Boxing Historian Brings Langford Back to Life
John McGrath - Tacoma News Tribune 3/4/09
Sam Langford was born on this date in 1886. He celebrated his last birthday in 1955, though how much celebrating was done is anybody’s guess.
Langford by then was blind, confined to the second-floor room of a Boston nursing home. His boxing career had taken him around the world – he met kings and queens, befriended Picasso, became a household name everywhere from Australia to Argentina – but in his final years, the world he’d been dispatched to meet and greet had deteriorated to a bed, a chair and a radio.
Shortly before his death, the caretaker at his nursing home asked Langford what he would do if his fondest wish were granted.
“Missus,” he said, “I’ve been everywhere I wanted to go, I’ve seen everything I wanted to see and I guess I’ve eaten just about everything there is to eat. Now I just want to sit here in my room and not cause you any trouble.”
Another visitor found the ex-fighter in a similarly contented mood.
“Don’t nobody need to feel for old Sam,” he said. “I had plenty of good times. I been all over the world. I fought maybe 600 fights, and every one was a pleasure.”
Edgewood boxing historian Clay Moyle recalls Langford’s irrepressible spirit with the familiarity of a close relative.
“I love that quote: ‘Don’t nobody need to feel sorry for old Sam,’ ” Moyle said the other day. “It tells you that despite all the hardships he faced, he kept an incredibly positive outlook.”
While growing up on Bainbridge Island, Moyle never had heard of Sam Langford. Though he enjoyed watching the occasional title fight on TV with his father and grandfather, Moyle was, foremost, a Sonics fan.
But 20 years ago, as he was going through a divorce, Moyle started working out at Seattle’s Hillman City Gym.
“I decided I wanted to learn how to box,” said Moyle, who will turn 52 in April. “The more I learned about boxing, the more curious I got about boxing history. And one name kept appearing in my research: Sam Langford.
“All the fighters and trainers from his era talked about his dominance, yet nobody remembers him. I thought, there’s got to be a story here.”
There were, it turns out, hundreds of stories, comprehensively assembled by Moyle into a biography published in May: “Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion.”
The subtitle explains why Langford, described by sportswriting legend Grantland Rice as “about the best fighting man I’ve ever watched,” remains obscure to most fight fans born after 1930.
“You can argue he could’ve owned the title in any of five different weight classes,” Moyle said. “And there’s no doubt he could’ve been a champion in three.”
A multitude of forces conspired against the 5-foot-7 Langford. He was a black fighter who during his prime couldn’t coax the reigning heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, into a title match. Johnson saw no box-office benefits in facing a fellow black man.
A 20-year-old Langford had taken Johnson the maximum 15 rounds before losing a unanimous decision in 1906 – Johnson outweighed his challenger by at least 40 pounds, and was eight years older – a rematch, with a belt at stake, was out of the question.
Middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel was one of the rare white fighters willing to give Langford a chance, but those plans were scuttled when Ketchel, as John Lardner would later write, “was fatally shot in the back by the common-law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast.”
Langford also was a victim of his ferocious talent.
“The hell I feared no man,” Jack Dempsey once said. “There was one man, he was even smaller than I, and I wouldn’t fight him because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”
Given Langford’s unfulfilled championship hopes and subsequent physical problems – he refused to retire after suffering a detached retina, and eventually lost sight in both eyes – it would be convenient to frame his story as another boxing tragedy.
But if not for boxing, what kind of future awaited Langford after he left his Nova Scotia home at 15? He had little schooling and fewer prospects. He got by with a pair of fists that gained him a bit of wealth and lot of fame. And though neither was permanent, the ride was remarkable.
“Sam wasn’t educated, but he was smart,” Moyle said. “He bluffed opponents into fearing his right hand, but his knockout punch was a left hook.
“And he was quick-witted – writers were drawn to him. He’d light a cigar after a victory. When opponents would enter the ring, he’d laugh and joke with the fans. A lot of the antics we associate with Muhammad Ali, Sam was doing decades before.”
When Moyle began the biography, he was a seasoned historian but a rookie author. He now knows Rule No. 1 of the book-writing business: Regard the project as labor of love, but don’t expect it to pay any bills.
“I didn’t realize what I was getting into,” he said. “I’ve got a family and a full-time job, and the book was something I did on the side. It took seven years. But having finished it, I can tell you it’s the proudest achievement of my life.”
His subject’s fighting gusto must’ve rubbed off on Moyle.
