It is difficult to over-state the significance of Jack Johnson's victory over Tommy Burns on December 26th in 1908. Johnson became the first black fighter to win the Heavyweight title and so began a tumultuous period for him and the sport of boxing.
Australia is rarely the epicentre of the boxing world. It has had its heroes of course, from the relentless Jeff Fenech in the 1980s who tackled the great Azumah Nelson, Bantamweight Lionel Rose in the 1960s - the first indigenous Australian to win a world-title, thundering Jeff Harding and adopted Aussies like Light-Welterweight king Kostya Tsyzu, Vic Darchinyan and the nomadic Joe Bugner. A century or more ago, when fighters boarded ships to travel the world in pursuit of new challengers - to prey on the whimsy of wealthy men willing to back their local contender or opportunists seeking to capitalise on a scrap of land to pitch a ring - Australia had its share of illustrious visitors.
The Boxing Day fight between Jack Johnson, the challenger, and Tommy Burns the Champion, was a long time in the making but does represent one of the few occasions Australia became the centre of the boxing world. Hugh Macintosh promoted a fight which brought together two men with a genuine dislike for each other. A heady brew brought on by contrasting personalities, the colour bar which ran between them like a line in the sawdust in a saloon and Burns' insistence on a $30,000 purse to step across it. A fee that would usurp any other fee he'd commanded during his reign.
Johnson had endured ring side as Burns fought inferior opponents, several of whom Burns had previously beaten and none of whom would've troubled Johnson either. The Canadian had expressed a begrudging willingness to fight Johnson, an intent his predecessors had refused to countenance. Johnson was a man who antagonised the 'white' world with his bravado, brilliance and persistence in demanding an opportunity his skin colour was presumed to deny him. Burns' large purse demand was expected to prevent the fight ever taking place. Perhaps that was the 27-year-old Canadian's aim all along. Publicly, he insisted he would beat the bigger man but privately, confessed that Johnson may be too much.
Study of the heavyweight championship is often dismissive of Burns, due largely to his lack of height and weight. He barely weighed in more than the Middleweight limit. As a result, the qualified assumption was that he would be ill-equipped to battle the men who would follow overlooks his hard hitting, aggressive style that he coupled with the whits of a smaller man.
Standing 5-7, Burns boxed even shorter than his stance; protecting himself from the wild slugging of the type of men with adopted sobriquets like Cyclone Kelly, Soldier Walker and Fireman Jim Flynn. Rough, tough men who held advantages of height, weight and reach when Burns rattled them with his short, powerful punches on the inside. Burns could fight. And was more competent than superficial study suggests. Of course, in the face of Johnson - who would eventually etch his name into the boxing history books alongside Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali as the dominant big man of his time and one of the most important cultural figures of his generation too - the case for Burns is harder to see. Such was Johnson's shadow.
The fight itself was boxed in mere 4oz gloves, scheduled for twenty rounds at the Sydney Stadium and was refereed by promoter Hugh MacIntosh. MacIntosh had built the Stadium, it would stand until the 1970s, and promoted the fight. It is hard to comprehend how such an arrangement could be reached, but Johnson, having rejected a series of qualified officials, former opponent Jim Jeffries among them, on the basis of assumed bias, had actually requested Macintosh. Johnson's belief that the promoter would maintain fairness for fear of discouraging fighters from working with him in the future amounted to the most credible criteria Johnson could summon - he was a long way from home and while truculent about the derogatory fee he was due to earn, knew this could be his only opportunity to snare a title shot. This is the account offered by Geoffrey C. Ward's seminal study of Johnson, Unforgivable Blackness.
Burns walked to the ring in a suit. After dispute over bandages he had applied to his arms, that were eventually removed, was resolved, the bout belatedly began. With Burns the betting favourite - a fact which speaks much of the mood and loyalty of the thousands who gathered - the brand new venue was witness to the World Heavyweight Championship. In the first round, Johnson landed and Burns was immediately deposited on the canvas.
It was the beginning of a prolonged beating that would last until the 14th round. Johnson clearly and frequently propping up the champion as rounds passed, talking to the crowd and the press row throughout. He hit the champion with ease as the smaller man gamely rushed toward the tumult. Insufficient of dimension but not will. They exchanged taunts and insults throughout, the crowd disliked Johnson's confidence but their animosity rendered redundant by Johnson's vast superiority.
Eventually, the police drew the contest to a halt - as they were permitted to do when there was probability of one of the contestants being injured. Burns protested through a mouth filled with blood, a broken jaw and no prospect of victory.
Johnson's triumph, and the title he now wore, did not sit well with society in Australia and there was no warmer a welcome waiting for him back in America. This was the life of Jack Johnson. A great champion unwanted in his time but undeniable in the ring.
And that life as a champion, the culmination of a life time's ambition, began in Sydney, Australia on this day in 1908.