The World Colored Middleweight Championship was a title awarded to black boxers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was the only recognized middleweight championship available to blacks prior to Tiger Flowers (5 August 1895 - 16 November 1927) winning the world middleweight boxing championship by defeating Harry Greb on 26 November 1926.
Two world colored middleweight champions, George Byer and Sam Langford, went on to win the World Colored Heavyweight Championship.
Johnny Banks, "The Darkey Wizard", claimed the Negro Middleweight Championship of the World during the 1880s. He lost in a title fight on 26 Jan 1887 in New York City to James Desverney when he was disqualified in the ninth round on a foul. [1] (Desverney apparently never defended the title.) Banks's next fight was with future colored middleweight champ Ed Binney in Boston, in which they drew in the scheduled 13 rounds. Another three rounds were tacked onto the bout and Binney won the fight. [2]
Harris Martin, "The Black Pearl", declared himself the world colored middleweight champion after beating "Black Frank" Taylor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 2 May 1887, when he knocked out Taylor in the 38th or 40th round of their bout. [3] Martin lost his title to Ed Binney on 30 November 1891 in San Francisco, California.
On 29 February 1892, The Black Pearl fought Charley Turner, "The Stockton Cyclone", in his first fight since losing the title to Binney and was defeated. Turner claimed the title but never defended it. [4] Binney was considered the lineal champ; he had also defeated the holder of the Negro Middleweight title.
From 1912 to 1924, there was a continuous line of colored middleweight champs. The last title holder of this era was Larry Estridge, [5] who defeated previous title holder Panama Joe Gans [6] in a fight at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 1924. He defended the title against Gans at Queensboro Stadium in Long Island City, Queens, New York on August 11 of that year. It was his sole title defense.
Gans had won the title from George Robinson in Madison Square Garden on October 8, 1920. He defended the title twice in 1923, racking up no decisions (and thus keeping his title) against Whitey Black on May 14 in Detroit and against Tiger Flowers in Toledo, Ohio on May 25. He knocked out Willie Walker via a 9th round K.O. in New York City on June 30. [7]
After Tiger Flowers lost the title in 1926, there was one more African American middleweight champ, Gorilla Jones, who reigned for six months in 1932. There would not be another black middleweight champ until Sugar Ray Robinson in 1950.
The colored middleweight title was revived in the early 1940s. Charley Burley, who had been the colored welterweight champ, fought Holman Williams for the championship on 14 August 14, 1942, and won on a 9th round TKO. Williams won the title on a decision in their rematch on 16 October 1942, then lost the title on 15 January 1943 to the Cocoa Kid in a 12-round decision. The Kid never defended the title.
# | Name | Reign | Date | Days held | Location | Defenses | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Harris Martin | 1 | May 2, 1887 | 1673 | Minneapolis, Minnesota USA | 1 | "The Black Pearl" declared himself the world colored middleweight champion after fighting "Black Frank" Taylor to a draw. |
2 | Ed Binney | 1 | November 30, 1891 | 349 | San Francisco, California USA | 1 | Charley Turner claimed the title after defeating Harris Martin on 29 February 1892 in San Francisco but never defended it. |
3 | Joe Butler | 1 | November 13, 1892 | 464 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA | 2 | Defeated Frank Craig in title defense on 18 March 1893 in Philadelphia. |
4 | Frank Craig | 1 | February 20, 1894 | Unknown | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA | 0 | Vacated title without defending it. |
5 | George Byers | 1 | December 9, 1897 | Unknown | Waterbury, Connecticut USA | Unknown | Byer defeated Harry Peppers, the Pacific Coast middleweight champion; won the World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1898. |
6 | Sam Langford | 1 | November 12, 1907 | Unknown | Los Angeles, California USA | Unknown | Defeated Young Peter Jackson; won World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1909. |
7 | Eddie Palmer (boxer) | 1 | September 26, 1912 | 1331 | New York City USA | 4 | Claimed title after scoring no-decision in bout with "Young" Tommy Coleman. |
8 | Jamaica Kid | 1 | May 19, 1916 | Unknown | New Orleans, Louisiana USA | 0 | Did not defend title. |
