Panama Joe won the World Colored Middleweight Championship from Bostonian George Robinson in Madison Square Garden on October 8, 1920 in a twelve-round points decision. Panama Joe weighed 151 and Robinson weighed 150, in the light middleweight range. It was the first time two black boxers were featured on a fight card at the Garden, though typical of the era, the coverage of the fight was brief in those few newspapers that covered it. The fighting was described as fierce and drawing blood by one source.