Johnson in most cases needed a knockout to win. Lewis was only stopped once in over 100 fights and that was in the last bout of his career against a prime Joe Louis. Therefore it’s doubtful that pops would get his KO. In addition, as already mentioned, Marvin’s defense wasn’t the greatest and John Henry was a master boxer. I got Lewis winning this. Not sure if it’s by stoppage or decision.
A lot of thinking goes into this seeing as to my knowledge we have 16 or so seconds Lewis.... We have film of his opponents and newspaper reports ect but we can't actually see how he operates enough to tell us what he did well and how he did it? We can read he had a snappy jab but how helpful is that truthfully?
I'll go with Marvin Johnson. I always enjoyed watching him fight. You kind of had to really beat Marvin's ass to win. I've never seen John Henry Lewis fight, but from what I've read he doesn't seem to the type to go to war. I've also seen guys fight who outpointed him. And, frankly, I don't know if I'd even take Jim Braddock or Al Ettore over Marvin Johnson. Braddock didn't look particularly impressive in any fight of his I've seen, including the Baer fight. And something tells me that it was more dangerous squaring off with Victor Galindez than "Slapsie Maxie" ... and Johnson broke Galindez down and stopped him. I need to actually see a guy before I pick him to beat Marvin Johnson. That's just me.
John Henry Lewis lost or drew 15 times. So let's not paint him as unbeatable, as we tend to do with guys we haven't seen fight. Did you think Al Ettore was an exceptional boxer? He outpointed Lewis. Emilio Martinez - a southpaw who was a non-entity - outpointed Lewis. Abe Feldman beat him. Young Firpo - the "Wild Bull of Idaho" - fought Lewis to a draw. Super-glossy-looking number of total wins. But be honest. There are more than a few red flags there, too. Doesn't seem like you necessarily had to be a boxing master to hang with Lewis. You could just be the "Wild Bull of Idaho" and do okay. I'm sure Marvin would do fine.
I think, at both their bests, John has enough to decision Marvin over 15. But it would be a good fight.
"Lightweight champion John Henry Lewis knocks out an opponent retaining his title." It's clearly mislabled.
That might be a typo. They look far bigger than 135; it's a shame we don't get a good look at either of their faces. There's footage of him shadowboxing where he looks far better than either of those two.