BoxRec

Should the Coloured Heavyweight Championship of the World from 1800’s to early 1900’s be considered an official and legitimate version of the World Heavyweight Title, in a similar way to say the alphabet organisations are in modern boxing such as the WBO, IBF, WBC and WBA?
Some excellent boxers were excluded from fighting for the World Title such as Peter Jackson, Sam McVey, Sam Langford, Joe Jeanette and Harry
Wills.
Personally I think it should be, but it’d be interesting to hear other people’s opinions.

Yes I think the reigns of these men as "Colored" Heavyweight Champion is every bit as legitimate as any Alphabet Soup Champion there's ever been.

In most cases more legitimate.

No, because there never was any ‘official’ lineage. Several fighters claimed the championship at the same time or were billed as champion for promotional reasons.

Mauser wrote: ↑29 Aug 2025, 19:02 Should the Coloured Heavyweight Championship of the World from 1800’s to early 1900’s be considered an official and legitimate version of the World Heavyweight Title, in a similar way to say the alphabet organisations are in modern boxing such as the WBO, IBF, WBC and WBA?
Some excellent boxers were excluded from fighting for the World Title such as Peter Jackson, Sam McVey, Sam Langford, Joe Jeanette and Harry
Wills.
Personally I think it should be, but it’d be interesting to hear other people’s opinions.

- Always claimed that to be true just as much as the so called White Champion Belt that Luck McCarty held when JJohnson from Paris asked his Judge in his Mann act conviction to allow him back in the US to challenge McCarty who had accepted the offer.

BTW, officially by the unelected Official Hellscape of ABC Orgs and Commissions, Joe Louis in his comeback knocked out Lee Savold who was the "official White Champion" to unofficially win that title that would add to his already record title bouts won.

Boxing History would've been quite different than the regrettable path we have been cursed with.

wouter wrote: ↑30 Aug 2025, 04:09 No, because there never was any ‘official’ lineage. Several fighters claimed the championship at the same time or were billed as champion for promotional reasons.

That's a good point too. Hard to keep track of something that had such spotty, and incomplete record keeping in the first place.

No. The alphabet champs are as illegitimate as any other titlists not of the classic lineage. Why muddy boxing further?

Also, it presupposes the black guy was better than the white guy, and I think the past 20+ years of pasty white domination thru Vitali, Wladimir, Fury and Usyk has disabused fans of the racist notion that white fighters are somehow inferior to other races. Dempsey would have decapitated Wills.

That version of Wills, maybe. A prime Wills would have been a tough fight.

Sometimes the "colored" champion was better than the white champion at the time. Sometimes not. Sometimes it was pretty close. I think the title has to mean something and should not be completely brushed off.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑30 Aug 2025, 16:35 That version of Wills, maybe. A prime Wills would have been a tough fight.

Sometimes the "colored" champion was better than the white champion at the time. Sometimes not. Sometimes it was pretty close. I think the title has to mean something and should not be completely brushed off.

Riddick Bowie wrote: ↑30 Aug 2025, 13:24 No. The alphabet champs are as illegitimate as any other titlists not of the classic lineage. Why muddy boxing further?

Also, it presupposes the black guy was better than the white guy, and I think the past 20+ years of pasty white domination thru Vitali, Wladimir, Fury and Usyk has disabused fans of the racist notion that white fighters are somehow inferior to other races. Dempsey would have decapitated Wills.

Recognising both, which is what has been suggested, doesn't presuppose anything of the sort.

Riddick Bowie wrote: ↑30 Aug 2025, 13:24 No. The alphabet champs are as illegitimate as any other titlists not of the classic lineage. Why muddy boxing further?

Also, it presupposes the black guy was better than the white guy, and I think the past 20+ years of pasty white domination thru Vitali, Wladimir, Fury and Usyk has disabused fans of the racist notion that white fighters are somehow inferior to other races. Dempsey would have decapitated Wills.

Completely disagree with this. The mid teen version of Wills was better than Dempsey. In 1924 Wills was a faded version of himself. Just like Dempsey was a faded version against Tunney.

So even though there's no clear lineage as has been mentioned here.

Do we have any sort of list of men who at one time or another would've claimed the Colored Heavyweight Title?

I know Sam Langford, Harry Wills would be on it. I assume Joe Jeanette, and perhaps Sam McVey would've held some version of it as well?

This is what Wikipedia has: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Col ... ampionship

Looks fairly accurate. You can do more digging on the Boxrec Data base. Just pick the first guy and go from there. Or the last guy and go backwards.
There have been disputes from time to time.