It’s 1961/62 instead of meeting Liston, Floyd decides to take on the great Harold Johnson. A fight that somehow never happened how goes this one?
If Floyd was busy I think he could take it, but I'd say 7 times out of 10 that Johnson could outbox him from a distance.
Johnson's form was wonderful but he reached a bit with that jab. Imagine Floyd got the ranges right? Could be over very, very quickly with those fast hands and that spring going over the top of that jab.
I was thinking of the Satterfield v Johnson fight and Harold lost one to him and won one, then I thought of Machen v Patterson which I haven’t seen in some time but Machen and Johnson weren’t that dissimilar to get an idea. I’d prob edge out Patterson but wouldn’t be surprised if Harold won one of three
Harold Johnson was an excellent light heavyweight and even beat a few decent heavies. But I can’t see him capturing the heavyweight title. And frankly I just think that Paterson was better at that weight
Not a match really. Johnson was a brilliant defensive Fighter but Floyd was immensely aggressive and brave. Patterson within 6.
Think Johnson is a bit underrated for his abilities. I see him somewhere between slightly below Ezzard Charles and better than Eddie Machen. He has wins over both coincidentally. Charles Machen Bivins Nino Henry Satterfield Moore Brothers Godoy Slade Jones Is a list of his best wins…prob forgetting someone. I think Patterson is a rough fight for him based on the Satterfield bout but let’s not pretend these two aren’t on the level. I’d even wager Patterson’s team didn’t want anything to do with Johnson.
At 175lbs I favour Johnson, at heavyweight I might favour Patterson, but not sure. Both matchups going the distance. I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson won the heavyweight fight either. He did beat some quality names at heavyweight also, Nino Valdes, Ezzard Charles and Eddie Machen (Johnson being past his best as well in the latter). Johnson had a brilliant jab, but that wasn’t it, he was very sharp, quick, had brilliant technique, telegraphed nothing and could counter very effectively, had a brilliant sense of range and where he was in the ring, and a great instinct of how to defend according to the range he was in and he could set up punches in a variety of ways, he could bait them into something he could counter, he could time their movement patterns, he could even throw the lead right followed by an up jab, he could hook off of the jab, he could jab off of a missed lead hook to catch them off guard through the middle as they pull back (I watched him do that), he was extremely intelligent and is still immensely underrated for his boxing ability and ring IQ. He’d measure and bait Patterson with the jab and counter effectively when Patterson commits, time Patterson with one twos and Patterson ducks, begin to find his timing. Johnson has more strings to his bow here and he’d use them accordingly and it’d allow him to get the better of more scenarios. Patterson may be able to sneak into range and land some sneaky, fast punches, but I think Johnson generally would ride them and not let it happen too often by having a great sense of range.