Samuel Edgar Langford (March 4, 1886 â January 12, 1956) was a Canadian professional boxer who competed from 1902 to 1926. Called the "Greatest Fighter Almost Nobody Knows" by ESPN, Langford is considered by many boxing historians to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. Originally from Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts as a teenager, and began his professional boxing career there in 1902. Langford was known as "the Boston Bonecrusher", "the Boston Terror", and, most famously, "the Boston Tar Baby". Langford stood and weighed in his prime. He fought from lightweight to heavyweight and defeated many world champions and legends of the time in each weight class. Considered a devastating puncher even at heavyweight, The Ring rated Langford second on their list of the "100 greatest punchers of all time". One boxing historian described Langford as "experienced as a heavyweight James Toney with the punching power of Mike Tyson".
He was denied a shot at many World Championships due to the colour bar and the refusal of Jack Johnson, the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion, to fight him in a rematch. Langford was the World Colored Heavyweight Champion, a title vacated by Johnson after he won the World Championship, a record five times. Alongside this, Langford also defeated the reigning Lightweight Champion Joe Gans, the first African-American World Champion in boxing history and widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, in a non-title bout. Many boxing aficionados consider Langford to be the greatest boxer not to have won a world title. On August 13, 2020, the WBC granted Langford an honorary world champion title. BoxRec ranks him as the 22nd greatest Canadian boxer of all time.
Langford was born in Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, a rural black community that his grandfather, a former slave from the United States, helped settle. His birthdate was reported as March 4, 1886, although he later stated that this "is just a date he thought up." Langford left home as a youth to escape an abusive father.
He traveled, by boat and on foot, to Boston, Massachusetts, where he eventually found work as a janitor in the boxing gymnasium of the Lenox Athletic Club. He was scouted by the owner of the club after sparring with the boxers training there. He won the amateur featherweight championship of Boston at age 15.
Langford was a boxer who fought greats from the lightweight division right up to the heavyweights, beating many champions in the process. However, Langford never received a chance to fight for Jack Johnson's heavyweight title, and he was never able to secure a world title for himself.
Langford's most memorable fights were his numerous encounters against fellow Black boxers Sam McVey, Battling Jim Johnson, Joe Jeanette and Harry Wills, who all experienced similar barriers in their fighting careers.
Langford defeated World Lightweight Champion Joe Gans on December 8, 1903, via a 15-round decision. Gans' title was not on the line, however. The two would later become good friends. Langford considered Gans the pound-for-pound greatest fighter of all time.
He fought Jack Blackburn, trainer of the legendary Joe Louis, six times. The first three fights were draws, the fourth a decision win for Langford, the fifth another draw and the sixth a no contest.
Although Langford is often credited as the greatest fighter to never challenge for a world title, he fought World Welterweight Champion Barbados Joe Walcott, a black man, on September 5, 1904, at Lake Massabesic Coliseum in Manchester, New Hampshire for his title. Both fighters weighed in at 142 lbs.
The fight resulted in a draw via decision, thus Walcott retained his title. However, reports of the fight say Langford clearly outpointed the champion. Langford kept Walcott at a distance with his longer reach and used his footwork to evade all of Walcott's attacks. Langford landed lefts and rights to the jaw so effectively, Walcott was bleeding by round two and continued bleeding more after every round. Walcott was brought on one knee in the third round and the fight ended with hardly a scratch on Langford.
The Boston Globe newspaper reported:
<blockquote>"Joe Walcott met his match in a 15-round bout yesterday afternoon in the Massabesic coliseum before a crowd of 1200. His opponent was Sam Langford, who clearly outpointed the champion, and the latter's aggressiveness in carrying the fight to Langford was all that saved him from taking a decision that would have given him the short end of the purse. Langford took advantage of his longer reach and repeatedly played a tattoo on Walcott's face, and his cleverness on his feet carried him away from harm a score or more times when Walcott endeavored by sheer brute force to deliver a knockout blow. While Walcott was the aggressor, Langford met his attacks by left and right [sic] to the jaw and mouth so effectively as to draw blood in the second round and he kept Walcott bleeding in every round thereafter. In the third round, Langford brought the champion to one knee by a straight away jolt to the jaw, and he went through the entire fifteen rounds without a perceptible scratch on himself. In the opening round honors were even, but thereafter until the seventh round Langford had all the better of the argument."</blockquote>
Langford fought various contenders throughout his career. He fought welterweight Young Peter Jackson six times, winning the first two by decision, the third was a draw via points, losing the fourth by technical knockout and winning the fifth and sixth bouts again by decision. Their bout on November 12, 1907, at the Pacific Athletic Club in Los Angeles was billed as being for the World Colored Middleweight Championship (158 lbs.). Langford won the title by besting Jackson on points in the 20-round bout.
