Description
Joe Woodman Trainer/Manager
JOE WOODMAN the man who has
Manager Sam Langford
Langford fought Jack Johnson for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1906 and lost by a decisive fifteen-round decision. Langford weighed just 156 pounds, while Johnson tipped the scales at 185.
Over the years, the myth grew that Langford had given Johnson all kinds of trouble, and that his defeat had been controversial. The story was stoked by Langford’s manager, Joe Woodman, in an attempt to drum up demands for a rematch after Johnson had become the first black man to win the World Heavyweight Championship. But Langford had grown bigger (although he was always small for a heavyweight, even by the standards of the time), more skilled and more experienced in the interim, and Johnson demurred.
After Johnson knocked out James J. Jeffries in 1910 to defend the World Heavyweight Championship, Johnson said, “No attention will be paid to Sam Langford’s challenges by me. I do not consider he could give me a fight that would draw.” When Johnson refused to give him a title shot, Langford claimed the World Colored Heavyweight Championship.