His next project? A biography of heavyweight Billy Miske, who in 1923 literally arose from his death bed to accept a fight that would stock his house with Christmas gifts.
Although Miske’s bout occurred too long ago to be remembered by boxing fans, it was too much of an inspiration to be left forgotten by one.
For information on how to order Clay Moyle’s biography of Sam Langford, visit www.samlangford.com.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Boxing News magazine review
‘Boxing News’ magazine:
George Zeleny says this tome dispels some of the myths and is well told and researched
The Sam Langford story is one of the most fascinating in boxing history. It’s fully of remarkable episodes, apocryphal stories, triumph, frustration, disaster and, ultimately recognition.
Clay Moyle has produced a prodigious book on Langford’s life that is a must for any boxing fan with even the slightest interest in those early times.
Langford boxed for 23 years from 1902 until 1925. Standing only 5 ft 7 in and rarely weighing above middleweight, he fought them all, including future world heavyweight legend Jack Johnson at age 20.
Boxing mythology has it that Johnson was given such a hard fight by Sam that Jack refused to fight him again. Moyle’s honest account of the battle tells a different story.
The young Langford was soundly beaten, dropped three times and battered and bloodied at the final bell. Certainly Johnson refused to defend his title against him once he had become champion, but that was more a matter of logistics and finance and the racial climate of the era in which they fought.
Many of the great stories about Langford passed down over the years are hard to substantiate and the author dispels two. There was the time when Sam allegedly shook hands with his opponent, prompting the complaint that it wasn’t the last round. “It is for you,” Sam reportedly replied.
Moyle believes the story is true, but as he found it applied to four different opponents, he dispelled it.
The same applies to Langford entering the ring, measuring opponent Bill Tate for size and looking intently at the canvas prior to depositing him there. In some versions, he even draws a chalk outline of Tate’s body and lands him accurately inside it!
Yet none of the newspaper accounts of Langford’s many fighs with Tate reported the incident.
Disappointing as this is for true Langford admirers, the book covers his life and career in such carefully researched detail that it doesn’t matter. The most important fight reports are lengthy and well-written. Sam is portrayed as a fun-loving guy who wore expensive cloths, smoked large cigars and enjoyed “the fast life”. He spent any money he made with abandon.
Amazingly, the night before a fight with renowned “Fireman” Jim Flynn in 1908, Sam got drunk. He had to be put to bed by his old friend Charley “Kid” Bell, but the next day was as right as rain and knocked Flynn out in the first round.
Langford was prepared to travel to get fights, campaigning all over America, in England and Australia. Yet he never managed to challenge for a world title at any of the top four weights. He met many of the great black fighters of the time who received similar treatment: Joe Jeannette (on 14 occasions), Sam McVey (13), and Harry Wills (16), a total of 43 fights.
He continued in the ring too long and descriptions of his final ring days, when he fought virtually blind and “could only defend himself when he was in a clinch”, are sad.
Moyle spares us nothing of this, recounting how a blind Sam was knocked down by cars and the operations to try and save his sight.
The familiar ending of his life is covered in the chapter “The Forgotten Man”, New York Herald Tribune writer Al Laney discovered Langford living alone, blind and destitute, in a run-down New York hotel. Langford’s telling comment was: “Don’t nobody need feel sorry for old Sam. I had plenty of good times. I been all over the world. I fought maybe 600 fights and every one was a pleasure.”
Myle’s portrayal of Langford is rightly called Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion. Little film footage of Langford survives but his 1911 fight with Bill Lang in England can be viewed. The film is patchy and damaged but Langford’s undoubted ability still shines through.
Clips can be viewed on YouTube.
Moyle has done a formidable job. The hardback looks great, with a wonderfully clear photo of Langford-Lang on the front cover. Inside are many original Langford photographs never before published.
The book is thoroughly researched and detailed with an easy-going style that is a comfortable read despite the odd typo. Putting reference notes at the end of a chapter is a distraction but that is a minor criticism.
This book has not been published in Britain yet but can be obtained (and signed) from the author on the website: www.samlangford.com, for $35.”
George Zeleny says this tome dispels some of the myths and is well told and researched
The Sam Langford story is one of the most fascinating in boxing history. It’s fully of remarkable episodes, apocryphal stories, triumph, frustration, disaster and, ultimately recognition.
Clay Moyle has produced a prodigious book on Langford’s life that is a must for any boxing fan with even the slightest interest in those early times.
