Great stuff Mcvey. Griffin defeated Johnson and drew with him twice. As you said he had long arms, and could jab....Multiple this X2, and you'll get Lennox Lewis. It seems Johnson had trouble with the best jabbers he fought in Griffin, and O'Brien, failing to beat them in four tries.
Forgive me if this has been answered as i havent read the entire thread yet, but you say lewis would be a journyman or a contender at best, if he was in Johnson's era. Please could you tell me host of fighters who would beat him,if journyman, and the few who would beat him, if contender?
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Eighteen months prior to losing to Griffin , Johnson was weighing 168lbs for a fight,its likely he was no more than a skinny supermiddle when he lost to Griffin. It is also telling that a month later Johnson drew with Griffin over 15rds and drew again with him over 20rds a year later. But you keep trying.
What is known is what Johnson weighed ten months previously for a fight with Jack McCormick, i e 168lbs. Jimmy Ellis was kod by Ruben Carter ,when Ellis was a middle weight,do you think Carter could duplicate that against the Ellis who beat Jerry Quarry? Desperate aren't you ? Pathetically so. Will you now admit that Johnson was never kod by a middleweight? Or will you do your usual and, ignore the truth?
Dude, like I said a year later ( 1902 ) Johnson had a listed weight of 185 pounds! You do not have Johnson's weight from the 1901 fight. We have seen the photos of the two next to each other. Johnson is the thicker man. This content is protected
Just a thought but this thread got me thinking a little bit about how timing is everything sometimes - Johnson seemingly became something more like the complete article following the teachings of Joe Choynski by all accounts - Choynski got to him very young and very green - with Lennox I think his master trainer/teacher didn't get to him until after his real physical peak had passed I think?? What do people think? I think the young Lennox Lewis of the Ruddock/Bruno days was much more the lean mean physical peak and Manny didn't get to him until he started putting on the pounds - imagine how great a boxer Lennox would've been had Manny been with him from the start when he was like 227 or whatever - amazing fighter he was anyhow - also had me thinking earlier that Johnson was more the 'natural' fighter of these two and Lewis was the more manufactured late by Manny - but maybe's Johnson just happened to get his teachings a lot sooner while he was still in his physical prime - if Lennox had got the teaching he got from Manny when he was say 21 then what sort of a fighter would Lennox have been with that knowledge and depth coupled with his prime of youth? Potentially Top 10 material I reckon - as it stands he falls just outside at the moment for me - just a thought anyway - timing is everything sometimes
First thing that popped in was Oliver McCall from there second fight Only joking will come back on this one - interesting question
Come to think of it I might actually have been right first time?? As far the fooling and mind games playing and the obliviousness that Johnson would probably try to show to anything Lewis did anyways and funnily enough saw Rahman doing the arm out like a wrestler thing a couple of times that Johnson messed people about with now and again so maybe that aspect of Rahman but no other than that I can't see anyone Lewis fought as being remotely similar to Johnson - Johnson was a totally different kettle of fish to most though I guess :huh
He was unique which is why I struggle to favour him in fantasy match ups. I guess the closest johnson fought to lewis was willard and by all accounts he comfortably beat him over 12. Johnson is hard to envision against anyone post johnson imo. What did he bring to the table that other guys couldn't overcome? Reflexes? Hard to gauge.
This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected These photos were taken in a studio in Chicago, years later,when Choynski was well on the downslide ,and Jack was at the top. They are not reliable, or accurate,as a yard stick to measure Jack and Joe's relative size in 1901 ,which should really be obvious to anyone with half a brain.
Lewis by most vicious ko in history round 1. Lewis was way to big, accurate, and fast for a 1900 Jack johnson. IMO Johnson's life would be on the line.
Off the top of my head, Lewis would knock Johnson into the middle of next week. I just hate going that far back to compare these great fighters.