Johnson v Corbett 1909

Well uh, er..uh..ahhh, I can't concentrate because of your avatar...

 

This would not be good for Corbett.

It would have been good for us because we would probably have ended up with some fairly modern footage of Corbett.

Prime for prime Corbett would have a good chance.

 

In 20 rounds, Corbett was too old to win. Johnson would likely get a mid round stoppage win.

However if it was a 6 or 10 round match, Corbett would have a chance to draw or pull of an upset decision, especially if Johnson was at his ideal fighting weight.

Corbett was a mobile skilled out fighter. A bigger, better, and more powerful venison of Jack O'Brien who fought on even terms with Johnson in 1909.

 

At 42 there's not much chance of him lasting 20 rounds, not much chance at all.

 

LOL who picked Corbett in 1909?

 

Sam Langford!

 

Corbett's eyesight was not what it had been when he was younger, and his wife made the observation he was squinting while reading the paper prior to Jeffries II. He wrote that he misjudged the distance on the punch which Jeff knocked him out with the first time, perhaps a manifestation of that slight deterioration.

Holmes extended his career tremendously in huge part due to the advent of soft contact lenses. There was no such technology in 1909, hence no possibility of Corbett contemplating a comeback.

 

Johnson was Corbett squared, so the best Gentleman Jim ever, loses to Jack imo.The 42 year old version gets stopped inside 8rds .

 

Then how come he couldn't beat O'Brien or Hart? How come he couldn't see the right hand from another zip code thrown by Ketchell? Johnson's over-inflated prowess continues to be the fool's gold currency of this board.

 

Well, Corbett did more than Just contemplate a comeback, he actually started training, and signed the fight! (see the Jeffries thread floating around)

 

Because of Johnson's defensive orientation and inclination to loaf, I'm not convinced he does beat Corbett at their respective bests. Jim went 61 timed three minute rounds with Jackson, and stopped Choynski in 27, while the longest Jack ever went was in the Willard loss, so Corbett wouldn't be likely to gas. As I see it, Lil' Artha' would spot "Gentleman" Jim the early lead, then discover he couldn't catch up.

 

I think i agree with this.

Although, Corbett certainly seemed to go an awful lot better against their common opponent - Joe Choynski who was much closer to prime against Corbett than he was against Johnson.


I think that corbett is underated nowadays and he is a hard one to rate any way, because of his KO losses, which technically all came past prime despite him putting in some brilliant but losing past prime performancs.

A 1909 fight would have proved nothing, obviously, but a 4- 6 rounder with Jim training light mad and Jack fat and out of shape, might have been very interesting.

 

Fortunate then that it never came to fruition. Corbett was administered oxygen between rounds of the Jeffries rematch. What the hell was he thinking going after Johnson?