9 | Panama Joe Gans | 1 | October 8, 1920 | 1387 | New York City USA | 5 | Defeated George Madison at Madison Square Garden; lost title to Larry Estridge at Yankee Stadium. |
10 | Larry Estridge | 1 | July 26, 1924 | Unknown | The Bronx, New York USA | 1 | Title became extinct after Tiger Flowers won the World Middleweight title on February 26, 1926. |
11 | Harry Smith | 1 | November 16, 1929 | Unknown | Kingston, Jamaica Harlem, New York, US | 1 | Title revived; Smith beat Jack McVey with 15 round PTS. |
11 | Charley Burley | 1 | August 14, 1942 | 63 | New Orleans, Louisiana USA | 1 | Title revived; Burley beat Holman Williams with 9th round TKO. |
12 | Holman Williams | 1 | October 16, 1942 | 91 | New Orleans, Louisiana USA | 1 | Williams beat Burley via points in 15 round decision. |
13 | Cocoa Kid | 1 | January 15, 1943 | Unknown | New Orleans, Louisiana USA | Unknown | Cocoa Kid beat Williams via points in 12-round bout. |
Edward Patrick "Mickey" Walker was an American professional boxer who held both the world welterweight and world middleweight championships at different points in his career. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, he was also an avid golfer and would later be recognized as a renowned artist. Walker is widely considered one of the greatest fighters ever, with ESPN ranking him 17th on their list of the 50 Greatest Boxers of All-Time and boxing historian Bert Sugar placing him 11th in his Top 100 Fighters catalogue. Statistical website BoxRec rates Walker as the 6th best boxer to have ended his career at middleweight, while The Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer placed him at No. 4 among greatest middleweights of all time. The International Boxing Research Organization ranked Walker as the No. 4 middleweight and the No. 16 pound-for-pound fighter of all-time. Walker was inducted into the Ring magazine Hall of Fame in 1957 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame as a first-class member in 1990.
Samuel Edgar Langford was a Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter 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, a small community in Nova Scotia, he was known as "the Boston Bonecrusher", "the Boston Terror", and his most famous nickname, "the Boston Tar Baby". Langford stood 5 ft 6+1⁄2 in (1.69 m) and weighed 185 lb (84 kg) 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, Langford was rated No. 2 by The Ring on their list of "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".
Charley Burley was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950. Archie Moore, the light-heavyweight champion who was defeated by Burley in a 1944 middleweight bout, was one of several fighters who called Burley the greatest fighter ever. Burley was the penultimate holder of both the World Colored Welterweight Championship and the World Colored Middleweight Championship.
The World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a title awarded to black boxers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was the only recognized heavyweight championship available to black boxers prior to Jack Johnson winning the world heavyweight title in 1908. The title continued to exist until the reign of Joe Louis as universally recognized champ, as the color bar against black heavyweights was enforced during and for a generation after Jack Johnson's reign as world champ.
Kid Norfolk was an American professional boxer who fought as a Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight from 1910 through 1926, holding wins over many notable boxers of his day including Joe Jeanette, Billy Miske, Jack Blackburn, Harry Greb, Tiger Flowers, Battling Siki, and Gunboat Smith. Norfolk was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.
Bob Armstrong, was a heavyweight boxer known as the "King of the Battle Royal". He was born in Rogersville, Tennessee, but he moved with his family to Washington, Ohio when he was three years old.
Herbert Lewis Hardwick Arroyo, also known as "Cocoa Kid", was a Puerto Rican boxer of African descent who fought primarily as a welterweight but also in the middleweight division. Hardwick won the World Colored Championships in both divisions. He was a member of boxing's "Black Murderers' Row" and fought the best boxers of his time. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.
Frank Childs, "The Crafty Texan", was an African American boxer who fought professionally out of Chicago from 1892 to 1911 and twice held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Fighting at a weight of between 160 and 185 lbs., the short, stocky Childs fought middleweights, light-heavyweights and heavyweights. He had a powerful punch.
