#28DaysOfBlackHistory #Day13 Before Money Mayweather, before…

#28DaysOfBlackHistory #Day13

Before Money Mayweather, before Roy Jones Jr, before Sugar Ray Leonard, before Muhammad Ali, before The Brown Bomber, Joe Louis there was Jack Johnson. In his time he was the most famous & notorious African American on the planet, and also the 1st Black Heavyweight Boxing Champ

At 16 he moved to Manhattan and lived with Joe Walcott, a welterweight fighter from the West Indies. Jack got a job as a janitor in a gym and saved up to buy some boxing gloves. Working with Walcott and gym owner Berneau, Jack developed his boxing style.

Jack’s style was defensive, he’d make his opponents miss, tire them out, then become the aggressor. He rarely looked for the knockout.

Back then black’s couldn’t be recognized as “heavyweight champs” but that all changed in 1908 a day after Christmas when Johnson became heavyweight champ by defeating Tommy Burns in 14 rounds.

On July 4th 1910 the man that ducked Johnson for the longest, James Jeffries came out of retirement to challenge JJ in what would be called “The Fight Of The Century”. In front of 20,000 ppl Jeffries was dominated by Johnson and in the 15th round Jeffries corner threw in the towel (pu**ies lol). Johnson’s victory triggered a few race riots in 25 of the 50 states, 20 were killed and 100’s injured.

In the words of ESPN’s Mark Jackson “mama there goes that man”. Just the name Jack Johnson spills out power