Jack Johnson vs Jack Dempsey

Much of Johnsons skills were not recognised because he 'played' with opponents, as his skillset was often so superior, wheras Dempsey went out there to seek and destroy opponents.

Johnson in his prime had skills and was a damned strong guy, if Johnson was focused upon beating his opponent rather than taunting him and or the crowd, then it a 50/50 fight against Dempsey, if however not then while Johnson was taunting, Dempsey would be punching with murderous intent.

 

Johnson was great at standing flat footed in front of a much smaller flat footed opponent and parrying punches and holding, grabbing, and clinching. I realize that. But, that isn’t going to work on a guy that has side to side movement and isn’t flat footed and has speed and savage power.

 

Tell that to James J Jeffries

 

There is a rumour that a washed Johnson fought a prime Dempsey and was schooling him but got stopped late on
Edit : Johnson dropped Dempsey in the 5th but got ko’d in the 7th, Johnson was 43 Dempsey was 27

 

johnson on point since dempsey have iron chin & johnson didn't have KO POWER.

dempsey can't break johnson's old stlye defense.

 

That's funny because Johnson faced plenty of big strong guys and yet he dominated them. If you really believe that Johnson was good only because he faced small and flat footed opponents, then sorry to say that but you are wrong.

 

Johnson could hit when he wanted to.Not many stopped McVey.Jack floored Jeannette multiple time in their series.

 

The average weight of Johnson's challengers was the highest up until Louis lost the title.

 

In all the fights between Mcvea, Jeannette and Langford, who were not close to prime ( You count them, there must be at least 10 fights between them and Johnson ) Johnson only stopped the teenaged Sam Mcvea in the 20th round when he was exhausted. If memory serves, he fell off his stool. That's it. It was an attrition based stoppage vs. a green teenager. Something to hang your hat high on, eh?

Johnson was not a puncher. When he faced good opponents closer to their primes, such as Choynski, Griffin, or Hart, what happened? He failed to hurt any of them. They beat him. Of course, you can watch him unload on Burns for many rounds, or hit and do nothing to Willard. He couldn't even finish a bum like Ross ( Who hurt him ), or a skilless hack like Kaufman.

 

Dempsey would be way to dangerous for Johnson and if he tried to hold Dempsey he would get his body ripped to pieces. Dempsey by ko some time in the early rounds

 

He wasnt prime for any of those fights particulalry the Choynski Griffin fights,and he floored Griffin which you obviously didnt know.He carried both Ross and Kaufman as the reports show.

• Following the bout, Referee Eddie Smith said: "Johnson outfought, outhit and outgeneraled Kaufman all through the fight."
• A well-known San Francisco sporting authority was asked after the fight how Jim Jeffries, the retired former World Heavyweight Champion, would do against Johnson. He replied: "Jeffries will do well to stay in retirement. Johnson would probably leave the ring with his championship laurels. Johnson, in his battle with Kaufman, proved he is a master of the boxing game. There never was a time in the entire contest when the Californian had a chance. He was simply a chopping block for the champion."

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"Little Al Kaufman".lol6'1"191lbs

Johnson floored Ross for a 9 count in the1st rd and for 8 in the 3rd.
Ross 214lbs .

Johnson finished the Hart fight unmarked Hart#s face was described as "looking like a raw steak".maybe it was the referee hitting him?lol

You've got it bad fella!

 

Being "big and strong" doesn't mean you can fight. How well did that work out for Jess Willard against Dempsey for example? A lot of Johnson's opponents were shorter than him. Many of these same opponents were also flat footed plodders with little skill(s). Dempsey was the opposite of this. Johnson is a significant figure in Heavyweight history. Significance wise he is at the top or near the top. What he was able to accomplish with the current social structure at the time was significant and should not be overlooked by anyone. That is different than a head to head match up with Dempsey or any other Heavyweight Champion after Johnson. Johnson was great at what he did but those attributes would simply not work on any Heavyweight that has the skills and attributes of a Dempsey, Ali, Tyson, etc. Johnson would be target practice for someone with foot and head movement, hand speed, and power. His clinching, grabbing, holding, and wresting simply wouldn't work very well in that scenario.

 

The clinching would work more well against smaller men. Aka dempsey. That would wear him down . either way its a toss up fight in my opinion

 

How are you going to clinch a moving target? Think about this.....

 

Clinching a moving target that comes forward duh . Dempsey wasn't a target moving backwards . even side to side Johnson would calculate it well as soon as dempsey got near