Langford boxed for 23 years from 1902 until 1925. Standing only 5 ft 7 in and rarely weighing above middleweight, he fought them all, including future world heavyweight legend Jack Johnson at age 20.
Boxing mythology has it that Johnson was given such a hard fight by Sam that Jack refused to fight him again. Moyle’s honest account of the battle tells a different story.
The young Langford was soundly beaten, dropped three times and battered and bloodied at the final bell. Certainly Johnson refused to defend his title against him once he had become champion, but that was more a matter of logistics and finance and the racial climate of the era in which they fought.
Many of the great stories about Langford passed down over the years are hard to substantiate and the author dispels two. There was the time when Sam allegedly shook hands with his opponent, prompting the complaint that it wasn’t the last round. “It is for you,” Sam reportedly replied.
Moyle believes the story is true, but as he found it applied to four different opponents, he dispelled it.
The same applies to Langford entering the ring, measuring opponent Bill Tate for size and looking intently at the canvas prior to depositing him there. In some versions, he even draws a chalk outline of Tate’s body and lands him accurately inside it!
Yet none of the newspaper accounts of Langford’s many fighs with Tate reported the incident.
Disappointing as this is for true Langford admirers, the book covers his life and career in such carefully researched detail that it doesn’t matter. The most important fight reports are lengthy and well-written. Sam is portrayed as a fun-loving guy who wore expensive cloths, smoked large cigars and enjoyed “the fast life”. He spent any money he made with abandon.
Amazingly, the night before a fight with renowned “Fireman” Jim Flynn in 1908, Sam got drunk. He had to be put to bed by his old friend Charley “Kid” Bell, but the next day was as right as rain and knocked Flynn out in the first round.
Langford was prepared to travel to get fights, campaigning all over America, in England and Australia. Yet he never managed to challenge for a world title at any of the top four weights. He met many of the great black fighters of the time who received similar treatment: Joe Jeannette (on 14 occasions), Sam McVey (13), and Harry Wills (16), a total of 43 fights.
He continued in the ring too long and descriptions of his final ring days, when he fought virtually blind and “could only defend himself when he was in a clinch”, are sad.
Moyle spares us nothing of this, recounting how a blind Sam was knocked down by cars and the operations to try and save his sight.
The familiar ending of his life is covered in the chapter “The Forgotten Man”, New York Herald Tribune writer Al Laney discovered Langford living alone, blind and destitute, in a run-down New York hotel. Langford’s telling comment was: “Don’t nobody need feel sorry for old Sam. I had plenty of good times. I been all over the world. I fought maybe 600 fights and every one was a pleasure.”
Myle’s portrayal of Langford is rightly called Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion. Little film footage of Langford survives but his 1911 fight with Bill Lang in England can be viewed. The film is patchy and damaged but Langford’s undoubted ability still shines through.
Clips can be viewed on YouTube.
Moyle has done a formidable job. The hardback looks great, with a wonderfully clear photo of Langford-Lang on the front cover. Inside are many original Langford photographs never before published.
The book is thoroughly researched and detailed with an easy-going style that is a comfortable read despite the odd typo. Putting reference notes at the end of a chapter is a distraction but that is a minor criticism.
This book has not been published in Britain yet but can be obtained (and signed) from the author on the website: www.samlangford.com, for $35.”
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
T.K. Stewart On Boxing
About the Author
T.K. Stewart
An award winning boxing writer, his work has appeared in numerous boxing publications and on the Internet over the past decade. His writing currently appears on maxboxing, boxingscene and FOX Sports Web-sites. Mr. Stewart has won the prestigous Barney Award bestowed by the Boxing Writers Association of America on multiple occasions. Tom resides in the Maine countryside with his wife Rebecca. View my complete profile
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Uncrowned Champion of Books
A month or so or go, I clicked on an e-mail from a gentleman by the name of Clay Moyle who was writing to me from Washington state. Mr. Moyle said he had written a book on an old-time fighter and had entitled it Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Bennett & Hastings Publishing, LLC, 430 pages) and he was wondering if he were to send me copy of the book, whether I would be interested in reading it and reviewing it.Being in the boxing business as I am, this sort of request comes my way from time-to-time. However, more often that not, the book that I end up receiving in the mail is sometimes a letdown and a disappointment.
Well, there is no disappointment with Clay Moyle’s work of art on Sam Langford. Mr. Moyle has created a masterpiece with his exquisitely researched, beautifully crafted and perfectly detailed work.Moyle has completely chronicled the life and career of Sam Langford from his birth in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1886 to his travels around the world as a prizefighter to his life after boxing to the period leading up to his passing in 1956.
