Heavyweight champ gets a pardon at last

US President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a posthumous pardon to Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion.

He was jailed a century ago because of his relationship with a white woman.

“I believe Jack Johnson is a worthy person to receive a pardon, in order to correct a wrong in our history,” Trump said.

Actor Sylvester Stallone, famous as the star of the Rocky movies, and former world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis flanked Trump for the pardon in the Oval Office.

In April, Trump tweeted that he was considering the pardon after talking to Stallone.

“This has been a long time coming,” Stallone said, adding that Johnson served as the inspiration for the character of Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies.

Stallone called Johnson an “inspirational character”.

“It’s incredible that you’ve done this,” the star told the President.

“It’s an honour to take a fictional character like Rocky and do something in the world of reality.”

Fast-living Johnson held on to the world title until 1915 and continued to box until he was 50.

In 1970, Johnson was portrayed by actor James Earl Jones in the film adaptation The Great White Hope, which was sourced from the 1967 play by Howard Sackler.

Twenty years later, Johnson was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and his life also became the subject of the acclaimed Ken Burns’ documentary Unforgivable Blackness.