How good was Jack Johnson?

The issue is the size of his opponents and his only stops in title fights being old Jeffries and Ketchel(a MW). Of the black big three he only KO'd McVea. The list of names themselves is fine, great even in the context of the period. Fitz, Jeffries, Burns, Langford, Jeanettex5, McVeax3. The issues more these guys were too old, this guy was too young, these guys were a MW, these fights were draws.

Theres also the fact he remained champ until mid 1915 and he doesn't add any wins to his resume from that era except Moran and Cowler(post belt). He beats Jeffries coming out of retirement, beats Flynn who he already beat and draws Jim Johnson whose maybe the 5th black HW in the world if Wills isn't there yet.

 

I think Johnson was definitely great, exactly as he was for his time and, with due modifications to his style, I think he had all the natural abilities to succeed well in later eras.

Imo, an opinion many hold, Johnson rarely went full throttle (per written reports and per the vision) and guys like Burns and Ketchel, if not carried, could’ve been put out in 1-2 rounds, and Jeffries as early as 5 rounds.

So, while Jack might lose points for the quality of his titular comp, he could’ve scored far more empathic and outstanding results against several of them if he was so inclined.

In many ways, I think carrying and absolutely controlling an opponent, as Johnson did, is a lot more difficult and perilous than simply getting them out of there as soon as you possibly can.

Johnson made his “carries” look incredibly easy, such were overall skills and consequential
ability to dominate with ease.

However, it is true that Johnson’s best work came before the title and looking at his carved, pre title physical appearance - Johnson was a consummately conditioned and well tuned fighter - though an undernourished fighter in the earlier stages of his career.

When KO’d by Choynski in 1901 - a green Johnson likely weighed little more than Choynski himself (around 170 lbs) - despite parity in weight, it was far worse for Johnson given that he was obviously the naturally bigger man and acutely under fed.

Eight long years later, by 1909, with the title and more $$$ in hand, Johnson was a rock solid 205 lbs or so - a weight he carried perfectly.

 

Nat Fleischer ranked him #1 All-Time, and he saw Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. Personally, I do not rank Jack Johnson that high, but neither do I dismiss Nat Fleischer's opinion off-hand.