Moyle was able to recreate Langford and he takes the reader back in time to the period of Langford’s boxing career that lasted from 1902-1926. The author transports the reader around the world with Sam on a virtual fight-by-fight journey that stretches from Manchester, New Hampshire to Paris, France to Sydney, Australia to Mexico City and all points in between.The author leaves no stone unturned as tells the story of Langford, who toiled away for years in the fight game while never receiving a justly deserved shot at any world boxing title.
Langford was an all-time great who would eventually be inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, although he never received the chance to win a world title because he was a victim of his times - and his skin color. Many of the white champions of the time simply refused to face Langford. And Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world, and the champion for much of Langford’s career, would also not give him a well-earned shot at the championship. What Langford was left with, then, was a career where he barnstormed the United States in search of opposition and recognition. When he beat everyone that would face him in the United States he went to Europe. When he conquered Europe he went to Australia. When he cleaned out the competition on that continent he eventually would become the heavyweight champion of Mexico where he closed out the remaining years of his illustrious and entertaining career.
In turning the pages, it’s as though you are there in the ring with Sam as he fights names of the times such as “Fireman” Jim Flynn, William “Iron” Hague, Dan “Porky” Flynn and Ed “Gunboat” Smith. Moyle even goes into detail, in some instances, about the weather on the nights of fights as well the colors of the fighters’ robes and trunks. Moyle drew upon a plethora of sources to help him uncover Langford’s story which included speaking with Langford’s relatives and acquaintances and scouring the pages of hundreds of newspapers, magazines, book s and journals for the most minute details about Langford’s life and legend. The book is filled with many never before seen photographs as well as a complete accounting of Langford’s boxing career.The entire process allows the reader a behind the scenes glimpse into Langford’s personal life, family affairs and his kind, generous, happy-go lucky personality and comedic, quick-witted sense of humor.
In what some may perceive to be a tragic story of a man being denied the very thing he devoted his life’s effort to – a title shot - the book, upon further reflection, leaves the reader with a warm feeling of having gotten to know Sam Langford, “The Boston Tar Baby.” And despite Langford’s frustrations at having never received a title shot, he did not become a bitter man. Even though he would eventually wind up with little financial resources at the conclusion of his boxing career, Moyle reveals that Langford was a man not necessarily concerned with monetary rewards. For Langford, the simple things that life ultimately gave him, brought him the most satisfaction.Just like Clay Moyle’s remarkable tale of Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion.
To purchase Mr. Moyle's book, visit:www.prizefightingbooks.com www.samlangford.com www.amazon.com
November 2008
About the Author
T.K. Stewart
An award winning boxing writer, his work has appeared in numerous boxing publications and on the Internet over the past decade. His writing currently appears on maxboxing, boxingscene and FOX Sports Web-sites. Mr. Stewart has won the prestigous Barney Award bestowed by the Boxing Writers Association of America on multiple occasions. Tom resides in the Maine countryside with his wife Rebecca. View my complete profile
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Uncrowned Champion of Books
A month or so or go, I clicked on an e-mail from a gentleman by the name of Clay Moyle who was writing to me from Washington state. Mr. Moyle said he had written a book on an old-time fighter and had entitled it Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Bennett & Hastings Publishing, LLC, 430 pages) and he was wondering if he were to send me copy of the book, whether I would be interested in reading it and reviewing it.Being in the boxing business as I am, this sort of request comes my way from time-to-time. However, more often that not, the book that I end up receiving in the mail is sometimes a letdown and a disappointment.
Well, there is no disappointment with Clay Moyle’s work of art on Sam Langford. Mr. Moyle has created a masterpiece with his exquisitely researched, beautifully crafted and perfectly detailed work.Moyle has completely chronicled the life and career of Sam Langford from his birth in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1886 to his travels around the world as a prizefighter to his life after boxing to the period leading up to his passing in 1956.
Moyle was able to recreate Langford and he takes the reader back in time to the period of Langford’s boxing career that lasted from 1902-1926. The author transports the reader around the world with Sam on a virtual fight-by-fight journey that stretches from Manchester, New Hampshire to Paris, France to Sydney, Australia to Mexico City and all points in between.The author leaves no stone unturned as tells the story of Langford, who toiled away for years in the fight game while never receiving a justly deserved shot at any world boxing title.
