Fan photo for Mendoza !

Look , no doubt at just over 6' and not built tank like ala Tyson he would not appear huge by any means ... the funny thing is Johnson was 192 when he won the title v.s. Burns and Louis was 198 v.s. Max Baer, possibly his best fight and neither are often included in best fighters under 200 threads ...

 

McShortass

 

J,you are correct. I saw Jack Johnson about 2-3 years before he died in 1946,shook his hand in fact, and he dwarfed the dozen or so people who surrounded him. He was about 65-6 years old at the time...

 

he,i beg to differ.The above photo of Johnson and Choynski was taken in 1901,and Johnson was still maturing physically. When at his peak he had a powerful physique, second to very few today. He was built !

 

Bert, How old were you when you saw Johnson? Seriously, you were a child. And that is also a memory from 60+ years ago.

Johnson was a small heavyweight by any postmodern standard. The scales and the tape measure have not changed in the last 100 years. They don't lie.

This is a case study of Classicist myopia wherein the most objective facts possibly available (standardized weight and length measurements) are thrown out the window in deference to misty-eyed hero worship.

 

Seamus,My observations of Jack johnson's powerful physique has nothing to do with "misty -eye worship",but on many, many photos of his body build that I have seen over the years.Weight has nothing to do with tape measuring power.If that was the criteria, Primo Carnera was the most
perfectly built big man in heavyweight history. And you are right about
me memory pertaining to boxing,the sport I was" marinated " in since I
was "adopted' by a trainer of John Henry Lewis,who lived next door to my family. And my dad boxed in smokers as a young fella,and weened me
to see boxing cards at least weekly as a child with him and his friends.
What we love, we don't usually forget ...

 

So have I and so have most people here, and that if where the surprise comes when people meet a fighter like that in the flesh.

At 210 lbs they are not particularly developed, and there is no surplus fat, and that means that there is an awful lot ofd them. They will practicaly fill a dooorway and their had will wrap up a normal mans like a baseball glove. When not in fighting trim they are nearer 250lbs, and don't necisarily look fat at that.

 

Seriously, I have had two friends who were Olympic level athletes (as in US Olympic Trial participants) and one who made the NFL. Been around a bunch of pro boxers and some MMA guys. World class athletes do look different and it's beyond the measurables to some degree, I will agree. Still, inches areinches and pounds are pounds and Johnson would be a smallish heavy in today's game or the 90's, 80's...

 

Smallish heavy perhaps, but he certainly wouldn't look small if he walked into the room.

If you listen to people who have seen Johnson, Louis or Walcott in person, they all convey surprise at how big they were, not just overal but in detail.