Winner of the World Colored Middleweight Championship in 1907 when he beat Young Peter Jackson, he fought World Middleweight Champion Stanley Ketchel on April 27, 1910, in a six-round non-title fight, a no-decision draw. A longer rematch bout was rumoured but never happened due to Ketchell's murder six months later.
Sam Langford won the World Colored Heavyweight Championship a record five times between 1910 and 1918. Jack Johnson had reigned as the World Colored Heavyweight Champion from 1903 to 1908, when he relinquished the title after winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Joe Jeanette and Sam McVey fought in Paris in February 1909 to fill the vacant title, with McVey the victor. Jeanette took the title away from McVey two months later.
Subsequently, Langford claimed the title during Jeanette's reign after Johnson refused to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against him. For a year there were two duelling claimants to the world-coloured heavyweight crown, Jeanette, the "official" champ, and Langford, the pretender, the man whom Jack Johnson "ducked". On September 6, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts, Langford became the undisputed coloured champ by winning a 15-round bout with Jeanette on points. Still, Jack Johnson refused to give him a title shot.
In 1912, Langford was one of the contenders for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship fought at various venues across Australia. Sam McVey his opponent, McVey ranked alongside Jack Johnson, Joe Jeanette, Sam Langford, and Harry Wills as the top black heavyweights of their generation. Prior to his win, Langford stayed at the Nedlands Park Hotel where he:
Ironically, the colour bar that had marred the world heavyweight title by blackballing boxers of colour remained in force even under Jack Johnson. Once he was the World's Heavyweight Champion, Johnson did not fight a black opponent for the first five years of his reign. In addition to Langford, he denied matches to black heavyweights Joe Jeanette and to the young Harry Wills (who was Colored Heavyweight Champion during the last year of Johnson's reign as World Heavyweight Champion).
Blacks were not given a shot at the title allegedly because Johnson felt that he could make more money fighting white boxers. In August 1913, as Johnson neared the end of his troubled reign as World Heavyweight Champion, there were rumours that he had agreed to fight Langford in Paris for the title, but it came to naught. Johnson claimed that Langford was unable to raise $30,000 (equivalent to approximately $ in today's funds) for his guarantee.
Langford had lost to Jack Johnson the only time they had fought, on April 26, 1906, in a fifteen-round decision. Johnson was 29 lbs. heavier than Langford, and though he knocked down Langford in the sixth round, many spectators felt Langford had won the bout, even though Sam was on the verge of going down several times only for Johnson to hold him up and prevent a knockdown. In truth, Johnson actually toyed with him, carrying on conversations with ringsiders all through the fight. After winning their first match, Johnson repeatedly refused rematches against Langford, who was considered by some to be the most dangerous challenger for Johnson's crown. Another explanation for this Johnson's refusal is that he knew that a fight between two black fighters would not generate nearly as much revenue as a fight between him and a white man. Battling Jim Johnson, the man Sam fought twelve times, beating Johnson nine times and never losing once, would be the one who got the title shot against Johnson.
When Johnson finally did agree to take on a black opponent in late 1913, it was not Sam Langford, the current Colored Heavyweight Champion, that he gave the title shot to. Instead, Johnson chose Battling Jim Johnson. Battling Jim's next fight, four months later, also was a title match. On March 27, 1914, in New York City, Sam Langford won a newspaper decision in a ten-rounder with Johnson. According to the New York Times, the coloured champ "won by a wide margin" because Johnson "failed to show anything remotely resembling championship ability."
In 1915, Jack Johnson lost his title to Jess Willard, the last in a long line of Great White Hopes. Because of the animosity he had generated combined with the virulent racism of the period, it would be 22 years before another African American, Joe Louis, was given a shot at the Heavyweight title.
Langford defeated former World Light Heavyweight Champion Philadelphia Jack O'Brien on August 15, 1911, by fifth-round technical knockout. Langford outweighed O'Brien by ten pounds. The fight was stopped after a hard left hook put O'Brien on the canvas. O'Brien had to be helped to his corner. The poetic O'Brien later said of Langford, "When he appeared upon the scene of combat, you knew you were cooked."
