Quote Originally Posted by bilbo
I've been planning to buy the book. Jack Johnson is one of my favourite all time fighters, sadly forgotten by most fans who rate Ali and Joe Louis but who seem to have never heard of Jack Johnson.

In my opinion he is the second greatest heavyweight of all time after Ali.

His slick defensive style was at least 20 years ahead of his time and he remains the only boxer who could carry most of his opponents for 10, 20 or more rounds so that the film studios would have enough footage to want to screen the fights.

I loved the way when fighting Tommy Burns he can be seen smiling at the crowd and chatting to people ringside, with Burns not able to lay a glove on him at all.

He also had a great temprement in the ring as witnessed against 'Fireman' Jym Flynn. Flyn was outrageously headbutting Johnson, leaping into the air and cracking Johnsons jaw, but he never responded in kind, just content to give Flyn a boxing lesson.

Have you ever watched the Unforgiveable Blackness documentary by Ken Burns about Johnson?

It's one of my favourite boxing doc's, Samuel Jackson narrates the voice of Johnson, James Earl Jones is interviewed and it's replete with rare fight footage, and photo's of Johnson. A brilliant doc if you havn't seen it, nearly 4 hours long too.
As good as Baseball was, Unforgivable Blackness is far ad away the best work Ken Burns has ever done imo. People think Jim Crowe and they automatically brand the South as being the main perpetrators, but ALL of the United States was racist. Jack London, one of the most celebrated writers in American history, called Jack Johnson a "dreadful nigger" and was the main reason Jess Willard came out of retirement. That was in a New York newspaper. I thought that was the most interesting thing about the film.

The book was really good aswell and really expands on the documentary. Read it last summer, tremendous book. Right down to the minute he died he was treated absolutely terribly by white America. Jack Johnson should be one of the most iconic figures in American history, instead he's considered a mere afterthought. I hope he gets that pardon sometime soon. I think if O'bama becomes president he'll be more willing to give him one.