Jack Johnson: the Galveston Giant and the first Black heavyweight champion | Ultimate Boxing Reunion

Why fans still care

JACK JOHNSON was the first Black man to hold the world heavyweight title, and he won it in Sydney. He was one of the best counterpunchers the ring has seen, according to ESPN, and he held the title for more than six years while promoters searched for a white challenger who could beat him.

Australians have a particular reason to remember him. About 20,000 people packed the stadium at Rushcutters Bay for the Burns fight, it was filmed, and the footage can still be watched.

Early life

He was born John Arthur Johnson on 31 March 1878 in Galveston, Texas. His father, Henry, was a school janitor and his mother, Tiny, a laundress, and he was the third of their nine children. He left school after fifth grade to work on the docks. A Dallas carriage shop owner, Walter Lewis, introduced him to boxing, and he earned $25 for lasting four rounds with Bob Thompson in 1895, money he later called “the hardest earned money of my life”.

The early fights

He turned professional in 1897. In the spring of 1899 in Springfield, Illinois, he was the last man standing in a “battle royal” and won $1.50. On 25 February 1901 in Galveston, Joe Choynski knocked him out in round 3, and both men were jailed for 23 days. In jail Choynski coached him. He moved to California in 1901, and on 3 February 1903 at Hazard’s Pavilion in Los Angeles he beat “Denver” Ed Martin over 20 rounds for the Coloured Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Career chapters

1. 1897Turns professional
2. 1901Knocked out by Joe Choynski, who coaches him in jail
3. 1903Wins the Coloured heavyweight title from “Denver” Ed Martin
4. 1907Knocks out former champion Bob Fitzsimmons
5. 1908Beats Tommy Burns in Sydney for the world heavyweight title
6. 1909Knocks out Stanley Ketchel in round 12
7. 1910Beats James J. Jeffries in Reno
8. 1913Convicted under the Mann Act and leaves the country
9. 1915Loses the title to Jess Willard in Havana
10. 1920Returns to the United States and serves his sentence
11. 2018Posthumous presidential pardon

The colour line 1903 to 1908

As Coloured champion he beat Sam McVey, Joe Jeannette and Sam Langford, but in 1904 the world champion James J. Jeffries refused to fight him. He knocked out former champion Bob Fitzsimmons in round 2 in July 1907 (PBS gives the year as 1906). The world champion Tommy Burns agreed to meet him only after the promoter Hugh McIntosh guaranteed Burns $30,000.

Tommy Burns, Sydney 1908

On 26 December 1908 at Sydney Stadium, Rushcutters Bay, about 20,000 people watched inside, and Boxing News reports about 30,000 more outside. Burns gave away 24 lb and 7 in, and Johnson invited him to hit as hard as he could and barely flinched. Police entered the ring in round 14, and McIntosh, who was also the referee, stopped the fight. Jack London wrote that there was no fight.

Stanley Ketchel 1909

On 16 October 1909 at Colma, California, the middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel knocked him down in round 12. He got up and knocked Ketchel out in the same round with a right to the jaw. The fight was filmed, and the AFI catalogue lists it as an exhibition.

James J. Jeffries, Reno 1910

Promoter Tex Rickard moved the fight from San Francisco to Reno after California’s governor cancelled it. On 4 July 1910, before about 22,000 people, he began with a few cautious punches and then took control. In round 15 he knocked Jeffries down repeatedly and the fight was halted. ESPN puts his earnings at $117,000. Riots followed across the country, and at least 20 people died.

Mann Act case and exile 1912 to 1921

In 1912 he opened the Café de Champion in Chicago. He was convicted under the Mann Act in 1913 by an all-white jury and sentenced on 4 June 1913 to a year and a day. He left the country later that month and spent about seven years abroad. On 5 April 1915 in Havana he lost the title to Jess Willard by knockout in round 26. He surrendered at Tijuana on 20 July 1920, served his sentence at Leavenworth, Kansas, and was released on 9 July 1921.

Later years 1921 to 1946

In 1922 he was granted a US patent for a wrench. His last sanctioned bouts were knockout losses to Bearcat Wright and Bill Hartwell in Kansas in 1928. He died on 10 June 1946 after a car crash near Franklinton, North Carolina, aged 68, and he is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fought

ESPN calls him one of the best and most powerful counterpunchers in ring history. The WBA describes defensive boxing at distance. Choynski’s advice in the Galveston jail, as PBS tells it, was that a man who could move like him should never have to take a punch.

Against Burns he invited his opponent to hit him and barely flinched. Against Willard he was well ahead until about round 20, then tired.

The corner

No head trainer is documented in the sources. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame says he picked up technique helping the welterweight Joe Walcott train in Boston. Hugh McIntosh promoted and refereed the Burns fight, and Tex Rickard promoted the Jeffries fight.

Stories people still tell

1. The battle royal.

   As a young man in Springfield, Illinois, he was the last man standing and won $1.50.

2. The wrench.

   He patented a wrench in 1922. It was not the monkey wrench, whatever the story says.

3. The Willard rumour.

   A story still goes round that he threw the Willard fight. It is reported only as a rumour, and nothing confirms it.

Legacy

He went into the Boxing Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1954, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first class in 1990. On 24 May 2018 he received a posthumous presidential pardon in the Oval Office, requested by his great-great-niece Linda Haywood, with Lennox Lewis, Who’s Who number 29 at the ceremony. ABC reports that Muhammad Ali, Who’s Who number 33 called him an inspiration.