Jack Johnson's Undistinguished Reign As Champ

Jack Johnson won the title in 1908, trained to the minute at a lean mean 192lbs he toyed with ,and punished, 5' 7'' Tommy Burns 168lbs, belting him around the ring until the plucky Burns was a quivering human, punch bag .

Johnson decided to end the torture in the 14th round ,and began to level Burns ,but the police mercifully stopped the slaughter.

Between 1908 and 1915 ,Johnson defended his crown 9 times, 8 times successfully.
His opponents were less than awe inspiring.

Philadelphia Jack O Brien was first ,slightly past his sell by date, O Brien was a clever but light hitting smallish Light Heavy.

Johnson managed to get a $ 5,000 guarantee for a 6 rounds no decision title defence.
Johnson ,knowing O Brien was no banger ,took the opportunity to come in out of shape and hung over.
The fight was a stinker Johnson padded after the nimble fleet footed O Brien leaning and bearing down on him ,when he could manage to corner the Philadelphian .
O Brien contented himself with throwing jabs as as he moved away from the listless Champ, the crowd booed and razzed Johnson ,he laughed and waved to them.No dec, Johnson still Champ,next!

Next was Tony Ross, game and willing but seriously out of his depth with Johnson.

Uncharacteristically Johnson came out for the inital round all business.Though lacking fitness ,Johnson went to work on his challenger.
He broke Ross's nose and split his lip, then he knocked him down.After the first round Johnson having established who was boss, took his foot of the gas ,and allowed Ross to finish the 6rds scheduled fight.
The crowd were once again underwhelmed by the lack of effort from the Champion.

Al Kaufman was next up, a significantly better opponent than Ross he was experienced and big.
Kaufmann had beaten George Gardner,by ko,Mike Schreck also by ko,
and stopped Jim Flynn, in his last fight he had taken a dec off of Ross.

Kaufmann tried, but was unable to land more than a couple of glancing punches on the disinterested Champion.Johnson won as he liked.

The next challenger was

Middleweight Champ Stanley Ketchel ,who beefed up to 170lbs for the fight and appeared for publicity photos in a specially padded overcoat ,and ludicrously high heeled boots.

Much speculation about this fight exists, the story is Johnson agreed to carry Ketchel to increase the revenue from the movie rights,whether Ketchel was in on the deal is unclear.

What is obvious from the film footage is Johnson carrying the relatively tiny Ketchel and ,when stunning him ,quickly grabbing him and setting him back on his feet.
Ketchel appears to be trying in earnest ,swinging for the rafters in his inimitable style.

Ketchel knocked Johnson down in the fight for a count of one or two. Johnson got up and pulverised the charging Stanley with a tremendous right uppercut, he was out for several minutes.
Gunboat Smith ,a sparring partner for Johnson at the time insisted the knockdown was fake and that Johnson went down a fraction before being hit.

Some clips appear to support this opinion, some do not.

Either way, it was a victory over a beefed up middle weight.

Johnson took On 35 year old ex undefeated Champ Jim Jeffries
Jeffries had done something no other heavyweight champ before him had accomplished ,he had retired undefeated, he had never even been off his feet in a fight, though his face had been shredded by the bony fists of Fitzsimmons, he had never looked like being dropped.
In the minds of many he was still The Champ, but, the fight was really a farce .Jeffries was finished ,he got into the best shape he could, but nearly six years of inactivity , a regular whisky intake, and several packs of cigarettes a day had robbed him of his once prodigious stamina, crash dieting to shift a huge amount of weight ,also badly depleted his strength. Jeffries only redeeming quality in this public whipping ,was the stolid equanimity with which he took his one sided thrashing.

Fireman Jim Flynn,whom Johnson had allready outclassed was next in the barrel.

Flynn had beaten Kaufmann and Carl Morris, but he had been kod by Johnson ,in their previous encounter ,low risk fight.
Flynn knew full well he could not beat Johnson in a fair fight and decided to train for a dirty one ,he practised leaping in with butts, badly damaging several of his inexperienced sparring partners, his trainer the great Tommy Ryan ,disgusted with his tactics left the camp.

Film of the fight shows 5' 9'' Flynn jumping up endeavouring to catch Johnson's face with his head , Johnson holds him in a vice,intermitantly cutting loose with punches that opened gashes over both Flynn's eyes and ripping his mouth open.
Johnson stuck out his belly, and invited Flynn to take free shots ,then laughed at the results ,before slamming in uppercuts .All the time Johnson talked to his wife and corner.The
referree repeatedly warned Flynn about his butting and, in the 9th rd the police intervened. Not exactly Ali Frazier.

