The Best of the Rest: 160lbs Tier II Tournie - Round 1 - Fight 10: Reggie Johnson SD15 George Abrams

What i've done is i've lifted top tiers out of my top fifty at the poundage and organised them into a seeded tournament to uncover "the best of the rest" at the poundage, with you, the denizens of the world's greatest boxing history forum, casting the deciding vote. The difference between this middleweight tournament and the equivalent at 175lbs is that I've left ALL the guys with no footage in this time. I understand that makes things difficult and for some, frustrating but there are just far too many excellent and intriguing fighters from middleweight history. I understand this makes making a pick very hard, but i hope you'll still place a vote and make a post because obviously without your input the whole thing becomes meaningless.

Pick your man! Write however many details you like or don't in a post below. But maybe try to post, to keep things moving a little bit. You have three days.

And let's be nice. No reason for disagreeing over total fantasies after all!

15 rounds, 1950s rules and ref. Ten points must. Weigh in is 18 hours before the fight.

I'll only vote if it's tied, then I'll decide the result.

Round of Thirty-Two Fight 10: George Abrams vs Reggie Johnson

GEORGIE ABRAMS (48-10-3)
Compact and aggressive, Georgie Abrams was credited by Sugar Ray Robinson of giving him one of the hardest fights of his career. “He knows how to make you throw a punch and miss it” Sugar complained as though he hadn’t met some of the most astonishing talent ever to take to a boxing ring. Never a champion, he clashed with an incredible line-up of former and future champions belonging to the 1930s and 1940s all while wearing the demeanor and physicality of a failed ice-cream vendor.

First up was a creaking Teddy Yarosz, who a relatively green Abrams out punched over ten rounds to a split decision while neutralising Teddy’s lethal left. Next was strap holder Lou Brouillard, followed quickly by future belt-holder Billy Soose, who went for a second time in 1940 after being dropped in the first by a sizzling right-hand. The conciseness of his work always surprises, perhaps due to the absurd raggedness of his personal appearance.

After the second Soose triumph, Abrams took a break from championship opposition but continued to take on royalty, matching the peerless Charley Burley – and holding him to a draw, a rally in the ninth and tenth rescuing him from a defeat that at one point seemed sure. Another desperately close fight followed against another uncrowned champion in Cocoa Kid, Abrams took the split of the decision. He then defeated Soose once more in a one-sided contest that surely entitled him to a shot at Soose’s belt; in a story as old as boxing, Soose declined.

REGGIE JOHNSON (44-7-1)
"Sweet" Reggie Johnson boxed in a style as difficult as they come on paper, all slick southpaw stylings, quick and slick and hard to pin down. In his fistic prime of the early 90s he was probably beaten only by James Toney who took him to the narrowest of decisions and only after spoiling his way through the second. Johnson hit him with a left hand that troubled him as much as any punch ever would in his journey to heavyweight and the iron-jawed Toney was legitimately hurt. In a close fight full of close rounds, scoring the fight either way is more than reasonable; I had it to Toney by a single point.

Johnson scored his own close decision against Steve Collins to pick up a strap a few months later, but in all honesty this fight was less close, Johnson appearing to have control of the middle section of the fight. Reggie was on the **** end of at least one and arguably both of his battles with Jorge Castro, too, the fights that sent him from the division.

 

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Reggie Johnson won a razor thing decision against Georgie Abrams, winning from a single point courtesty of a ninth round knockdown scored of a staving right hand that dumped Abrams directly on his backside, though he seemed flashed rather than hurt. Had the punch landed a quarter of an inch lower, Abrams would likely have progressed on a countback draw based upon a swarming attack he perpetrated against a bedazzled Johnson late.