Langford was an all-time great who would eventually be inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, although he never received the chance to win a world title because he was a victim of his times - and his skin color. Many of the white champions of the time simply refused to face Langford. And Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world, and the champion for much of Langford’s career, would also not give him a well-earned shot at the championship. What Langford was left with, then, was a career where he barnstormed the United States in search of opposition and recognition. When he beat everyone that would face him in the United States he went to Europe. When he conquered Europe he went to Australia. When he cleaned out the competition on that continent he eventually would become the heavyweight champion of Mexico where he closed out the remaining years of his illustrious and entertaining career.
In turning the pages, it’s as though you are there in the ring with Sam as he fights names of the times such as “Fireman” Jim Flynn, William “Iron” Hague, Dan “Porky” Flynn and Ed “Gunboat” Smith. Moyle even goes into detail, in some instances, about the weather on the nights of fights as well the colors of the fighters’ robes and trunks. Moyle drew upon a plethora of sources to help him uncover Langford’s story which included speaking with Langford’s relatives and acquaintances and scouring the pages of hundreds of newspapers, magazines, book s and journals for the most minute details about Langford’s life and legend. The book is filled with many never before seen photographs as well as a complete accounting of Langford’s boxing career.The entire process allows the reader a behind the scenes glimpse into Langford’s personal life, family affairs and his kind, generous, happy-go lucky personality and comedic, quick-witted sense of humor.
In what some may perceive to be a tragic story of a man being denied the very thing he devoted his life’s effort to – a title shot - the book, upon further reflection, leaves the reader with a warm feeling of having gotten to know Sam Langford, “The Boston Tar Baby.” And despite Langford’s frustrations at having never received a title shot, he did not become a bitter man. Even though he would eventually wind up with little financial resources at the conclusion of his boxing career, Moyle reveals that Langford was a man not necessarily concerned with monetary rewards. For Langford, the simple things that life ultimately gave him, brought him the most satisfaction.Just like Clay Moyle’s remarkable tale of Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion.
To purchase Mr. Moyle's book, visit:www.prizefightingbooks.com www.samlangford.com www.amazon.com
November 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Digby Courier review of Sam Langford book
Boxing Historian Chronicles Career of Sam Langfordby Jeanne Whithead/Digby Courier (Canada) October 23, 2008
"In 1903 at age 17, Sam Langford was a professional boxer, earning purses of hundreds of dollars. When not in the ring, he strolled the streets of Boston wearing fancy clothes and diamonds. Not bad for a boy from the Maritimes, who five years earlier was earning five dollars a month in the woods of Nova Scotia.
Boxing historian Clay Moyle chronicles Langford's career in his 400-page book 'Sam Langford, Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion'.
Nova Scotians will be pleased that the story begins at the beginning - with Langford's birth in Weymouth Falls in 1886. Moyle follows the lad as he runs away from home at age 12 to Digby, then to Grand Manan and on to Cambridge, Mass., as a 15-year old.
After being fired from his job at Cambridge brickyard for fighting during work hours, Langford moved to Boston where he was 'discovered' by flight club owner, Joe Woodman.
Moyle's history is a detailed account of Langford's career as a professional boxer.
Among the highlights: in 1903, Langford defeated lightweight champion, Joe Gans in a 15-round decision. Weighing in at 136 pounds, Langford was four and a half pounds heavier than Gans, and was denied the lightweight title because the lightweight limit was 135 pounds.
Langford was always eager to improve his abilities and he didn't hesitate to ask his opponents for tips that would make him an even better boxer. He took their advice to hear, and progressed from being an untrained 'natural' to being one of the most skilled boxers in the world.
By age 21, Sam Langford, a middleweight, had gone the distance ith highly regarded heavyweight Jack Johnson, and though promoters were keenly interested in having him fight out of their clubs, the best fighters in America steadfastly avoided him.
A married man with expensive tastes, Langford did the only reasonable thing. He sought matches abroad and in 1907 created a sensation in England, returning home $4,600 richer less than three months later. In the years that followed, he also fought in Australia, France, Canada and Mexico.
Even for those who may not be enamored with the boxing world, the Sam Langford book is a pleasurable read. This is because Moyle is a skilled writer - and because we all love stories of little guys who overcome obstacles to achieve their dreams.
A historian, Moyle includes just the fact that he was able to unearth and verify. This means that the book is lacking details of Langford's personal life. That would have made the book more satisfying for the average reader."
"In 1903 at age 17, Sam Langford was a professional boxer, earning purses of hundreds of dollars. When not in the ring, he strolled the streets of Boston wearing fancy clothes and diamonds. Not bad for a boy from the Maritimes, who five years earlier was earning five dollars a month in the woods of Nova Scotia.
