    
Cmoyle
Newbie Poster
Username: Cmoyle
Post Number: 10
Registered: 10-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 - 12:03 pm: | |
Actually Langford, and his manager, did quite a bit to attempt to goad Johnson into a rematch, to no avail. I go into a lot of that in the book.
It's true that Johnson said nobody wanted to see two black men fight for the heavyweight championship, but the fact of the matter is that the great Australian promoter, Hugh McIntosh, offered him a lot of money to come to Australia and fight Langford for the title, but Johnson turned him down.
In fact, McIntosh said that at one point Johnson finally admitted to him that he had no desire to "fight that little black smoke, because he's got a chance to win against anybody" and that there was just as much, or more money to be made fighting against the easier white hopes.
So I think the truth is that while Johnson may likely have been able to decision Sam had they fought again, he didn't want to take the chance, and he really could make just as much or more money fighting against the various white hopes that were around at the time.
Like you say, it's a damn shame the rematch never happened, because Langford was clearly the #1 contender for at least 2-3 of the years that Johnson was the champion. |