Langford fought heavyweight Harry Wills seventeen times. Langford was 31 in the first bout and continued to suffer from old age and failing eyesight more and more each fight. The first was a draw via points, the second a win via fourteenth-round knockout, the third and fourth losses via decision, the fifth a win via nineteenth-round knockout, the sixth through ninth losses via decision, the tenth a draw via points, the eleventh a loss via sixth-round knockout and the twelfth by seventh-round technical knockout, the thirteenth through seventeenth by decision (total: 2 wins (2 KO), 14 losses (2 KO) and 2 draws).
Former World Heavyweight Champion Tommy Burns was a referee in the third fight. At the end, he caught Langford's hand and said to him, "Sam, this is the hardest I ever had to do in my life. I always admired you and never thought to see you beaten, but I have to give the decision against you."
Langford fought heavyweight Fred Fulton twice, losing the first by seventh-round technical knockout and the second by a four-round decision. Langford was 34 and 35 in each respective fight. Langford was much heavier, yet much shorter than Fulton.
On June 5, 1922, Langford knocked out Tiger Flowers in only the second round. Langford was mostly blind and Flowers would soon afterwards win the World Middleweight Championship.
In 1923, Sam Langford fought and won Boxing's last "fight to the finish" for the Mexican Heavyweight title.
Films exist of Langford fighting Fireman Jim Flynn and Bill Lang.
One story characterizing his career involved Langford in a bout where he had been ordered not to throw any knockout punches until after the 7th round. So walking out for the 8th round, after 21 minutes of patting away, Langford touched gloves with his opponent. "What's the matter, Sam, it ain't the last round!" said his mystified opponent. "Tis for you son," said Langford, who promptly knocked his opponent out. Another story involves Langford at a fight where just before it began he apologized to the audience and said he would have to make it a quick fight as he had a train to catch very soon. He then knocked out his opponent within the first round, apologized to the audience once again, and left, just in time to catch his train.
His last fight was in 1926, when his failing eyesight finally forced him to retire. Langford was 43 years old and almost completely blind.
When Al Laney sought out Sam Langford to write an article in 1944, Langford was forgotten or considered dead by many. He lived "in a dingy hall bedroom" in Harlem, New York City on money given by a foundation for the blind. He had only twenty cents () to his name. Laney reported that Langford was amiable and intelligent, an engaging storyteller, and did not want pity. Langford was quoted as saying, "I had plenty good times. I been all over the world. I fought maybe three, four hundred fights and every one was a pleasure." Following the publication of the article "A Dark Man Laughs" in the New York Herald Tribune, Laney conducted a campaign that raised almost $10,000 USD () to be put into a trust fund for Sam Langford, as well as a variety of gifts including a guitar.
Langford was enshrined in the The Ring magazine Hall of Fame and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955. He died a year later, on January 12, 1956, while living with his daughter in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sam Langford is a significant figure in Nova Scotian sports history. Langford was one of the inaugural inductees of the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame when it was founded in 1964. Langford was also voted Nova Scotia's top male athlete of the 20th century in 1999. Langford was later ranked fifth in a selection of the greatest 15 athletes in Nova Scotia's history.
Langford has also been ranked among the greatest boxers of his era. ESPN labeled Langford "the greatest fighter almost nobody knows," citing sportswriter Bert Sugar who ranked Langford 16th, the best-ranking non-champion, among the top 100 boxers in history. Nat Fleischer ranked Langford seventh among the top heavyweight boxers of all time in the Ring Record Book and Boxing Encyclopedia. In their 2003 yearbook, The Ring ranked Langford second among the "100 greatest punchers of all time", just behind Joe Louis. Former world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey claimed that, as a young boxer in 1916 he refused a fight with Langford. In the 1973 book In This Corner... Dempsey said, "I think Sam Langford was the greatest fighter we ever had."
The musical trio Tarbaby released an avant-garde jazz album entitled Ballad of Sam Langford through Hipnotic Records in 2013. In 2016, Jacob Sampson premiered the play Chasing Champions, a dramatization of Langford's life which Sampson both wrote and starred in as Langford. The play won six Robert Merritt Awards, including Outstanding New Play by a Nova Scotian. A thirteen-minute short film entitled Bonecrusher was produced in 2020 based on the Sam Langford v. Jim Flynn fight of 1923. The director Jim Morrison expressed his desire to eventually make a feature-length film about Sam Langford's life as well, and stated that a script was already prepared.
All information in this section is derived from BoxRec, unless otherwise stated.
All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as âÂÂno decisionâ bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.
Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions in the win/loss/draw column.
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