.
He also resembles Johnson in his propensity to partying and loose women.
Fortunately, Mayweather, unlike Johnson, is not obsessed with white women but is almost exclusively involved with blacks.
He also served some prison time but managed to recover and keep his titles after his release.
After two years of retirement, the 40-year old undefeated Mayweather agreed to fight the 29-year old challenger, Conor McGregor, in a boxing match.
This fight was highly anticipated by MMA fanatics and most whites in general.
They thought they finally had a great white hopeful to dethrone Mayweather.
Though a boxing novice, McGregor was considered invincible by his fans, just like James Jeffries.
The promotion was great and pulled the imagination of many people.
It was called the ‘fight of the century’ and the issue of race, though not made apparent by media, was largely prevalent on social networks.
McGregor, being significantly younger, bigger and taller than Mayweather, predicted that he would win by a fourth or first round knockout.
Surprisingly, McGregor was walked down throughout the fight and received harder and cleaner punches to the head and body.
His confidence was trumped by Mayweather’s experience, intelligence and power as he lost in a 10th round technical knockout.
Mayweather said in a pre-fight interview: ‘This fight is for all the blacks in the world.”
Indeed the issue of colour/race still exists in boxing. Fans usually support the fighters they resemble.
If McGregor had won, whites would have gained a sense of physical superiority which has not been witnessed since they last drew the colour line in the 1930s.
Western media has been viciously against Mayweather but his boxing and promotion skills are top-notch.
He had a successful 21-year boxing career in multiple lightweight divisions.
He promoted himself and won over half of his 50 fights by knockout, with no draws or losses.
He fought rematches in every fight that critics considered close and won the sequel fights convincingly.

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