One hundred years ago today, Jack Johnson defended his world heavyweight championship by knocking out Jim Jeffries in the 15th round of a scheduled 45-rounder in Reno, Nev. Jeffries, who had retired undefeated six years earlier, was lured from retirement (with noted author Jack London leading the call for a ?Great White Hope? to defend the honor of the Caucasian race), and acknowledged that he was fighting ?for the sole purpose of proving that the white man is better than the negro.?
Johnson?s domination conclusively disproved that contention, but what should have been the crowning moment of a proud career was only the beginning of Johnson?s troubles. His victory in Reno sparked racial battles around the country, leading to the deaths of several African-Americans. Films of the fight were banned in many jurisdictions, and within two years, Johnson was indicted for violating the so-called ?white slavery? law, the Mann Act, and forced to flee the country. He lived in exile in Paris for nearly a decade, lost his title (to Jess Willard in Havana in 1915), and eventually returned to serve a year in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth.
Reno, which welcomed the 1910 Johnson-Jeffries fight when the promotion was driven out of California, is marking the centennial of the historic occasion this weekend. A Friday night gala included an illustrated recreation of the bout, and yesterday was consumed with talks by boxing authors and historians, a radio broadcast hosted by Showtime analyst Al Bernstein and a six-bout card at the Grand Sierra Resort.
A labor of ?Love?
It is probably just a coincidence, but last week also saw the release of ?Love Ranch,? the new Taylor Hackford film based on the complicated relationship between a pair of Reno?s leading civic lights, brothel proprietors Joe and Sally Conforte, and the late Argentine heavyweight Oscar Bonavena.
The real-life Bonavena twice went the distance with Joe Frazier (including a 1966 split decision he probably should have won) and came within a minute of lasting 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali. Bonavena met his end, at 33, when he was shot to death at the Mustang Ranch in 1976. A few months earlier he had to climb off the canvas to outpoint journeyman Billy Joyner in Reno in what would be his final fight.
Since it is based on the life (but, mostly, death) of an actual boxer, stars Joe Pesci, whose Hollywood breakthrough 30 years ago came in a boxing film (?Raging Bull?), was written by sometime fight scribe Mark Jacobsen and is co-produced by promoter Lou DiBella, it is sort of inevitable that ?Love Ranch,? will be viewed in some quarters as another boxing movie.
In truth it isn?t about boxing any more than it is about prostitution. Set just outside Reno, the film is a barely-fictionalized version of the 1970s love triangle between the Confortes and Bonavena. The boxing scenes appear to have been choreographed with the ?Rocky? movies in mind; the apparent logic is that anyone who believed those represented actual boxing will fall for it again.
Pac-Man ready
Manny Pacquiao, who took his oath of office as a Filipino Congressman last week, has circled Nov. 13 on his calendar, and trainer Freddie Roach has confirmed that the world?s best boxer will fight that night, whether Floyd Mayweather Jr. deigns to join him or not.
If the matchup with Mayweather can?t be made (and we?re guessing it probably won?t be), Pacquiao will do battle with another opponent (Antonio Margarito? a rematch with Miguel Cotto?) at Cowboys Stadium that night, with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum once again co-promoting. . . .
The IBF lightweight title has been vacant for nearly a year-and-a-half, since Nate Campbell was stripped of it, along with two other lightweight belts, for failing to make weight for his February 2009 bout against Ali Funeka. When Joan Guzman and Funeka were matched for the vacant title in May, Guzman came in nine pounds overweight and Funeka tested positive for drugs. Later this summer the IBF will try it all again, this time with a new cast of characters: On Aug. 14, Ji-Hoon Kim of South Korea will battle Mexico?s Miguel Vazquez for the elusive championship in Laredo, Texas. . . .
Comeback of the Week: Referee Randy Neumann, who hasn?t worked a fight since undergoing hip replacement surgery after his last assignment, the action-packed battle between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez in Atlantic City, N.J., last December, returns to the ring and Atlantic City Friday night to work an all-welterweight ?ShoBox? card (Mike Jones-Irving Garcia; Antwone Smith-Lanardo Tyner). . . .
When Martinez was stripped of the World Boxing Organization middleweight belt he had been personally awarded only weeks earlier by the sanctioning body?s president, Paco Valcarcel, he said, correctly, ?You don?t win these belts; you only rent them.? Now we may know why.
A few days ago Golden Boy Promotions announced that Brooklynite Danny Jacobs will meet Russian Dmitry Pirog for the vacant WBO title on the July 31 Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II undercard at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Both Jacobs and Pirog are undefeated, albeit against mostly anonymous opposition.
Super middleweight Joey McCreedy warmed up for Friday night?s ESPN2 co-feature against unbeaten former URI football star Vlad Biosse by throwing out the first pitch prior to his hometown Lowell Spinners? June 25 game against the Connecticut Tigers at LeLacheur Park. The main event of the nationally televised card from the Twin Rivers Event Center in Lincoln, R.I., is a lightweight battle pitting unbeaten Philadelphia lightweight Hank Lundy (18-0) against Puerto Rican star John John Molina Jr. (20-1). For more information, phone 401-724-2253. . . .
Showtime has Juan Manuel Lopez-Bernabe Concepcion from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday night. That same evening in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 37-year-old Dorcheser-based Irish heavyweight Kevin McBride (34-6-1) returns to the ring for the first time in nearly three years to face Robert Hawkins (23-15) in the main event of a NESports TV card. . . .
Weymouth?s Jimmy LeBlanc will face Jimmy Lange in the co-feature of Ice Promotions? card at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., Saturday night, while former WBO junior welterweight champion DeMarcus ?Chop Chop? Corley meets Detroit?s Damian Fuller in the main event. The 36-year-old LeBlanc, once 9-1-1, is now 12-16-4, but his only win in the past five years – a first-round KO of Luther Smith – came at the Patriot Center. Corley, who was once 28-1-1, is now 36-13-1. Chop Chop, who replaces original foe Tim Coleman, will be gunning for his third loss in a row. . . .
