I have not seen combinations in the filmed evidence of the oughts and teens that come close to those of Louis'. In Johnson, I see a lot of holding and hitting (not a bad strategy as he was a strong ******* and many of his opponents were spindly little things), a lot of front to back defensive movement (again not bad when your opponents are so small), low punch output (perhaps a given for 25 or 45 round fights) and some of the silliest feints ever...On the positive side, he had a nice lead right, great uppercut and sterling reflexes.
But the reality is that Louis learned everything he knew from Jack Blackburn. There was nothing in his arsenal that Blackburn or Gans or Langford would not have seen before.
pfff, he was ok for the 30s. some rando named schmeling beat him with a right hand, earnie shavers had a harder right hand, therefore shavers knocks him out cold jokes aside i see both sides of the argument. i think boxing took a strong turn towards combination punching, multi layered defense (less reliance on clinching), shift in stance and footwork in the 20s and 30s. not to say better but more "modern". still, combination punching and footwork have stood the test of time so they can't be entirely bad changes
debatable? Better defence? Stronger? Harder puncher? Faster hands at hw? Bigger? No of these points is debatable,johnson was better fighter.
I think Charles' results at HW are to be respected. My thought is that I'd like to see how effective Johnson's legendary defense against someone of Charles' caliber. Also, I do contest the "faster hands at HW" claim. Ezzard was plenty fast all-around, and was a technical master. Ezzard Charles is regarded as the greatest LHW ever, beating just about everyone, then becomes the second black HW champ ever, fighting and beating some of the best there as well... I don't buy the "better fighter" stuff. Just my opinion.