C.C. Smith, a.k.a. Charles C. Smith, Charles A.C. Smith, and Charlie Smith, was an African American boxer who claimed the status of being the World Colored Heavyweight Champ and was the first boxer recognized as such.
George Byers was a Canadian boxer who won the World Colored Middleweight Championship in 1897 and held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship from September 14, 1898, to March 16, 1901, a reign of 913 days. The 5′ 8½″ fought out of Boston from 1895 to 1904 at a weight of between 120 and 165 lbs., in many weight classes and frequently against men that were much larger than himself. On 9 December 1897 in Waterbury, Connecticut, he faced Harry Peppers in a title match for the World Colored Middleweight Championship. Byers knocked out the undefeated Peppers, the Pacific Coast Middleweight Champion of the Pacific Coast in the 19th round of a 20-round contest. He took up US citizenship in 1917
Larry Estridge was a middleweight boxer and the last holder of the World Colored Middleweight Championship. The 5'7" middleweight fought out of New York City from 1922 to 1929, racking up a career record of 53 wins against 23 losses and two draws from 1922 to 1929.
Panama Joe Gans was a black boxer who held the World Colored Middleweight Championship for four years, shortly before it was discontinued. Born Cyril Quinton Jr. on November 14, 1896, in Barbados, British West Indies and raised in the Panama Canal Zone, the 5'7" Quinton originally fought out of Panama and then New York City. He took his ringname from boxing great Joe Gans, the first black American fighter to win a world boxing title. He found his greatest fame fighting as a middleweight at between 147 and 160 lbs, but in his early career he took the Panamanian Lightweight Title and contended for the Panamanian Welterweight Title at weights roughly between 130 and 147 pounds.
The World Colored Welterweight Championship was a title that existed during the time of the color bar in professional boxing.
Eddie Palmer was an African American boxer who held the World Colored Welterweight and World Colored Middleweight titles. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1892, the 5'9" Palmer fought at a weight of between 142 and 156 lbs. out of Philadelphia and New Orleans between 1910 and 1925. He moved to Philadelphia in August 1911 and fought out of the City of Brotherly Love for two years.
Harris Martin was an American boxer known as "The Black Pearl". He declared himself the first colored middleweight champion of the world after a fight with "Black Frank" Taylor in Minneapolis in 1887. Harris' legacy is that of being one of the first African-American boxing celebrities in the United States, with public acclaim during his time extending throughout the Midwest region. Over a century after his death, Harris was inducted into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Ed Binney was an African American boxer who was the colored middleweight champion of the World in the 1890s. Born Edward Phinney in Washington, D.C., the 5-foot-9-inch (175 cm) middleweight fought out of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts during his career. He was known a clever fighter whose punch carried a sting.
Joe Butler was an African American boxer who was the colored middleweight champion of the world in the Gay Nineties. Born in Paoli, Pennsylvania, the 6′ 0½″ Butler fought out of Philadelphia during his career. Known as "The King of the Middleweights", Butler had quick hands and fast footwork and was known as canny fighter who could box or slug it out with an opponent.
Charley Turner was an African American boxer who claimed to be the colored middleweight champion of the World in the Gay Nineties. Born in Stockton, California in 1862, Turner was known as "The Stockton Cyclone". He fought out of Stockton at a weight of between 148 and 156 lbs. during his career, which would classify him as a middleweight by modern reckoning as well as by the standards of the time.
The Black Heavyweight Championship was a title in pretense claimed by the African American boxer Klondike, who was born John Haines or John W. Haynes and by two-time colored heavyweight champ Frank Childs.
The Negro Middleweight Championship of the World was a title in pretense claimed by Johnny Banks, an African-American boxer who fought under the sobriquet "The Darkey Wizard" during the mid-1880s. He claimed the Negro Middleweight Championship but lost it in a title fight on January 26, 1887, in New York City to James Desverney when he was disqualified in the ninth round on a foul.