Took you awhile to get around to the reason behind the thread ,but you got there.:good Johnson's best wins were probably those during his title run, which of course no one living has seen, so I cannot see how any definitive selections can be made with any confidence, but then you really aren't interested in them anyway are you ? You carry on, knock yourself out.
I'm fairly certain that the Jim Flynn who beat Langford ,and kod Dempsey in 1rd , would make you fill your boxing trunks,but I would have loved to have seen you try.
Jack Johnson had around 77 fights he was only beaten twice when he was anywhere near prime, once by dsq and, once by highly debatable decision. If you think he was **** ,then I guess everybody else must have been too . So why don't we say boxing really began in 1950 or some other arbitrary date ? Will that suffice? What an obviously agenda driven thread by Mendacity's stand in.atsch Lets see he was black, he was bald ,he had a big dick ,he liked to put it in white ***** and, by all accounts , up the back too,[the government tried to arraign him on crimes against nature, but refrained when his wife became distressed with their probing questions], he beat the **** out of the white opponents they insisted he fight, he refused to walk the c**n walk ,in short he said . I AM A MAN ON MY OWN TERMS. and he is still getting **** for it today. But you enjoy yourself :good
I have no idea what most of this is in regards to. I have nothing personal against Johnson or his legacy. He was a truly brave mother****er, probably the bravest who ever entered the ring. I am merely trying to critically analyze his career, which is apparently absolute heresy in these parts. To further this point I am curious when exactly was Johnson's prime? Which performances or string of performances represent this? Was it pushing around a 167 pound Burns? Was it beating down a recently fat hasbeen who hadn't sniffed a competitive round in 5 years? Or was it his performances at 185-190? I keep seeing match-ups of a "prime Johnson" versus so and so. Well, when the **** was this prime?
You can criticize Johnson for fighting smaller heavyweights but you have to take into account that Johnson was never the biggest heavyweight himself until the 1910's when he put on some weight. Next to the 20 year old McVea he looked like a lanky light heavy: This content is protected
This was a very good win for Johnson. Even though McVea's record was middling, he was a dangerous, true heavyweight.
Before I give my answer, I could suggest that wins over great fighters, are not necisarily critical to a great fighters resume. Who are the five best fighters that Larry Holmes beat for example? So Johnsons five best wins given the standing of the fighters at the time? 1. Jeffries, regarded as the GOAT and heavily favoured. 2. Burns, whatever his size, he was the champion and he got dominated. 3. Martin 1, the press had been hyping Martin to the roof, and this fight made Johnson the #1 challenger. 4. McVea 1, before this fight, the press was divided as to whether Johnson or McVea was the logical title challenger. The fight settled that question. 5. Martin 2, Johnsons dominece over Martin, was a key factor in building up his status as the ridiculously avoided challenger.
How about these five, not in any particular order (and never usually discussed). 1. George Gardner - He had just stopped Jack Root, George Byers and Kid Carter and beaten Joe Walcott. He would then go on in the year following his defeat to Johnson to stop Weinig, Maher, Hart and Root again (to win the light heavyweight title), before Bob Fitzsimmons stopped him. 2. John Sandy Ferguson - Considered by many as the best white fighter in the world outside of Jeffries, he had beaten Walcott, Byers and Armstrong and was in his prime when Johnson dominated his series against him. AFter the Johnson win, when past prime he managed to draw with Langford, and beat Joe Jeanette. 3. Tony Ross - Had Just beaten Gardner, Jim Johnson, Jim Flynn 4. Pat Lester - Was on a 7 or 8 fight win streak, including a win over contender Bob Roper. What made this astonishing is not the fact that Johnson was by my count, 48 years old. But it is the fact that Johnson had not fought for over 2 years! 5. Brad Simmons - At about 52 years of age, Brad Simmons, who was a decent contender that had stopped Sam Langford in a round and already beaten Johnson twice (on points) was selected by Johnson as the last serious hurrah for the star. Johnson had just come off an almost 3 year break and shook the cobwebs out with points loss to the 200lb plus simmons, got serious for the second fight in their series and KOd him in 2 rounds.
Ouch. Gardner was good but 150 or so pounds. Ross had lost 5 of his last 7. Ferguson was a ready customer but lost and lost. And tho he beat Jeanette (his best victory), he lost the series. If this is upper echelon, it's sad. I'm glad boxing, and especially the heavyweight division, has developed beyond this.
Pat Lester was a pretty big middleweight, 6 ' 3.5" 225lbs,and Johnson was 48 when he beat him over 15 rds, maybe Lester had drunk some of that " drugged tea"? atsch