[GIF] Reggie Johnson - James Toney knockdown

What a skilled boxer Reggie Johnson was, he'd school everyone bar Golovkin if he was around today. Agree with you Kevin that it looked like Toney was baited in by the jab to open himself up for that lead left. Beautiful, elite-level boxing.

 

It took a true master boxer like Locomotora to defeat Johnson emphatically.

 

Very sweet

 

Loved how smooth he was. Reminds me to rewatch the whole fight and his match with Steve Collins.

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I'd put Johnson above Castro

Johnson almost beat Toney and the Castro loss was controversial.

 

Two losses.

 

Toney was hurt there.

 

Johnson was very good. I was stunned how easily Roy Jones was able to handle him. A great underrated win for RJJ.

 

Johnson sucked at 175.Heart didn't look in the sport anymore after the controversial JD Jackson and Castro losses at 160.

He looked soft and undersized at 175, had none of the boxing sharpness he possessed at his best at middleweight.The only reason he picked up a title was because Guthrie was garbage, so bad even a coked out fat Michael Nunn looked like Ray Robinson against him a little later.

Don't get me wrong though, Jones was at the top of his game against him and i doubt any other light-heavy at the time would have been good enough to dominate in such a fashion even that diminished version of Reggie, as shown by him hanging tough for another few years.

I wouldn't call it an underrated win though when looking at Johnson as a middle.He was much better there.

 

That was an awesome overhand left. Reggie checked the jab 3-4 times, which set up his timing for the counter knockdown punch.

 

A lot of threads involving James Toney on here lately...

This was 1 out of 3 times that Toney got knocked on his ass in 90 pro fights, up from MW to HW. And the only time Toney was actually hurt (Roy Jones pushed him more to the canvas than hitting him, he was off-balance, and he was off-balance again in Sam Peter II). And ironically it was a MW who hurt him.

 

Peter hurt Toney in the first fight by constantly rabbit punching him. And Toney was hurt - at one point he grabs the top rope to hold himself up as Peter wales on him. Makes sense - Peter hit like a mofo. Talked to Toney's camp recently and they're still chaffed by the fact that the ref didn't deduct points from Peter for rabbit punching (and Peter kept apologizing for it). Toney's people also say that his equilibrium was never the same after, that Peter might have done some permanent damage. Even so, Toney to my eyes Toney won that fight.

 

Johnson is a bit forgotten at 160. Cool style.

 

Johnson was a superb fighter whose career was marred by bad luck in a whole manner of ways. He was unlucky that he was in or around a Middleweight division between 1990 and 1995 which had more marketable stars with styles which the ticket-buying public were more inclined to support, and of course he had no luck at all with judges. I personally thought that Toney just about edged him by a round or two, though I wouldn't have objected to a draw - but the first Castro fight was a joke in my opinion, and Johnson got totally jobbed (can't comment on the rematch as I haven't seen it). I also thought Reggie beat John-David Jackson by about three rounds, but again he didn't get the decision. He should never have been 0-3 in those fights. With better officials and better promotion he could have been something like 2-1, maybe even 2-0-1 in them, and all of a sudden his record looks a hell of a lot better. Instead on paper he comes across as one of those guys who generally lost when he stepped up to the highest level, which does him a disservice.

Nice for him that he had that largely unexpected revival at 175 lb between 1998 and 1999, though. It wasn't until he ran in to a peak Roy that he was properly beaten beyond any doubt at championship level. I actually think Johnson has a claim to be one of Roy's top five wins if you take all factors in to account. Behind Hopkins, Toney and the Griffin rematch, but comparable to Hill and Ruiz and definitely ahead of Gonzalez, Woods, Tarver (I) etc.