Boxing historian Clay Moyle chronicles Langford's career in his 400-page book 'Sam Langford, Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion'.
Nova Scotians will be pleased that the story begins at the beginning - with Langford's birth in Weymouth Falls in 1886. Moyle follows the lad as he runs away from home at age 12 to Digby, then to Grand Manan and on to Cambridge, Mass., as a 15-year old.
After being fired from his job at Cambridge brickyard for fighting during work hours, Langford moved to Boston where he was 'discovered' by flight club owner, Joe Woodman.
Moyle's history is a detailed account of Langford's career as a professional boxer.
Among the highlights: in 1903, Langford defeated lightweight champion, Joe Gans in a 15-round decision. Weighing in at 136 pounds, Langford was four and a half pounds heavier than Gans, and was denied the lightweight title because the lightweight limit was 135 pounds.
Langford was always eager to improve his abilities and he didn't hesitate to ask his opponents for tips that would make him an even better boxer. He took their advice to hear, and progressed from being an untrained 'natural' to being one of the most skilled boxers in the world.
By age 21, Sam Langford, a middleweight, had gone the distance ith highly regarded heavyweight Jack Johnson, and though promoters were keenly interested in having him fight out of their clubs, the best fighters in America steadfastly avoided him.
A married man with expensive tastes, Langford did the only reasonable thing. He sought matches abroad and in 1907 created a sensation in England, returning home $4,600 richer less than three months later. In the years that followed, he also fought in Australia, France, Canada and Mexico.
Even for those who may not be enamored with the boxing world, the Sam Langford book is a pleasurable read. This is because Moyle is a skilled writer - and because we all love stories of little guys who overcome obstacles to achieve their dreams.
A historian, Moyle includes just the fact that he was able to unearth and verify. This means that the book is lacking details of Langford's personal life. That would have made the book more satisfying for the average reader."
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dublin Herald - Sept. 20, 2008 by Pat Myler
BOXING COLOUR BAR CRUELY DENIED LANGFORD HIS JUST REWARD
NOWHERE in the long list of world champions will you find the name of Sam Langford -- and that's nothing short of criminal.
The title of Clay Moyle's long overdue biography, Sam Langford: Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion, says it all.
If justice had been done, the Boston Tar Baby would have won a world title at any weight from lightweight to heavyweight, probably several, but he never got the chance.
One of Sam's problems was that he was a black man in an era of blatant racism in boxing. The other was that he was too good.
He beat lightweight king, Joe Gans, held welterweight champion Joe Walcott to a draw, and took heavyweight legend Jack Johnson the distance in a hard-fought 15 rounder, but they were all non-title fights.
So prevalent was the 'colour-bar that gifted black fighters like himself, Sam McVea, Joe Jeannette and Harry Wills were forced to fight each other over and over again in order to stay active.
The great Jack Dempsey admitted: "There was one man, smaller than me, I wouldn't fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford."
In a career spanning 23 years, the only title Langford managed to acquire was the relatively meaningless heavyweight championship of Mexico, and by then he was heading for 40 and nearly blind.
American Moyle, a dedicated and respected historian, has done the sport a genuine service with his thoroughly researched, loving written account of a remarkable man and fighter. To find out how to purchase a copy ($35 including postage (to the U.K.) check it out at www.samlangford.com
BOXING COLOUR BAR CRUELY DENIED LANGFORD HIS JUST REWARD
NOWHERE in the long list of world champions will you find the name of Sam Langford -- and that's nothing short of criminal.
The title of Clay Moyle's long overdue biography, Sam Langford: Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion, says it all.
If justice had been done, the Boston Tar Baby would have won a world title at any weight from lightweight to heavyweight, probably several, but he never got the chance.
One of Sam's problems was that he was a black man in an era of blatant racism in boxing. The other was that he was too good.
He beat lightweight king, Joe Gans, held welterweight champion Joe Walcott to a draw, and took heavyweight legend Jack Johnson the distance in a hard-fought 15 rounder, but they were all non-title fights.
So prevalent was the 'colour-bar that gifted black fighters like himself, Sam McVea, Joe Jeannette and Harry Wills were forced to fight each other over and over again in order to stay active.
The great Jack Dempsey admitted: "There was one man, smaller than me, I wouldn't fight because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford."
