Alex Pierpaoli

Hey Fight-fans!

Up this week is one of the greatest heavyweights who never became champion, the incredible Joe Jennette. Born Jeremiah Jennette in North Bergen, New Jersey on August 26, 1879, Joe worked for his blacksmith father, shoveling coal into trucks and delivering it to customers, hard physical labor that paid little. He was was a strong and athletic young man who stood five-foot-ten-inches tall and weighed between 185 and 203 pounds. Joe was light-skinned and strikingly handsome. He was described as “a black Adonis; a magnificently proportioned man” who was “never a braggart nor a clown, but led a quiet disciplined life.” Joe had been a success as a street fighter, and on a dare at the age of 25, he passed through one of the only doors open to an athletic black youth of the age–boxing. He was quite the progeny, despite starting his career late. Jennette was twenty-five and he learned fast as a pro.

After just 3 fights, one of them a stoppage loss to Black Bill (Claude Brooks), Jennette fought Jack Johnson in their first of 10 fights, and finished his career at 1-2-7 against the Galveston Giant. Their contests were always competitive but Johnson prevailed and sadly, once champion, Johnson never granted Jennette a shot at his title, claiming he was the first Black Heavyweight Champion and he intended to be the last.

Locked out of the Championship, Jennette had to settle for the Colored Heavyweight Championship of the World which was all that was available for heavyweights of his pigmentation. At that time, there among the heavyweight contenders were two other great black fighters who were in the same situation as Joe, they were Sam McVey and Sam Langford. Jennette, McVey and Langford, unable to challenge Jack Johnson, were left to sort things out among themselves, meeting about 30 times combined.

In April of 1909, Jennette and McVey met for the third time in Paris in a Finish Fight that may have been one of the most brutal, grueling boxing matches in history. For 49 rounds Jennette and McVey rumbled against each other. Throughout the course of the bout Jennette was dropped 9 times and rose again and again only to rally in the final ten rounds. McVey came out of his corner at the start of the 49th and shook hands with Jennette, succumbing to the punishment he had absorbed for 48 rounds. The French magazine L’Auto described McVey’s appearance at the end of the bout as “he no longer wore a human face.”

Jennette and McVey would meet 2 more times with a final tally of 2-2-1 (1) in favor of Jennette. Against the great Sam Langford, Jennette finished at 2-5-7 through the course of their fourteen encounters.

After boxing, Jennette served as a boxing referee and a judge. He ran a garage in Union City, New Jersey and upstairs from that he trained neighborhood kids in the Manly Art. In 1946, Jennette described Sam Langford as the greatest of the Big Four, calling him “the toughest of the lot.”

Jennette married Adelaide Atzinger, a white woman, in 1906 and the couple had two children, Joe Jr. and Agnes. Jennette died at the age of 78 years old in the North Hudson Hospital in Weehawken, New Jersey. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York in 1997 and a historical marker was placed in his honor in Union City, New Jeresy a few blocks from where his gym and auto-service station stood.

Jennette’s professional ring record

Jennette, at age 64, sparring with Jack Johnson, age 67, at a war bonds rally

Here he is in action against the incomparable Sam Langford. Jennette and Langford fought 14 times. This is their tenth encounter.

Hello, Fight-Fans!

This week we’re talking about former Heavyweight Champion of the World, Neon Leon Spinks! Spinks had a career record of 26-17-3 (14) as a professional and won amateur championships at Light Heavyweight including a Bronze Medal at the `74 World Championships, a Silver Medal at the Pan Am Games in `75 and a Gold Medal at the `76 Montreal Olympics where he was part of one of the two most famous and successful classes of American Olympic boxers in history(The other being the class of 1984). The 1976 Olympic Team in Montreal Canada included Leo Randolph(flyweight), Howard Davis(lightweight), Ray Leonard(light welter), Michael Spinks(middleweight) and Leon Spinks(light heavy).

Leon Spinks turned pro as a Heavyweight (the Cruiserweight division hadn’t come into being yet and later in his career he did fight as a Cruiser) and he got a shot at Heavyweight Legend Muhammad Ali in only his 8th fight. He was six-oh-and one, the draw a ten rounder with rugged Minnesotan, Scott Ledoux.

Leon weighed just 197 and a quarter pounds when he upset Ali by fifteen round Split Decision at the Las Vegas Hilton in February of 1978. He was the King of the World at just 24 years old and soon there were fur coats and fast cars and the fast life of a young boxing champion.

Unfortunately, he lost the Championship just 202 days later in a return match with The Greatest which leaves Leon with the dubious distinction of third shortest rein as Lineal Heavyweight King.

“125 days Shannon Briggs
197 days Micheal Moorer
202 days Leon Spinks
209 days Hasim Rahman
235 days Marvin Hart ”

Leon Spinks went on to tangle with fighters like Larry Holmes, Bernardo Mercado, Carlos De Leon, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, and Alfredo Evangelista in his 18 year career as a pro.

Leon is in rough shape these days but he is still a fighter at his core and maintains the quiet dignity of so many elder lions of blunted tooth and claw who bear the visible effects of years of wear and tear.

Listen tomorrow morning for more on Neon Leon!

Professional Ring Record for Leon Spinks

This is a nice fan-made tribute to Leon Spinks from the YouTubes