I don't think I have ever seen this fantasy match up on here before. I did a search and didn't see it so here we go in a match between to highly skilled craftsmen. Do you like the Peekaboo styled Torres with his excellent defensive skill and solid power or do you like the master technician that was Johnson. Both guys were 5'10 and had similar reach.
Both guys were very strong, but Torres was a little stronger imo. They were both similar in weight when they were at their best, although they both fought pretty heavy for their time and fought heavies in the 180s. It's a tough matchup as Johnson was the better fighter of the two but Torres was no sham himself and also the tougher man. It's 50/ 50 imo. Johnson by close decision and Torres by a possible TKO, but more likely a close decision himself. This is a great matchup and I think these guys are close in their greatness.
Prime for prime, I like Johnson just a little bit more but I think Torres is a very live slight underdog. Torres is a guy that I really like to watch film of. He has three losses on his record with one of those losses coming fairly early in his career and the other two coming from the great Dick Tiger with the 2nd loss to Tiger being highly disputed.
Torres of the Pastrano fight was a little offensive whirlwind and he cut the ring off brilliantly. He wasn't a collosal puncher but he wasn't poor either, but he had a high workrate and was concentrated poison for out-boxers. He'd be Hell on Earth for someone like Billy Conn, but I don't quite know whether he'd be as bad for Johnson. Harold was a very economical mover with an all-time great jab, he was also quite physical in the clinch with underrated pop. I tend to think he'd keep his lead-hand in Torres face enough to interrupt a lot of Jose' work at mid-range and be strong enough to completely tie him up on the inside. Torres' way of winning would probably be looking at coming over the top with the overhand and working the body. The problem with that is that took an Archie Moore-level pressure fighter to do that to Johnson. A sidenote about a guy who isn't too far distanced from the match up who's really underrated is Oakland Billy Smith. OBS annihilated Harold Johnson would do exactly the same thing to Torres.
