¿Who was physically stronger between George Foreman and Jack Johnson?

Not to say there isn’t - but is there rock solid evidence of them benching 500 lbs?

 

Just on the question of size, 6’3” Victor McLaglen was huge for his day - actually looking bigger and broader than Jeffries.

In the pic below he almost makes Johnson appear puny by comparison.

Accounts of their exhibition described Johnson as easily handling and shifting McLaglen around in the clinches.

After winning the title, Johnson appeared to build himself up even more over a shorter period of time.

It would be interesting to know exactly what type of strength/muscle building exercises he employed.

In Dec 1908 Johnson was a rock hard 194/196 lbs but by the time of just the Ketchel fight, Jack had increased to 205 lbs and then 208 lbs by July 1910 - still rock solid, sans any fat but showing greater muscle volume.

See my avatar pic for exemplification - I think it was taken circa 1909 but I could be wrong.

PS - McLaglen would’ve kicked John Wayne’s ass in real life.

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Johnson weighted 192 for Burns. No matter how you position it Foreman was 25 pounds larger and 3” taller. He was a bigger man

 

There's an video evidence Hasim benching 440 lbs which is great and BY FAR the best result of any high-level pro boxer.

That's after Hasim ended his pro career and balooned to 300+ lbs. Still great result by any means.

I highly doubt about him benching 500 lbs though (especially considering him being around 240 lbs at that time). That's an additional 60 lbs to his recorded result which is a huge, huge gap.

We don't have to believe those numbers unless they are on video.

Ike Ibeabuchi once said his best bench is around 300 lbs and he is strong as hell. Now compare this to Shane Mosley's claimed 315 lbs which is clearly fake result (Ike is literally 1.5 times as big as Shane and clearly far stronger physically).

 

So Foreman played football that you can confirm whilst Johnson cross trained with wrestlers… I think I can guess who’d be man handling who? - Foreman has good “grappling” for a boxer what does that mean? He pushes people and extends his gloves? LOL… functional strength depends on your sport, functional strength for football is different to gymnastics… if you’re meaning “grappling strength” or odd object carrying? it’d go to the guy who trained with grapplers, grappling and did Strongman stuff… Yes Foreman will be attempting to hit him in the face…and Johnson will be moving, blocking, parrying and hitting him back? Worse boxers then Johnson wound up in a clinch with Foreman and guess what happens then? Johnson takes him down, chokes him out or rains punches on him till he is beaten into submission… every time he tries to get it up, he’d take his back or his neck and reintroduce him to an environment he is basically clueless in, watch untrained people wrestle guys with even minor training. Did you see the Toronto 5 circus? A guy literally takes Foreman down with ease lol Let’s watch LeDoux - did you see all the times a borderline “bad” LeDoux slipped his punches and grabbed him in the clinches? If that was Johnson… oh man, especially bare handed, one guy knows how to actually box with tiny gloves on and was famously accomplished at “catching” punches like a baseball.

 

Dad bods galore.

 

Jack Johnson couldn't do this if you gave him a week....

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These guys are in-shape but hardly serious weightlifters physiques… it’s like when people say “oh such and such would be accused of steroids today!” Then they show a black and white photo of a boxer mid punch, dried out and under downward lights… no, our favourite old school boxers were just guys that got in “good” shape and fell where they felt comfortable enough to fight frequently which would at times include a bit of “useless” weight… most don’t want to waste there time doing endless BS which is why I don’t believe the Marciano myths OKAY he ran miles, miles and more miles did hours of push ups, wood chopping and so on then grinded it out in the gym sparring? - FK off, Holyfield on PED’s famously skipped training for lifting etc we have a finite amount of F’s to give per day and if you’ve got fighting every morning for breakfast most pass on anything else serious besides the essentials, it’s not bodybuilding they don’t care as much as the forum here does lol - box, run repeat it’s your livelihood the more you put into sparring / fight frequency the more extras look like a waste of time, which is why we should appreciate athletes like Roy Jones Jnr who took it all seriously, sparring frequently, fighting frequently, lifting/strength training, dieting, cardio etc he did it all and at one time so did Toney, Hagler and Canelo more modern fighters look better because well… PEDs… and more leisure time for something like lifting instead of fighting next fortnight.

 

I would be surprised if he wasn't.

 

People consistently pay money to see magic tricks, too. And some strongman stunts aren't too far off from that. That's why I'm curious about details.

 

I don't think that's Jeffries, but I take your point.

 

I know Arthur Saxon mentioned that Jack Johnson did “bridging demonstrations” to showcase the strength of his neck, mentions it in his old weightlifting tomes as an example of boxers who lifted weights he mentions his exhibitions without going into too much detail… at least from memory, it was so long ago.

 

This is a guy who reposted bits of an old manual from one of the early physical culturists, still about a generation after Johnson, but collecting some of the old tricks.

It's a mixture of impressive stuff and flim-flam, with bits in between.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/perform-strongman-stunts/

 

Ha ha. You reckon - amongst the spectators?
Oakley Doakley.

 

Yep, in some cases, you definitely got to see it to believe it or at least entertain it to be true.

How about this guy - Anatoly? Can’t vouch, just pulled from the Net, he’s 5’11” and 78 kgs.

He’s a serious power lifter - but to see someone not necessarily built like a brick **** house nor with a singularly purposed, (not good for much else) physique, is very impressive.

Even Arnie is a fan per another video upload.

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