History Of The Heavyweight Championship Of The World

With the proliferation of sanctioning bodies giving rise to multiple titleholders in each weight class it has become increasingly difficult to track the history of the World championships in professional boxing. The purpose of this publication is to give the boxing fan an overview of the history of the heavyweight championship of the World. What you will find here is a brief description of how the championship was passed along from John L. Sullivan to the present champion Wladimir Klitschko. Also included is a list of all deserving holders of the championship, and not least a very comprehensive section with a complete list of all World heavyweight championship fights held under the Queensberry rules, including the ones sanctioned by major organizations like NBA, NYSAC – and later WBC, WBA, IBF & WBO. I hope that this publication will be able to help the casual boxing fan to navigate through professional boxing history.

For six decades the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a useful tool of racial oppression--the existence of the title far more important to the white public than its succession of champions. It took some extraordinary individuals, most notably Jack Johnson, to challenge "the color line" in the ring, although the title and the black fighters who contended for it continued until the reign of Joe Louis a generation later. This history traces the advent and demise of the Championship, the stories of the 28 professional athletes who won it, and the demarcation of the color line both in and out of the ring.

Paints an unvarnished picture of the 24 greats who have ruled the sport's most glamorous division - the Heavyweight Champions of the World. Tells all the inside stories of the great ring bouts, the men who fought those grueling rounds, and the men who made and managed the champs.

The world heavyweight boxing championship once transcended the sport, conferring global renown. This book gives detailed coverage to five legendary championship bouts that captivated audiences worldwide. Coaxed out of retirement by the press, former champ James J. Jeffries challenged black titleholder Jack Johnson--universally despised by white audiences--in 1910, in hopes of returning the title to the white race. In 1921, dapper World War I hero and light-heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier hoped to upset heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey, widely considered a draft-dodger, in a fight that garnered the first "million dollar gate." In perhaps the most politically charged bout ever, "Brown Bomber" Joe Louis, popular with both white and black America, faced Nazi Germany's Max Schmeling--the first ever to win the title by disqualification--at a sold-out Yankee stadium in 1938. A relentless brawler, undefeated Rocky Marciano in 1952 sought to bludgeon the title away from the more experienced and savvier Joe Walcott, at 38 the oldest heavyweight champ in history. In a monumental clash of two undefeated world champions, Muhammad Ali--on the comeback trail after his title was stripped from him for refusing to be drafted during the Vietnam War--squared off with titleholder Joe Frazier in 1971.

Jess Willard, the "Pottawatomie Giant," won the heavyweight title in 1915 with his defeat of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 240 pounds, Willard was considered unbeatable in his day. He nonetheless lost to Jack Dempsey in 1919 in one of the most brutally one-sided contests in fistic history. Willard later made an initially successful comeback but was defeated by Luis Firpo in 1923 and retired from the ring. He died in 1968, largely forgotten by the boxing public. Featuring photographs from the Willard family archives, this first full-length biography provides a detailed portrait of one of America's boxing greats.