1. KO 15 James Jeffries 2. W 15 Sam Langford 3. KO 20 Sam McVea 4. W 15 Joe Jeanette 5. KO 12 Stanley Ketchel
On flim, I would say Burns and Jeffries were his best by a wide margin. He looked suspect vs. Moran, and did not do much with Ketchel or Flynn. Johnson looks decent vs. Willard, but then again Willard had zero defense, and pretty much just stood there throwing very few punches for the early rounds.
He looked pretty good against Flynn I thought. The fight lacked a decisive end though because of Flynn's ridiculous fouling. In their first fight Johnson knocked Flynn out cold after Flynn hurled a racial slur at him. Look at Johnson peppering Flynn with jabs around the 50 second mark: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFWA5xjJ0-4[/ame]
What other heavyweight great gets two middleweights, two guys with less than 10 fights and a completely washed up ex-champ as their top 5 wins? It's an appallingly poor resume.
Flynn was a joke. He offered zero besides using his head. This was a sham of a title match when others like Langford, Jeanette, Mcvey, and company were not given a chance. The result should be DQ, not TKO/KO.
I actually think Johnson looks quite superior at times. It's just that he's superior to some pretty thin competition. As much as I love Langford, he was a junior middle at the time of their fight. And if the retort to this argument is that Johnson was a mere 185 pounder, then don't count it as a heavyweight victory.
The great middleweight Tommy Ryan was Jim Flynn's trainer for this fight but he ended up being disgusted at Flynn who felt he could win the title by fouling and get away with it. You have to admit that Flynn did have a rather decent career up until this fight. Flynn ended up being knocked out by Luther McCarthy after this and was downgraded to a journeyman for the rest of his career.
Jack Johnson could fight and orchestrate a jazz band: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ntK49v_5g[/ame] If only all footage of him was as good in quality as the clip at 1:20.
He was a rough and tough customer. Obviously nowadays no one will impressed by his skills aside from the fact that he was about the only fighter who truly kept his guard up in those days. Flynn was not shy at hitting and holding, headbutting and elbowing his opponents in a ruthless manner. He could do well in today's MMA. Speaking of MMA, Johnson's mannerisms remind me of MMA fighter Anderson Silva for those who have followed the sport.
Alledgedly. And if so, it speaks volumes of the era. Can we just consider the heavyweight division beginning with Tunney?