More impressive legacy: Jack Johnson or Muhammad Ali?

Explanation as to why someone would pick Johnson?

 

Ali & it's not even close.

 

There is no reason at all to pick Johnson.

 

Johnson doesnt belong in the same sentence as Ali. (As great as Johnson was)
Ali was light years ahead of Johnson in every possible way

 

Ali.
Don't know why you would think it's hard, dude. Ali dominated a harder era, had more defenses, reigned longer, and beat better competition....

 

Johnson was the more self-made man, but the times were too much against him. He bucked the conventions of the day but didn't have a lasting legacy, the US was just too racist at that time. He was thrown in jail just for going out with a white woman, ffs.

Ali was more a product of his time, he came along at the right moment, and basically hitched a ride on the 60s civil rights and hippie era. He was the right man at the right time. Society was more amenable to a headstrong black boxing champion with rebellious political views, and so Ali had much more opportunity, more people listening to him, and this resulted in him having more influence over US and world society.

So IMO Johnson's achievements are more impressive relative to what was possible at the time, but Ali ultimately changed people's attitudes more.

 

Funny that nobody get´s the point of the thread.

edit:
I write that and Joersey Joe makes an excellent post at the same time

 

He was the first black heavyweight champion, that's why. I don't think OP is talking just on pure ring achievements.

 

Agreed! Any lesser of a mother****er would be crushed psychologically

 

Ali's legacy is enhanced by high quality color film and tape of his fights. And extensive interview footage. But story for story Johnson has it all over "The Lip".

 

I didn't wake up that long ago and I don't get it either.

 

That is a tough, tough question that is also interesting.

Johnson had an earth-shaking impact as the World Heavyweight Champion. He stood alone in the White West, willingly wore a black hat, and shook his fist and laughed at the myth of their self-proclaimed superiority. He made fools out of every white man inordinately proud of his white flesh and gave the darker peoples something to cheer about.

He was the slave rebel Nat Turner risen from the grave. He was the big black menace on a white man's throne bedding down his white women and flipping the bird the whole time.

His victories spawned so-called race riots that were actually race crimes against the minority. His victories cost lives.

He also single-handedly ended the aspirations of black fighters for decades and was guilty himself of the same crimes that future white champions would commit in his name. It took a mythologized Joe Louis with a script in hand to undo it -with an assist by Tiger Flowers.

That's a hell of an impact -good and bad.

Ali was a modern, safer incarnation of Jack Johnson. I do not believe that his legacy had more of an impact (as opposed to being "impressive") than Jack's, though his life in total has. He has been mythologized in a way that Joe Louis never was. He is an American Saint.

Ali combined, in some ways, the legacies of both Jack Johnson and Joe Louis. He was the big, black menace who became a hero, an icon, and a darling of the same culture that wanted to lynch uppity blacks.