A Boxing Memory: Tommy Burns vs. Jack Johnson

A Boxing Memory: Tommy Burns vs. Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson was in no mood for seasons greetings when his long wait and the seemingly never-ending search for a crack at the heavyweight championship of the world finally came to fruition on Boxing Day in 1908.

The diminutive, in comparison, Canadian Tommy Burns had kept Johnson waiting, the ‘Galveston Giant’ had followed, taunted and mocked Burns around the world for two years trying to get the champion to fight him. But unlike the former champion James J Jeffries, he had his price. An Australian promoter Hugh “Huge Deal” McIntosh offered the reigning heavyweight champion $30,000 to defend his title in Sydney, Australia against Johnson. There were no more excuses. Burns accepted.

No black fighter had ever laid claim to the world heavyweight title. In fact, no black fighter had ever been given the opportunity. Very much a sign of the times, what started with John L Sullivan, continued until Johnson changed everything. Jeffries had steadfastly refused to give Johnson, or any other black fighter, a chance at his heavyweight title and had retired because he had run out of ‘white’ opponents, and said of Burns in giving Johnson his opportunity:

“Tommy Burns has his price, $30,000. Burns has sold his pride, the pride of the Caucasian race.” The unbeaten Jeffries always said he would have beaten Johnson. In the years to come, many would seriously doubt his claims. In time, even he did.

20,000 ‘white’ spectators watched the fight at an outdoor stadium at Rushcutters Bay, and a reported 30,000 more were outside the stadium looking for any vantage point they could find to witness Burns’s 12th defence of the title he had won from Marvin Hart in 1906.

Burns conceded twenty-four pounds and seven inches in height and was no match for the bigger and far superior Johnson. The Canadian was literally in over his head, and Johnson, a fighter ahead of his time in many ways, had Burns on the floor in the opening seconds and taunted the champion and indeed the crowd who had paid to see his demise. All would leave extremely disappointed.

“Poor little Tommy, who told you you were a fighter,” Johnson said to Burns. And clearly unimpressed by his opponent’s punching power added, “Tommy. Who taught you to hit? Your mother?”

Johnson probably could have ended the fight at any time. It was in truth, a Boxing Day massacre. Burns was carried by Johnson so the challenger could inflict further punishment, until the police called a halt to the one-sided beating in the 14th round and the world had its first-ever black heavyweight champion of the world. Burns claimed it was stopped too early and ludicrously said Johnson was tiring rapidly. Johnson had knocked reality away from the fallen champion.

The New York Times said of the stoppage: “The end came in the fourteenth round when the police, seeing Burns tottering and unable to defend himself from the savage blows of his opponent, mercifully stopped the fight.” 

Jack London writing for the New York Herald said: “The fight, if fight it could be called, was like that between a pygmy and a colossus….But one thing now remains. Jim Jeffries must emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove the golden smile from Jack Johnson’s face. Jeff, it’s up to you! The White Man must be rescued.”

America was far from ready for what Johnson would soon unleash. His win provoked race riots and lynchings across America. The new champion milked his moment for all it was worth and did as he pleased and was almost certainly the most hated man of his time. What one writer described as ‘Unforgivable Blackness’ brought Johnson trouble and plenty of it.

Jeffries retired in 1905, had his last fight a year earlier, and despite being inundated with calls to end his hiatus from the ring, insisted he wouldn’t return and that he had fought his last fight. But he too had his price. In 1910, in the original Fight of the Century Jeffries returned to ‘save his race.’ Jeffries was shamelessly labelled the ‘Great White Hope.’ 

London wrote of Jeffries:

‘The chosen representative of the white race.’

While Jeffries said of his comeback:

‘I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro.’

But his time had passed, he was 35 and had to lose the 100lbs he accumulated in his near six-year retirement. Out of sheer prejudice, the odds heavily favoured the old champion. And while he lasted a round longer than Burns, it was no more competitive. Jeffries wisely never fought again, and admitted he would never have beaten Johnson even in his prime. The fight provoked further race riots across America, and there were even calls for boxing to be banned. It would be another thirty years until another black fighter followed Johnson as the heavyweight champion of the world.

Much to the great annoyance of his country, Johnson’s reign had many more chapters. It finally ended in 1915 in Havana, Cuba. Johnson was 37 when Jess Willard in much controversy, knocked him out. Another story for another day.