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Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: Defeat of the Great White Hope 🥊
Description: Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight champion, and Jim Jeffries, the so-called "Great White Hope", slugged it out in Reno, Nevada on 4th July, 1910 - in one of the most explosive sporting events in American sports history.
Literally billed as a battle for racial supremacy, the fight attracted 20,000 paying fans - and sparked the biggest race riots in the United States until the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.Â
Jeffries came out of retirement for a fat paycheck. Johnson danced circles around him, forcing his corner to throw in the towel by round 15. To m...