Editor’s Note: This excerpt comes out of the new book A History of the World from a Gambler’s Perspective by Mason Malmuth and Antonio Carrasco. It should be a fun read.
The authors would like to credit the article “Jack Johnson Wins Heavyweight Title” on history.com.
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In December 1908, in Sydney Australia, Jack Johnson defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in the fourteenth round to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Johnson, known as the Galveston Giant, was also the first African American to win the title and was known for his extraordinary defensive skills in addition to his great power. But Johnson’s win was not appreciated by most of the American public. He was “reviled by whites for his defiance of the ‘Jim Crow’ racial conventions of early 20th-century America. And, “after Johnson's victory over Burns, racial animosity among whites ran so deep that some called for a "Great White Hope" to take the title away from Johnson.” It’s also fair to say that Johnson was one of the most hated people in the United States and much of the world.
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With this as the background, in 1909, Johnson signed to fight Stanley Ketchel, the popular Middleweight Champion of the World. While it appeared that Ketchel was too small to have any chance, if he could somehow win, Ketchel would become a great “hero” in the United States and probably many other places in the world. Plus, as middle weight champion, he certainly was a legitimate fighter.
The fight took place on Oct. 16, 1909 in Colma, California. Over 10,000 attended with a full 3,000 being turned away. Plus, over the next couple of weeks, there was the possibility of a good movie theater market if the fight lasted enough rounds.
Since the fight was a mismatch, with Johnson being too big and powerful for the smaller Ketchel, Johnson apparently had agreed to one condition set by Ketchel’s manager: Carry the “Michigan Assassin” for 20 rounds to protect Ketchel’s reputation as middle-weight champion. Also, notice that a 20-round fight would be good for movie ticket sales.
But Ketchel had other ideas. In the twelfth round, Ketchel made his great gamble and caught an unsuspecting Johnson with an overhand right and dropped him to the canvas. Ketchel was known as a middle weight with good power. So, if he could catch Johnson by surprise, he might be able to knock him out. And given the almost universal hatred for Johnson, if Ketchel could knock him out he would immediately be, as mentioned above, the number one sports hero in the United States and probably many other places in the world.
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But things didn’t quite work out as Ketchel had hopped. Stunned but unhurt, and “very annoyed,” Johnson quickly got up and “immediately dashed straight at Ketchel and threw a single punch, an uppercut, a punch for which he was famous, to Ketchel's jaw, knocking him out.” And not only was Ketchel knocked out cold, he “did not wake up for many minutes.” In addition, after the knockout, the film of the fight clearly shows Johnson walking over to the ropes while scraping some of Ketchel’s teeth out of his gloves.
After the fight, a sports reporter asked Jack Johnson how he had felt when Ketchel had dropped him to the canvas, Johnson replied, “Better than Ketchel did 30 seconds later. He crossed me, and I made him pay for it.”
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Ketchel’s great gamble had failed. In fact, it probably never had a chance. Ketchel had misjudged the ability, ferocity, and determination of his opponent. He also failed to understand that when you move up in stakes, the competition generally gets tougher, and in this case “tougher” is probably an understatement.
For completeness, we also want to mention that there is another side to this story. Was the fix really in? In our opinion it was because Johnson scored his knockout, after being knocked down himself, so quickly that it seems to us he could have done this at any time. But the film of the fight does exist, and anyone can go to the Internet and watch it.
In an early round, Ketchel is knocked down, and in the ninth round, his face is cut and bleeding. In addition, Ketchel at times throws wild punches which would do damage if any of them landed. So, this doesn’t always seem like a fight where one fighter is carrying the other.
There’s also another thing that needs to be considered, and it’s the fact that unlike today, instant communication did not exist in 1909. In addition, completely unrelated to Johnson, Ketchel was murdered approximately a year later. So, we never heard his side of the story. Perhaps if we did, our opinion of exactly what happened would be different. But given the information that we know, this sure looks like a foolish gamble that never should have been made.
By the way, if you have any doubt about this, take another look at the two pictures from the fight that appear above. It should be easy to see how much bigger and stronger Johnson is when compared to Ketchel, and based on this little bit of evidence, it’s not surprising that when Johnson wanted to, he destroyed Ketchel with one punch.
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