According to those who saw him fight, and particularly those who faced him, this was the hardest hitter of his era, and one of the hardest of all time.
As the first black to hold the heavy weight title, Johnson became the target of some of the most vicious racism ever seen in sports. Not exactly a model for "Stepin Fetchit" Johnson beat his white opponents like a bad dog, frequently mocking and taunting them as he did so. He had a prediliction for a flashy lifestyle, and most distressingly for the racists, white women.
