This weekend’s fight between Alex Leapai and Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight championship of the world is being promoted as ‘the fight of the century!’
The effective marketing slogan should be seen as little surprise – the phrase is almost as old as boxing itself.
Even fights as underwhelming as David Tua and Shame Cameron have being called the fight of the century, a great phrase with a colourful past.
Johnson v Jeffries
Date: July 4, 1910
Venue: Reno, Nevada
Winner: Jack Johnson (79 wins, 8 defeats, 12 draws 14 no-decisions, 46 KOs)
Loser: James J. Jeffries (19 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat, 1 no-contest, 14 KOs)
On Boxing Day 1908, Jack Johnson stunned the world when he beat Tommy Burns in Sydney to become the first black man to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Racially segregated America was appalled by Johnson’s victory and his flamboyant lifestyle, so much so that James J. Jeffries decided to come out of retirement!
Six years earlier, Jeffries reigned as world champion from 1899-1904, never losing a fight. However, the alfalfa farmer had bloated to more than 300 pounds since retirement. In his prime, the 6’2″ Jeffries weighed 210 punds.
Jeffries managed to shed 73 pounds for the fight held in Reno, Nevada, the only state in the Union that would grant a licence! Held in a specially designed stadium – seating 22,000 fans, double Reno’s population – Johnson started cautiously before really opening up in Round 7.
In Round 14 Johnson sent Jeffries to the canvas three times – the first time in Jeffries’ career he had been knocked down – before the former champ’s corner threw in the towel.
Jeffries later said, “I couldn’t have hit him. No, I couldn’t have reached him in 1,000 years.”
Johnson’s victory sparked race riots, which resulted in 26 deaths.
Dempsey v Carpentier
Date: July: 2, 1921
Winner: Jack Dempsey (60 wins, 6 defeats, 9 draws, 6 ND, 50 KOs)
Loser: Georges Carpentier (88 wins, 14 defeats, 1 draw, 56 KOs)
Venue: Boyle’s Thirty Acres, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
In 2 months, an 8-sided arena costing $325,000 and 300,000 square feet in size was built specifically for the fight. It took 600 carpenters and 400 workers, using 2,250,000 feet of lumber and 60 tons of nails to complete the job!
The attendees paid between 5 dollars and 50 cents for general admission, and up to 50 dollars for ringside seats.
The official attendance was 80,183, but by all accounts the stands built for over 91,000 were packed to capacity. The fight grossed $1,789,238 – more than $13 million in today’s money!
A number of luminaries attended, including Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, three of the Roosevelt children, John D. Rockefeller Jr, William H. Vanderbilt and reporters from England, France, Spain, Japan, Canada and South America.
The fight itself was a complete anti-climax!
Carpentier, a handsome and popular Frenchman who was twice the middleweight champion of the world and European heavyweight champion, was no match for the ‘Manassa Mauler’, who enjoyed a 188lbs to 172lbs weight advantage.
The bell rang for the start of the fight at 3:16 PM, Dempsey knocked Carpentier unconscious 1 minute and 16 seconds into the fourth round, and referee Harry Ertle from Jersey City ended the bout at 3:27 PM.
Angered by the loud cheering for Carpentier, Dempsey and his opponent did not shake hands before the fight, which was the first world championship bout to be broadcast on radio. Ringside commentators were Major Andrew White and J.O. Smith.
The ringside cheering issue was to do with the war records of both fighters. Carpentier as a fighter pilot won the two highest French military honours, the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille Militaire. Dempsey was accused of being a slacker, despite trying unsuccessfully to enlist with the US army.
Louis v Schmeling
Date: June 22, 1938
Venue: Yankee Stadium, New York
Winner: Joe Louis (68 wins, 3 defeats, 54 KOs)
Loser: Max Schmeling (56 wins, 4 draws, 10 defeats, 40 KOs)
In 1936, Joe Louis, with a 23-0 record, was stunned by Max Schmeling. The German heavyweight champion of the world was immediately embraced by the Nazi regime as a national hero, even though Schmeling was not a member of the party and had even considered becoming a US citizen on the advice of Jack Dempsey.
Two years later, the two fighters met again, amid high tensions between the USA and Germany. Louis wrote in his 1976 autobiography, “I knew I had to get Schmeling good. I had my own personal reasons and the whole damned country was depending on me.”
Among the more than 70,000 fans in attendance were Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, and J. Edgar Hoover. The fight drew gate receipts of $1,015,012, but only lasted 98 seconds, as Louis produced his most devastating performance to win in a first round knockout.
Louis would defend the heavyweight crown a record 25 times between 1937 and 1950. Schmeling and Louis later became close friends. Schmeling covered a part of the costs of Louis’ funeral, at which he was a pallbearer.
Frazier v Ali
Date: March 8, 1971
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York
Winner: Joe Frazier (32 wins, 4 defeats, 1 draw, 27 KOs)
Loser: Muhammad Ali (56 wins, 5 defeats, 37 KOs)
When attempting to explain the significance of this fight between two undefeated combatants, Mark Kram, in the March 8, 1971, Sports Illustrated preview of the bout said:
It has magnetised the imagination of ring theorists, and flushed out polemicists of every persuasion. It has cut deep into the thicket of our national attitudes, and it is a conversational imperative everywhere.
The fight was huge! Frazier was the heavyweight champion, but only because Ali had vacated the title in 1967 after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
An array of celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Bill Crosby and Barbra Streisand were in attendance to watch a thrilling and brutal 15-round battle won by Frazier. Frazier floored Ali with a tremendous left hook in Round 11, but Ali bounced straight back to his feet.
In those days, two judges and the referee scored the fight. Arthur Aidala had it 9 rounds to 6 for Frazier. Bill Recht saw it 11 rounds to 4 for Frazier, a total that shocked Art Mercante, who scored the fight 8-6-1 in favour of Frazier.
Both fighters were guaranteed purses of $2.5 million each, then a record for a single prize fight.
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