Jack Johnson's Weight...

I believe by 1915, against Jesse Willard in Cuba, Jack Johnson was in the 220's and a tad soft in the girth area.... Even though reports claim that Jack Johnson was woefully out-of-shape, I don't really buy that line of crap at all... To me, based on the film footage, Johnson still looked in good fighting shape, despite the dozen or so added pounds on his frame.... AND! No fat slob goes 26 rds out in the Cuban heat in the middle of July.... However, all in all, Jack Jonson was in good fighting shape in his prime when he was between 208 to 213 pounds..... Cheers....

MR.BILL

 

Johnson weighed 205 1/2 lbs when he defended agianst Ketchel,he has a wash board stomach in that fight ,two sources ,including Fleischer's Book have him the same weight for the Willard fight ,but he has a roll of fat around his hips and looks padded in the arse region.The haeviest he weighed for a title defence was 221lbs aginst Moran ,you can see he is fat in that fight.

 

Doesn't look small to me.

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Well, like many old timers, people have a mental picture of them being bigger because of smaller opposition. Holyfield, the "natural cruiserweight", was bigger for most of his fights and Johnson was every bit as big as the "gigant, big bear" Sonny Liston.

 

He was called the Galveston Giant for a reason, he was huge for his era

 

Johnson was slightly over 6 feet and around 200 when in top shape.He had a 40 inch chest and 15 biceps ,his reach was shorter than Tommy Burns.Liston was 6 foot Iin ,had a 44 inch chest 16 inch biceps and an 84 inch reach ,plus his best weight was 212. Liston was not over tall but his dimensions were those of a much larger man.

 

Yep, all dimensions were, except the ones that really count, i.e. height and weight, in which he was about the same as Johnson and Frazier.

 

I always thought there ws something wrong with the listed measurement of Johnson's reach ... his arms do not look short in any photos I have seen and he has no problem hitting the much larger Willard time and again with his jab ...

He was definately close to 230 for the Willard bout. He has a clear gut and handle bars when against Ketchell he was completely cut ... Johnson was a master at pacing himself and had exceptional stamina ... if you watch the Wilard fight he actually fought at an accelerated pace ... the fact that he beat on Jess for the first 20 rounds at age 37 in the heat was a marvelous performance and it was noted as such in the papers that covered the fight .

 

I don't see the height argument but weight has merit ..

 

One is an exhibition of strength, the other strength training ....

 

The weight argument has merit because nutrition affects your height. That is why around the the turn of the century when nutrition was generally much poorer than it is today the average height was several inches shorter. So, consequently by that argument Johnson may very well have been a much taller, and in fact larger man today than he was in his era... and he was a pretty marvelous specimen regardless.

 

Definitely. Johnson today would be 225-230 cut.