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I think that Sam McVea would have been one of the harder punchers in any era.

 

With 4k replays to study fighters and modern technology, Johnson would never be beaten these days.

Johnson in his Prime (like he was back in the day) vs Shavers in his Prime it still say Johnson
easy on Points or maybe even late TKO when shavers is total exhausted.

 

The referee could make it much harder or easier I'll side with Johnson 70-30. He wasn't totally foreign to 15 rnd bouts and I think its a lot easier to re-pace yourself from 45 to 15 than the other way around.

In fact I he'd dominate so well as to get multiple wins on that same night, not only shavers but every paying spectator. Not many other fighters can say that (thankfully).

This is assuming the referee dosen't deduct too many points or DQs Johnson, mind you.

 

With such limited footage available, and very few wins against top contenders, how do you come to that conclusion? I'm genuinely curious on what I may be missing here.

 

Plus even Jeffries in that fight was tiny compared to the vast majority of the top 20 now.

 

Theoretical scenarios are fun to imagine, but there's no way to prove them. One would think among the current large strong opponants one might do just that and dominate the division....

 

I actually deleted the comment as I didn't notice the "current technology/replay" part, meaning in his scenario, Johnson is brought up in the current sport with the current rules and advantages. That being said, its true, the fact he didn't fight many opponents of his size or larger (at least those who had some skill) makes me think he wouldn't have done well against the larger opponents of the golden age or those even now. He was often a weight bully

 

There’s actually a lot to be gleaned from the available footage of Johnson.

In terms of quality, his title comp. was that much less than his pre title comp.

Also remember, on film, Johnson is fighting half a**ed, happy to torture a lot of the time -

If you piece meal all the highlighted attributes displayed from the Burns fight to the Willard fight - you get the picture of a very smooth, multi faceted operator.

Of course Johnson didn’t display Dempsey’s power but even the Mauler, with only Johnson’s power, couldn’t have so easily punched Willard from pillar to post as Johnson did - and that was an old Johnson vs a younger fitter Willard (as compared to the one Dempsey faced).

Of course vs the larger Willard, old Johnson’s advantage in strength was somewhat negated - but by the same token, Big Jess wasn’t necessarily shoving old Johnson around either - so still impressive on Johnson’s part, imo.

I dunno on this one. Old story with Earnie.

He could get you out quick but survive his early blitz and your chances for victory rise exponentially. I don’t know that Johnson could necessarily clamp down on and stifle Earnie at least in the very early rounds.

Earnie’s KO over Norton was one of his best - strong, short, tight, fast punching in close - that would be the order of the day for Shavers’ best chance against Lil Arthur.

 

Shavers KO

 

There were some tests done, to measure the punching power of Bob Fitzsimons, Jim Jeffries, and Sam McVea.

McVea came out on top, with some ridiculous score.

I don't put too much stock in such tests, but it is at least enough to convince me that McVea had top end power.