Since 1919, when Jack Dempsey fought Jess Willard in the first filmed world title fight, the faces of boxing's heavyweight champions have become among the most instantly recognisable in the sporting world. Their lives - colourful, glamorous, inescapably violent, impossibly opulent - have enjoyed universal public appeal throughout the years. Often, their influence has transcended the ring, and heavyweight boxers have been invested with a wider social and political significance. Joe Louis's one-round destruction of Max Schmeling in the 1930s was, for example, hailed as a triumph for American values over Nazi intolerance and oppression. And, more recently, the violently unpredictable behaviour of Mike Tyson prior to his incarceration for rape dominated news headlines.