April 13, 1915: Jeannette vs Langford XII

Herewith an uncredited report from the April 14th, 1915 edition of The Boston Globe:

When Joe Jeannette, the colored heavyweight, finished boxing twelve rounds with his old rival, Sam Langford, at the Atlas Athletic Club last night, he was declared the winner by referee Jack McGuigan of Philadelphia. There was no question about the decision, for Jeannette had the better of eight of the rounds. Langford carried, as usual, his large supply of fat about his body, but it did not seem to inconvenience him.

Jeannette has gone back some, but last night he displayed better headwork than he ever showed here before. It was the twelfth battle between the pair of and it is the second time that Jeannette has been declared the winner.

In the first round it looked as if Jeannette was bound to get his usual whaling for Langford hooked over his famous left coming out of a clinch and caught him on the jaw. In the first four rounds Langford struck often with his left on Jeannette’s body and face and a number of his short rights caught Joe on the face, jaw and ribs. Jeannette jabbed his left into Langford’s face a number of times and shot his right into Sam’s face, jaw and stomach.

Jeannette looked, after those rounds were over, as if he was cashed. He acted as if tired and his punches did not appear to have a great deal of steam behind them. But beginning with the fifth, Jeannette began to improve. He bothered Langford considerably by changing his style of attack. He would jab Langford, then rush into a clinch and quite often tied Sam up so that he could not land a punch.

There were many times that he was not so successful and Langford hooked the left or right to the stomach or face. Several times, Langford got the right over clean to the jaw, but Jeannette seemed able to take the blows without showing any effect.

Jeannette used those methods for a while but then he changed. After shooting jabs to Langford’s face, he would follow with a right and left to the face and jaw and Langford could not fire back effectively. Many times Jeannette, after he landed some jabs and Langford came at him, drove the right to body or the left to the stomach and face, or the uppercut right on the chin. Several times Jeannette made Langford’s head rock with rights and lefts, and in the ninth session Joe came near putting him down with rights and lefts on the jaw.

The blows staggered Sam, whose left eye was the target for Jeannette’s assault, and by the end of the bout the optic was nearly closed. Jeannette moved about on his feet better than he ever did here before, and it helped him to get away from many of the vicious hooks that Langford sent for the jaw and body. In the end the decision was a popular one.

In the opening bout Johnny Murphy was declared the winner over Tommy Doris in six rounds, while Young Budreau stopped J. Taylor of New York in two rounds in the next bout. In the semi-final Larry Burns of Lawrence stopped Charley Sheppard in six rounds. The feature bout next week will be between Gunboat Smith and Battling Levinsky.           –From the April 14th, 1915 edition of The Boston Globe