Johnson has the tools to diffuse Tyson; great physical strength, anticipation and a right uppercut which is probably underrated in terms of power. The danger with Tyson is the manner in which he put his punches together, the angles he created. However, I think this worked best against retreating boxers. Johnson generally stood his ground with most of his weight on the back foot. He would lean back from a Tyson hook and initiate clinches as did Evander, causing him to fight clunky. Tyson could always denote something special but single-shot saviours are rare. I think he would find it difficult to set Johnson up who was a powerful spoiler. He had just the right kind of style to make Tyson fly off the rails with some Jim Flynn-esque butting. He would feed off his frustration and start to catch him more often. Johnson via points or a late stoppage.
Did he love fighting aggressive swarmers who threw lethal combinations with speed and power? Ones who used excellent head movement and foot work to avoid punches and create angles? Ones who had 220 lbs of muscle and were physically stronger than him?
Conversely Tyson never beat any fighter with the ATG skills of Johnson. Johnson in his prime has the skill set to beat any other hwt champion before or since. Impenetrable defense inside or from distance. How quickly will Mike mentally implode in this one?
Exactly against whom were these ATG skills of Johnson displayed? Exactly against whom was his defense impenetrable? Again, show me the combo puncher half as good as Tyson that he defeated. It's a lot easier blocking telegraphed single shots than wicked fast combos. But again, you would know this. You have actually been in a boxing gym unlike the rest of us rubes.
Yes but Johnson's cooking skills doesn't have allot to do with boxing. When it comes to boxing Johnson is beyond primitive.
Untrue. One of Boxings greatest jabs, best at feinting, blocking, parrying. As per Fleischer who knew him well and sat and ringside for his bouts Johnson was the "brainiest" of all hwt champions. Unlike Tyson, Johnson grew up and lived in an era where you had to be the toughest of the tough to rise to the top. There were no social programs that made life easier. You could not "fake it" and expect to survive life let alone win fights. Our modern society rarely makes men like Jack Johnson anymore. Truely a product of his time.
There is nothing primitive about Johnson. He probably developed economy of effort, to a level that no other heavyweight champion ever matched. That is the very essence of ring science.
Johnson's defence may have looked invulnerable against the overmatched smaller and journeymen fighters he defended against, but it was never tested against anything remotely like the power, accuracy and speed that Tyson would bring. Tyson by KO.
Here we go! Johnsons defence was not only proven against smaller journeyman fighters. Many of his opponents were bigger than him, and many were legitimately elite fighters. Just because the selection of available film is mostly of smaller opponents, does not mean that this is all that he fought. He would not have seen anything like Tyson, but guess what? Nobody has, unless they have actually fought Tyson. That doesnt mean that he beats everybody.
:deal This is the bottom line. Absurd that the folks who want to pretend that boxing never evolved after 1910 won't acknowledge this basic, undeniable fact.