A year later a fugive from the States, Johnson ,seriously out of condition took on Battling Jim
Johnson in a stay busy ,pick up a few bucks fight.

Battling Jim was big and strong with a hefty punch but not quick, and a stranger to finesse.

The Champion looked okay in the first two rounds ,letting the Battler make the running, in the third rd Jack broke a bone in his arm and fought a survival fight for the rest of the contest.
Battling Jim pressed the Champ but could not land meaningfully until very late in the fight. The Champion ,stalled and mauled.it was declared a draw ,another so so fight.

After his arm was healed, Johnson took on Frank Moran a game willing puncher who had a good overhand right but lacked science.
Johnson in this fight was fat his hips have a roll of suet on them and his rear is rounded .
Moran tried, but could not land effectively on Johnson ,apart from one good right that hit the 36 year old Champ in the neck,Johnson stepped back and applauded theactrically.
In a clinch Johnson smashed Moran with his right uppercut and broke Moran's nose, this hampered the challenger for the rest of the fight.
A win for Johnson but not inspiring by any means, if he had been in with one of the black challengers that he avoided once he became Champion he would allmost certainly have lost his title , given the sorry shape he was in.
Johnson's most impressive fight as Champion ,imo ,was his last one as title holder,the one he lost .
Thirty seven years old , out of shape, dissipated ,and exiled from his own country ,he took on the trained to the minute giant Jess Willard.
Johnson tried to get Willard out of there, he hit him with good punches round after round, but the giant kept coming back for more.
After 20 rds Johnson was still in front ,but he knew he could not last the distance in the tropical heat of unrealistically scheduled 45rds contest, and he had not the strength left to ko the huge cowboy.

After the 21st rd , Willard commenced to land solidly on the fading champ several big swings to the body, visibly hurt the fleshy Johnson.
Knowing he was going down to defeat ,Johnson asked Barney Curley the promoter to take his wife out of the arena.

In the 25th rd Willard landed a monster right hand to the heart that took all Johnson's fight out of him, he clinched but the big Kansan threw him off.
At the end of the round Curley was just below Johnson's corner.Johnson leaned down and whispered " Jack take my Wife away, tell her I'm awful weak,and that I want her to leave".
Curley sent a friend of Johnson's , Richard Kegin ,to Johnson's wife's side, she was allready standing up the Champion looked at her.A New York Herald reporter said later,,"his expression was a hopeless one of despair,and helplessness". Johson went out for the 26th rd slowly, Willard was allready nearly in his corner eager to get to work on him.
Willard connected with a left to the face a big right to the body ,Johnson tried to clinch .The ref parted them Willard bulled him into a corner another left into the body had Johnson's legs quivering.
Willard feinted for the body ,Johnson dropped his guard to block it.
Willard crashed a terrific overhand right to the jaw and Johnson dropped ,clutching at Willard's legs as he fell, Willard kicked himself free, and Johnson rolled over onto his back champ no longer..
I think as Champion ,this was Johnson's greatest fight ,albeit a losing one. To paraphrase an old saying ,nothing so became his time as Champion ,as his taking leave of it.

 

Love it :good

 

Didn't like the post then

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? Lets just hope I give you a run for your money :good

 

My number 2 Just after Ali.
His best work was done BEFORE he was Champ ,imo.

 

Johnson was due to give a 6 rds exhibition at the Vancouver Athletic Club,his opponent to be Denver Ed Martin ,Martin did not turn up. McLaglen stepped in to the breach.It was not a title defence.

Johnson floored him with a body punch in the first round , then, after McLaglen had risen, waited for him to recover ,before resuming.
" I tried my best to rattle him, conscious of the fistic immortality that would be mine,if I were to slip him a sleeper,but his grinning face darted in and out behind the thud of his gloves, his head bobbing up and down, taking my blows on the side of the head,on the gloves, on the elbows,on the shoulders,anywhere,in fact, where they cold do very little damage."
McLaglen.

 

McLaglen fought second raters along the Pacific coast for a couple of years ,he was a fighter, but of a level not much above the Tough Man competitions.
Mclaglen recieved an Oscar for his part in the Irish Civil War film,"The Informer", and was a mainstay in the John Ford westerns,usually playing a Cavalry Sergeant or Sergeant Major, alongside John Wayne.They had a celebrated screen scrap in ,"The Quiet Man."