Sam Langford

Who was Sam Langford?

Samuel "Sam" E. Langford was a Black Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter Nobody Knows," by ESPN, he was rated #2 by The Ring on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time." Langford was originally from Weymouth Falls, a small community in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was known as "The Boston Bonecrusher," "The Boston Terror," and his most infamous nickname, "The Boston Tar Baby." Langford stood 5 ft 6 ¹⁄₂ in and weighed 185 lb in his prime.

He was denied a shot at many World Championships due to the color bar and by the refusal of Jack Johnson, the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion, to fight him. Langford was the World Colored Heavyweight Champion, a title vacated by Johnson after he won the World Championship, a record five times. Many boxing aficionados consider him the greatest boxer not to win a world title and one of the greatest boxers in the history of the sport. BoxRec ranks him as the 4th greatest heavyweight of all-time, the 9th greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all-time and the greatest Canadian boxer of all-time.