Q&A With Harold Johnson Former Light Heavyweight Champion by Ken Hissner Harold Johnson, one of the most respected boxers this city of Brotherly Love has ever produced. A recent Hall of Famer with a 76-10, 32 KO record over a 24 year career. The late Jim Jacobs once told me the worst decision in his entire collection of fights was the decision they gave Willie Pastrano over Harold Johnson for Johnson’s title. KEN HISSNER: Harold, you had won your first 24 fights before losing to Archie Moore in the first of your five bout series. Was he the best in your 86 bout career? HAROLD JOHNSON: Since he beat me 4 out of 5 times I would have to say yes he was. KH: Archie had over 100 wins when you fought him in 1949. You were only 20. Before you could get a rematch with him you fought the former heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott. A fight in which you suffered an injury to the intervertebral disc in your back which sidelined you for 10 months. HJ: My mother cried when she heard I was going to fight Jersey Joe. (Walcott had beaten Johnson's father) I weighed a career high of 180. He was almost 200 pounds. KH: Were you having problems getting fights with light heavyweights? HJ: Earlier in my career weighing 166 pounds I had to put lead weights in my pockets and shoes to be over 175 pounds to fight a 200 pounder. When I walked up to the scale all you could hear is “clunk, clunk, clunk.” KH: You had your second match with Moore in 1951. The decision was so close there was a rematch 3 months later in which you would score your lone victory over him. A month after that he would again beat you. With that loss and him not able to get a title fight, did you continue fighting heavyweights? HJ: I took on former heavyweight champ Ezzard Charles in 1953 winning a split decision. It would be almost a year before I would get my last chance at Archie. He was then the light heavyweight champ. KH: You had him down in the 10th round. Even though most at ringside felt you were ahead the judges had it even going into the 14th. What happened? HJ: He dropped me in the 14th in the corner. I just couldn’t beat the count. As close as that fight was I would never get a rematch. KH: You came back with 12 straight wins and earned a shot at the vacant NBA light heavyweight title because Moore said he had already fought you too many times. You were scheduled to fight Jesse Bowdry in Miami Beach. I understand you had a sparring session with a young Olympic champion. Who was he? HJ: That was my first meeting with Clay. At least that’s what they called Ali at the time. He was quick and I banged him good to the jaw. Afterwards he came over and asked what he could do about the aching jaw. I told him to chew some gum. KH: You stop Bowdry in the 9th round to take the title. You make 4 title defenses and a non-title win over #1 heavyweight contender Eddie Machen in the next 15 months. One was a win over Doug Jones who a year later would give a young Cassius Clay all he could handle in Ring Magazines fight of the year. Your final defense was in Berlin against the European champ Germany’s Bubi Scholz. He had only lost once in 92 fights. HJ: The people there were very nice to me. I got my largest payday which was $50,000. Scholz was a southpaw and as good as most of the American light heavyweights I fought. I won a unanimous decision. KH: I understand Scholz came to the US years later with an offer for you. HJ: He shows up in a Rolls Royce. Takes me to Bookbinders for lunch and writes me a $300.00 check. He then asks me to come to Germany and train some fighters for him. I had to decline. He was real nice about it. KH: It was a year before you would fight Willie Pastrano. He had fought to a draw with Moore the previous year. What happened in the Pastrano fight? HJ: In my dressing room before the fight my manager’s (Pat Olivieri of Pat’s Steaks) wife tells my wife “Harold better win by a knockout for there is no return clause.” Well in those days if a champ lost he always got a return match. The only thing I want to say is Pastrano was a pretty good boxer. I think Jacobs told you the rest. KH: Harold, how do you think you would have done with Roy Jones, Jr.? HJ: I probably could have knocked him out, if I could have caught up with him. KH: Michael Spinks after becoming champ said he never heard of you. HJ: I had neighbors who said I wasn’t champ. Can you believe it?
Great post- (Bump) Also, imagine being his neighbour and talking down to him like “Yeah bud on ya champ” lol
“I didn’t want that fight. I didn’t want to fight Harold Johnson. They had to pay me a lot of money to fight that animal.” – Willie Pastrano “Man, I just got lucky, that’s all. After each round I’d say ‘Well, I’m still here. Thank God.’” – Willie Pastrano
Bernard Hopkins sought him out though, tracked him down, begged for some glimpses. Johnson in turn had done something similar with Tommy Loughran. So the chain runs back. One day some super-Slovakian will probably track down an ancient, grumpy Bernard Hopkins.
Harold was a real nice man. I visited him multiple times in the Veterans home he lived in befor his death. I would bring his fight DVD's and play them in the community room. So humble and still physically fit he was. His nephew worked with me at a PAL at one time. Same physique only smaller 160 lbs. Heck of a gene pool in that family
I love how in boxing open ears are more often then not met with the knowledge they want. Old men are very welcoming to young fighters I spent nearly three hours with a mysterious 90+ year old lightweight who took an interest in me because he heard I liked Floyd Patterson.
