The Crazy Life of Jack Johnson

He performs like it doesn't exist. Like, cancel culture doesn't exist. Kind of like the way Jack Johnson just kinda... Jack... You ever see that documentary, Jack Johnson? Um... Yeah, where he just, like, lived his life as if racism didn't exist. And people, like, didn't even know what to make of him. Danged a lot of white chicks. He did. In their face during a time where, like, you get lynched for that shit. He was... He almost seemed like he was taken from another era and put into... He would talk shit while he was fucking you up. He had gold... He had gold fronts. I mean, before hip-hop. I mean, he, like... He almost looks like he was, like, time-traveled. Yeah, well, you know, what's interesting... His nickname was the Galveston Giant. You know, he was only, like, six feet tall. Or six foot one, I think. I don't think he was even... He might have been 200 pounds. Yeah. You know? Like, how... Pull up how tall and how much did Jack Johnson weigh? Six foot tall. Galveston Giant. A giant. You're six foot tall, right? Yeah. Yeah. How crazy is that? You're a giant. Yeah. People had no food back then. Yeah, they didn't grow that big. They didn't have any food, dude. This is how fucking soft we are. People were tiny back then. Like, if you look at the average size of the Civil War, an average man was 130 pounds. Because they didn't have any fucking food. They must have looked like Abe Lincoln. Like, holy shit. This guy's tall. He was like 6'2", not that big. Yeah, I mean... But Jack Johnson was... Guys got big balls, literally. Look at that package. Giant sack. Huge cock, I'm sure. Look at that right there. I mean, you gotta think. This is... There's no steroids back then. Yeah. This is just superior genetics. And also, just fucking hardship, right? You know, talk about Khabib growing up in Dagestan. Imagine being a black man as a boxer back when they all wanted white men to be the champ. Yeah. Look at the size of him, man. Yeah. Shredded. He was shredded. Built like a modern elite athlete. Yeah. And this is... You know, what year was that? Turn of the century. What year was it, Jamie, does it say? That he was a champ? Was it like 1908? Like, early, early turn of the century. Ah, started eating a little bit there. What can you do, Buster Douglas? It happens. In between fights. What, that right there? Yeah, he looks like he had a couple cheeseburgers or whatever. Well, what does it say here? Does it say there? It says, uh... It was born in... He died in 1946. 1910 was the 5th century. He was born in 1878. Wow! So it was probably the early, early 1900s. But they would get giant-ass crowds, and you barely could see anything. Yeah. You know? And all guys had top hats. You ever see the crowds? Yeah. They're wild. What's the matter? He lost over 100 pounds to get into that fight. What? In 1910, yeah. He hadn't fought in six years and had to lose well over 100 pounds to get back into his championship fighting weight. Really? Yeah. Yeah, he was probably just drinking and eating and living like a killer. Oh, the guy he fought. Oh! Who'd he fight? Is that Jeffries? Yeah, yeah, yeah. James Jeffries? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, that makes sense. Well, they brought Jeffries in to try to beat him because Jeffries was the former champion. He was a big kid, too, right? Jim Jeffries? He's a big fellow. Yeah. But, you know... That's where the Great White Hope kind of probably originated. They were trying to beat him. Oh, yeah, for sure. That's exactly where it came from. Yeah. And then he was about to win that fight and they cut the broadcast. What's that? They cut the... Yeah, they was like the first televised boxing match. And he was... I forget who he was fighting. Some white guy number five or six. They were putting up... And before he knocked him out, they just cut the broadcast because they didn't want the country to see it. They had broadcast back then? It's towards the end, yeah. I mean, like, yeah. What's that fight? I don't think it was that fight. It wasn't that fight. No. When did they have TV? When did TV... What was the first television broadcast? I want to say 1940. When was the first... Let's figure out when the first television broadcast was. Yeah, I mean, his... I know that... Take a guess. When was the first television broadcast? I'm going to say, like, 1970. 1970, yeah. 1970, yeah. Back in the day, when people would talk like that. Yeah, why did they talk like that? Hey, welcome to the fight. Yeah, the... 1928 was the first broadcast. So one of his fights was broadcast, right? I don't know, man. It was one of the stadium... If they filmed it, I don't know. I don't think they did. I don't think they did. I want to say, if that was the case, it was, like, way late in his career. They think, like, even when he lost, like, lost later in his career, they think he took a dive. Because there's a video of it where it doesn't really look like he's hurt. He just kind of lays down, like, they might have threatened him or, you know, he might have got a big payday to take a dive. There's always a lot of speculation in boxing. Yeah. The fuck guy's taking dives. Especially the mob was heavily involved in it. Oh, yeah. My God. Can you imagine the amount of money you could win betting on a white guy against Jack Johnson? Yeah, a lot of money. Ooh! Yeah, a lot of money. Ooh! One of his quotes, I remember, like, he was so wild. I think he got a... he used to, like, drive a fast car. He made some money, and... And what was fast back then? 35? 35 miles an hour, yeah. Like, wow! He got a ticket, and the guy, he was like, hey, don't give me a ticket now. He was like, because I'm going to drive back. Yeah. You give me two tickets. Well, no, what it was is they gave him a ticket for $50. He was, here's $100, because I'm going to be going the same speed the way back. Wow, yeah. That's not giving a fuck. I mean, he had no fucks to give. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what are you going to do? Guys like him, almost like, when you look at history, you're like, you know, is this sort of just a natural evolution? They're like, no, certain guys move history forward. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Certain human beings are so spectacular in their time frame that it changes what we expect. Catch new episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience for free, only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips, easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience. On Spotify, you can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps, and can download episodes to save on data costs, all for free. Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.