In a career spanning 23 years, the only title Langford managed to acquire was the relatively meaningless heavyweight championship of Mexico, and by then he was heading for 40 and nearly blind.
American Moyle, a dedicated and respected historian, has done the sport a genuine service with his thoroughly researched, loving written account of a remarkable man and fighter. To find out how to purchase a copy ($35 including postage (to the U.K.) check it out at www.samlangford.com
Monday, September 8, 2008
Price break on international orders
As of September 8th, international orders placed on www.samlangford.com will receive a price break on shipping. Int'l shipping charges for orders placed on that website will now only cost $5.05, bringing the total purchase cost to $35.00. This applies only to orders placed via that website.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Review from September 2008 issue of 'Boxing Monthly':
"Boxing Monthly – September 2008
Reviews by John Exshaw
Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion by Clay Moyle, Bennett & Hastings Publishing
More than a bit-part player. Langford was feared and avoided by the leading fighters of his day, including the legendary Johnson. B
In 1917, when heavyweight prospect Fred Fulton found himself matched with an ageing but still dangerous Sam Langford, he sensibly decided to seek advice on how best to defeat the legendary “Boston Tar Baby” from Harry Wills, a fighter who had suffered a couple of early-career losses to Langford but who was no winning their bouts on a regular basis. “The best way,” Wills informed him, “is to take a club and when he ain’t looking just bust him on the head, and when he turns around with ever so much surprise, just bust him again and knock him dead.” “And then?” enquired Fulton. “Nothing,” replied Wills, “only don’t miss the second shot.”
While this may not have been quite the advice Fulton was hoping for, it nicely illustrates the high regard in which the murderous-punching Langford was held by his peers, among whom he seems to have been both liked and feared in equal measure. Long recognized as one of the great fighters, Langford has finally received his literary due in Clay Moyle’s admirable biography, Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Bennett & Hastings Publishing, $29.95), which not only succeeds in recounting Langford’s remarkable ring exploits, but also in rescuing him from his recent position as little more than an extra in the Jack Johnson story.
Over the years, of course, one has learned to be wary of accepting at face value claims of supherhuman powers supposedly possessed by fighters in the early days of gloved boxing, claims that often seem to have more to do with myth-making and nostalgia than with any notion of objectivity, to say nothing of possibility. In Langford’s case, however, the evidence is persuasive, not least because so much of it is based on the testimony of his opponents and fellow professionals, rather than that of contemporary newspaper reporters more interested in fiction than fact.
As for his record, it too speaks for itself. In 1903, 20 months after turning professional, Langford decisioned world lightweight champion, Joe Gans, in a non-title bout, and the following year, was considered unlucky when his bout against welterweight champion, Joe Walcott, was ruled a draw. In 1909 and 1910, he twice stopped Walcott’s successor, the “Dixie Kid”, in addition to boxing a no-decision draw with middleweight champ, Stanley Ketchel. At the same time, Langford, who stood only 5 ft 6 ½ inches in height and whose best fighting weight was about 12 stone, also turned his attention to the heavy mob, regularly flattening opponents who outweighed him by as much as two stone. Not for nothing did Jack Johnson remark that “Sam Langford was the toughest little son of a bitch that ever lived.”
Much as been made of the fact that Langford, Joe Jeannette, Sam McVea, (and, later, Harry Wills) were forced into endless round-robin of match-ups between themselves due to the unwillingness – based on either fear, prejudice, or both – of white fighters to face them, but Mr. Moyle’s research reveals a rather more complex picture. After all, it was Jack Johnson himself who denied Langford & Co. a shot at the title, while, with regard to the “white hopes”, there seems nothing particularly remarkable in the fact that then, as now, managers would choose to protect their charges in the hope of a lucrative title shot. Not that there was any doubt in people’s minds about the outcome of any such bouts; as James J. Jeffries put it, “How long do you suppose these fellows would last with Sam Langford? Why, he would just name the round he would knock them out in.” Attempts, particularly by the Australian promoter, Hugh D. McIntosh, to make a Johnson-Langford match, were continually rejected by Johnson who, as Joe Jeannette observed, “beat Sam once, when Sam was only a middleweight, but…wouldn’t have anything to do with him when Sam got bigger and better.”
