C.C. Smith (May 3, 1860? – October 1, 1924), a.k.a. Charles C. Smith, Charles A.C. Smith, and Charlie Smith, was an African American boxer who claimed the status of being the World Colored Heavyweight Champ and was the first boxer recognized as such.

Biography

Smith was born in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

, likely into slavery, and he and his mother moved north in 1865. His birth date is given as May 3, 1860, but since he supposedly did not begin boxing until he was 19 and claimed the title in 1876, the birth year likely is spurious. Some sources cite 1869 as the year his boxing career began, and others 1879, which would have been three years after he claimed the championship. He began fighting as a bareknuckle boxer. The 5'11" Smith, whose moniker was "The Black Thunderbolt", fought as a heavyweight out of Buffalo, New York. Bill Muldoon, his manager, said he was a great pugilist possessed of cunning and a terrific punch. He reportedly fought 225 bouts. In 1891, he traveled with Muldoon's traveling carnival, where he boxed with future lightweight champ

Joe Gans Joe Gans (born Joseph Saifus Butts; November 25, 1874 – August 10, 1910) was an American professional boxer. Gans was rated the greatest lightweight boxer of all time by boxing historian and The Ring (magazine), Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleisc ...

, who was beginning his career. Gans would become the first African American to hold a world's championship boxing title. Smith killed a man in the ring. On October 24, 1894, Amos Theis died of injuries inflicted by Smith during a bout in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1903, when he was in his forties or fifties, he fought and defeated the former British Heavyweight champ, 40-year-old

Jem Smith Jem Smith (21 January 1863 – 10 September 1931) was a bare-knuckle prize fighter and heavyweight champion of England in the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. In 2010 he was inducted into the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame ...

,in Manchester, Lancashire, England via a knockout. He reportedly fought Colored Heavyweight Champ (and future world heavyweight champ) Jack Johnson in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1906, but it was likely an exhibition or never occurred due to Smith's age. Smith's official record is 39 wins (33 by knockout) against 14 losses (he was KO-ed nine times) and five draws. He also recorded one

newspaper decision A newspaper decision was a type of decision in professional boxing. It was rendered by a consensus of sportswriters attending a bout after it had ended inconclusively with a " no decision", as many regions had not adopted the National Sporting Club ...

win. He died on October 1, 1924.

Legacy

In 2020 award-winning author Mark Allen Baker published the first comprehensive account of The World Colored Heavyweight Championship, 1876-1937, with McFarland & Company, a leading independent publisher of academic & nonfiction books. This history traces the advent and demise of the Championship, the stories of the talented professional athletes who won it, and the demarcation of the color line both in and out of the ring. For decades the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a useful tool to combat racial oppression-the existence of the title as a leverage mechanism, or tool, used as a technique to counter a social element known as “drawing the color line.”

Professional boxing record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Charles C. Boxers from Georgia (U.S. state) Heavyweight boxers African-American boxers World colored heavyweight boxing champions Sportspeople from Macon, Georgia 1860s births 1924 deaths American male boxers 20th-century African-American sportsmen