Prime for prime I would agree with his pick, but what if we start matching a past prime Johnson against a prime Langford? It might be possible to find a window where Langford could win.
50 years at ringside eye witness account of Langford-Johnson: “Jack Johnson decisively defeated Sam Langford. He was complete master of the situation. Jack so far outclassed Langford that for a time, until he purposely eased up on his onslaughts, the fight was one-sided." Langford, it appears, during say the 1909-1912 time frame scaled 160-170 pounds.
I am not taking issue with Johnson's performance, more Langford's level of standing at the time. Langford was still a local level fighter, who was testing out the waters at heavyweight. He was not yet the dominant contender that he would later become. I give Johnson a lot more credit for beating Sam McVea, who was being talked about as a challenger for Jeffries at the time.
I just do not see such a dominating performance and severe beating being turned on its head. Langford 1909-1911 was a 160-170 pound fighter. After this time he eventually scaled over 180. As Mcvey points out Johnson was also a bigger hwt post his bout with Langford. Langford may have gone into a second bout at 180 pounds but Johnson would have been over 200. Not that size is the bottom line but to say Langford would gain an advantage with a 20 pound weight gain but ignore Johnson's 20 plus pound weight gain is being disingenuous.
Isn't this the kind of dominating performance that does get turned on its head occasionally? A dominant contender beating up a guy who is still on the learning curve. Perhaps the outcome is just what we should have expected.
1. Muhammad Ali 2. Joe Louis 3. Larry Holmes 4. George Foreman 5. Lennox Lewis 6. Sonny Liston 7. Jack Dempsey 8. Jack Johnson 9. Mike Tyson 10. (a-b-c) Evander Holyfield\Rocky Marciano\Joe Frazier
Not if one fighter is one of the greatest of all hwt champions. If we were talking a Baer, Braddock or Sharkey sure. This would be a rare and unlikely occurrence at Johnson's level. Certainly 1909-1911 Langford was typically 170 pounds or less. 1912 onward he was fighting hwts very regularly but aside from 1912 (which was his best year as a hwt) he was also regularly losing or drawing. 1912 Johnson fought Flynn and he looked very good in that bout. So Langford at say 180 pounds or less walks into the ring with that Johnson in 1912 and comes out victorious? I don't see it.
The reason that Langford regularly lost and drew was that he was taking fights much closer to gether than Johnson ever did, even at his hectic best! Johnson looked good against Flynn, but the cracks were obvious, and for a reason. After the Jeffries fight Johnson sank into depression, became suicidal, and was sectioned at one point. From there on he was a man on borrowed time, and Langford might just have been the man to exploit it!
Yes I agree , examples of this type of matching would be Tyson v Williams and McBride,Charles vJackson,Bethea,McMurty etc ,but what do such matchups prove?
Langford was the more experienced fighter when they met,with more fights under his belt. Are you aware Langford refused to fight Kaufman whom Johnson toyed with?
To me it seems like Langford is somewhat like Johnson's Wills. That he had beaten him before makes a difference, but not enough.
WK was only "WBO champion" at that time. He wasn't avoiding anyone. What you say about WK can just as easily be applied to Lennox Lewis .... who was also knocked out TWICE. From 1989 to 1998, Lewis was also mainly "on the sidelines" (he missed most of the top names in that period). WK is marginally ahead of LL on my list because he reigned for a bit longer.
40 fights into his career and only 2 top 10 rankers to his name suggests he avoided a lot of people. He nor his management had zero intention of matching him with Lewis. He swerved Tua also. He basically pulled a Wilder until the coast was clear. Joshua at only 18 fights is taking on Wlad .Why wasn't Wlad gunning for all the big names early in his career? Holyfield, Lewis,. Tyson , Golota , Ruiz , Briggs , Maskaev ,Rahman?? He wanted no part of any of them.