And so Langford was doomed to engage in a never-ending dance with the same partners (including the suicidally brave – or stupid – white heavyweight, Jim Barry, who, despite 11 beatings from Langford, never stopped trying) until he could dance no more. Though blind and broke, Langford continued to be held in high esteem, living quietly but seemingly contentedly until 1958. Sam Langford, which contains 98 photographs and a ring record, is, it needs hardly be said, an essential requirement for any self-respecting pugilist-specialist-reader, and can be ordered through amazon.com or from www.prizefightingbooks.com. A revised edition, including an index (and hopefully with better punctuation), is apparently in the offing.” (NOTE: The book already includes an index)
"Boxing Monthly – September 2008
Reviews by John Exshaw
Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion by Clay Moyle, Bennett & Hastings Publishing
More than a bit-part player. Langford was feared and avoided by the leading fighters of his day, including the legendary Johnson. B
In 1917, when heavyweight prospect Fred Fulton found himself matched with an ageing but still dangerous Sam Langford, he sensibly decided to seek advice on how best to defeat the legendary “Boston Tar Baby” from Harry Wills, a fighter who had suffered a couple of early-career losses to Langford but who was no winning their bouts on a regular basis. “The best way,” Wills informed him, “is to take a club and when he ain’t looking just bust him on the head, and when he turns around with ever so much surprise, just bust him again and knock him dead.” “And then?” enquired Fulton. “Nothing,” replied Wills, “only don’t miss the second shot.”
While this may not have been quite the advice Fulton was hoping for, it nicely illustrates the high regard in which the murderous-punching Langford was held by his peers, among whom he seems to have been both liked and feared in equal measure. Long recognized as one of the great fighters, Langford has finally received his literary due in Clay Moyle’s admirable biography, Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Bennett & Hastings Publishing, $29.95), which not only succeeds in recounting Langford’s remarkable ring exploits, but also in rescuing him from his recent position as little more than an extra in the Jack Johnson story.
Over the years, of course, one has learned to be wary of accepting at face value claims of supherhuman powers supposedly possessed by fighters in the early days of gloved boxing, claims that often seem to have more to do with myth-making and nostalgia than with any notion of objectivity, to say nothing of possibility. In Langford’s case, however, the evidence is persuasive, not least because so much of it is based on the testimony of his opponents and fellow professionals, rather than that of contemporary newspaper reporters more interested in fiction than fact.
As for his record, it too speaks for itself. In 1903, 20 months after turning professional, Langford decisioned world lightweight champion, Joe Gans, in a non-title bout, and the following year, was considered unlucky when his bout against welterweight champion, Joe Walcott, was ruled a draw. In 1909 and 1910, he twice stopped Walcott’s successor, the “Dixie Kid”, in addition to boxing a no-decision draw with middleweight champ, Stanley Ketchel. At the same time, Langford, who stood only 5 ft 6 ½ inches in height and whose best fighting weight was about 12 stone, also turned his attention to the heavy mob, regularly flattening opponents who outweighed him by as much as two stone. Not for nothing did Jack Johnson remark that “Sam Langford was the toughest little son of a bitch that ever lived.”
Much as been made of the fact that Langford, Joe Jeannette, Sam McVea, (and, later, Harry Wills) were forced into endless round-robin of match-ups between themselves due to the unwillingness – based on either fear, prejudice, or both – of white fighters to face them, but Mr. Moyle’s research reveals a rather more complex picture. After all, it was Jack Johnson himself who denied Langford & Co. a shot at the title, while, with regard to the “white hopes”, there seems nothing particularly remarkable in the fact that then, as now, managers would choose to protect their charges in the hope of a lucrative title shot. Not that there was any doubt in people’s minds about the outcome of any such bouts; as James J. Jeffries put it, “How long do you suppose these fellows would last with Sam Langford? Why, he would just name the round he would knock them out in.” Attempts, particularly by the Australian promoter, Hugh D. McIntosh, to make a Johnson-Langford match, were continually rejected by Johnson who, as Joe Jeannette observed, “beat Sam once, when Sam was only a middleweight, but…wouldn’t have anything to do with him when Sam got bigger and better.”
And so Langford was doomed to engage in a never-ending dance with the same partners (including the suicidally brave – or stupid – white heavyweight, Jim Barry, who, despite 11 beatings from Langford, never stopped trying) until he could dance no more. Though blind and broke, Langford continued to be held in high esteem, living quietly but seemingly contentedly until 1958. Sam Langford, which contains 98 photographs and a ring record, is, it needs hardly be said, an essential requirement for any self-respecting pugilist-specialist-reader, and can be ordered through amazon.com or from www.prizefightingbooks.com. A revised edition, including an index (and hopefully with better punctuation), is apparently in the offing.” (NOTE: The book already includes an index)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)