Best fighters of the Decade - 1920 to 1929.

I think that definitely that could be an argument but i am looking for more of a consensus and as unbiased as possible. I am thinking that realistically, you cant put him above the Tunney, Dempsey, Wills trio, despite the recent point that dempsey and wills might have been past prime. Also, looking at the two records, i dont see a realistic way to rate him ahead of Jack Sharkey, either. Sharkey was too consistent, and did actually beat him.

It is quite clear that Jack Johnson's age and his losses to Wright, Lawson, Simmons have eliminated him from the top 10 of the decade. Sam Langford might be a different story. He beat Bearcat Wright, George Godfrey, Tiger Flowers, Bill Tate, Brad Simmons, Jim Flynn, Bob Devere, Jim Barry, Jeff Clark which is quite a decent run of fighters despite him retiring and winding down in the decade.

Plus you can also add draws or no decisions with Wills, McVey, Jamieson. there are quite a few losses due to his high activity level but none of them are particularly damaging until about 1923, which makes him a factor for 3 years and he fitted more fights into that three year period than most do into a career. I think he might have done enough to push his way ahead of Godfrey and into the mid to lower half of the top 10. What does everyone else think of Langford's possible standing? He surely has to rate ahead of Godfrey doesnt he? Not a bad effort for an old blind guy whose career was finighed with the Fred Fulton result.

 

Kid Norfolk is another who needs to be considered. The list of talent in this decade really seems to be endless. The Kid, had wins over Jeff Clark, John Lester Johnson, Bill Tate, Tiger Flowers, Battling Siki. He also has a close decision with Greb and a DQ win over
Greb, where he seemed to have been the dominant fighter before the DQ. This is offset by losses to Wills and Tommy Gibbons and a split (but winning series with Lee Anderson who seems to have been a phenomenan until 1921 when he suddenly started losing nearly every fight). Norfold probably shouldnt rate too far behind Greb.

Gibbons is another strange one. He has the long win streaks, but most of his opposition was questionable. He seems to have come out slightly the worst with Greb, despite probably shading one fight in a close series. And his KO win over Norfolk was his best win and Carpentier another good win. His showing against Dempsey was not a bad one either. His only blemishes were to the elite fighters of the era which is a consistency level which tends to suggest that he was class (although i suppose the alternate argument is that he may have been fed easy fights and failed when he hit the top level).

 

Which fights were confirmed Handcuffs?

Without confirmation (and i have no doubt Godfrey was better than his record suggests), you have to go with his record. Where do you think his wins and losses suggest he should be placed.

 

This is a little earlier, (but it did come after the Willard fight). I dont know if it was quite as cut and drid as this.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...ver&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=19

 

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/l...0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=3&index=0

And this is a very interesting article. He doesnt continue his form to really be a factor for the entire decade, but note that in this article at least, Jack Johnson was considered one of the 4 or 5 main guys behind Dempsey!

 

i havent got the link handy, but a nationwide poll was run to find Dempseys most credible opponents. from memory the votes were scored as follows:

Harry Wills, Tommy Gibbons were one and two, and very close. I will have to dig out the article to find the remainders, and i think that Willard and Firpo were also on the list. Interestingly, Bob Roper (who had lost to Johnson a couple of years earlier) was nominated as one of the 6 best to consider.

there are reasons why we might discard the Johnson win (ie inexperience), but still it is a good result by Johnson against a decent young gun. I think that i am starting to lean towards Jack Johnson being a much stronger opponent than he is generally given credit for in this decade, even if his location and politics meant that we did nto see him against the very best of the decade.