SPORTSCLOPEDIA 63: JOHNSON VS. JEFFERIES IN THE FOURTH OF JULY 1910 CHAMPIONSHIP
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 04 Jul 2023
The Johnson–Jeffries Prize Fight was a boxing match between the first African American world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and the previously undefeated world heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries on US Independence Day July 4, 1910 at Reno, Nevada. The fight further fueled the heated racial relations in the U.S., and caused the Johnson–Jeffries riots in which more than 20 people were killed.
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Fans were eagerly awaiting the match, with betting odds highly favoring Jeffries, who had come back from retirement for the fight. Racial discrimination was highly widespread.
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Johnson beat Jeffries in the fifteenth round. Jeffries boasted that he had never been knocked down in a fight but this time he fell three times after being hit by Johnson's punches, and was being counted out when his manager called the fight. Racial riots erupted all throughout the country over the following week and it marked the first nationwide racial riots in the United States.
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A crowd of 18,020 attended the stadium built especially for the fight, and people were awaiting telegraphed reports across the country. Johnson and Jeffries both received a purse over $100,000 plus bonuses, and the sale of film rights.
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The fight took place on July 4, 1910, in front of nearly 20,000 people in downtown Reno, Nevada. Jeffries was simply overpowered by the younger champion as Johnson dominated the fight. In the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, Jeffries's corner threw in the towel to prompt the referee to stop the fight and prevent Jeffries from suffering a knockout.
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Dubbed as the "Fight of the Century", it earned for Johnson $65,000 (over $2 million at present) and silenced the critics, who had derided Johnson's previous victory over Tommy Burns. Detractors claimed that Burns was a false champion since Jeffries had retired undefeated. John L. Sullivan, the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, commented after the fight that Johnson won deservedly, fairly, and convincingly.
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The result of the fight ignited racial riots that evening of the Fourth of July all across the United States, from Texas and Colorado to New York and Washington, D.C., Johnson's victory over Jeffries had failed the whites' dreams of finding a "great white hope" to defeat him. Many white boxing fans felt embarrassed by the loss of Jeffries.
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Blacks, on the contrary, were jubilant, and celebrated Johnson's great victory as a victory for the African-American race. Racial riots exploded in New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, St. Louis, Little Rock and Houston. Riots erupted in more than 25 states and 50 cities. At least 20 people died all over the US as a result of the riots, and hundreds others were injured.
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