Johnson vs the following in 1911 and 1912

It never happened because Johnson was scared to give him a rematch. Sam was only 20 years old when they fought. The revisionists forget that Johnson was quite adept at drawing the color line when it suited him.

 

Actually, there is a very good argument tha the opposite is true.

We know that Johnson was allowed to grab clinch and wrestle during his fights. We dont know how the others would react if these rules apply. We also dont know how most of the others react to gloves that are the size that Johnson used, or the hand taping allowed at the time, etc.

A fair fight requires all fighters to be able to use all of their ****nal. Johsnon will be bringing things to the fight that the others havent seen (possible exception of Dempsey). Frazier for example will be doing nothing that JOhnson hasnt seen. Fans of frazier need to make the leap of faith that he is just that much better than johnson because of evolution and he will be able to react and counter the clinching, deal with the different gloves etc.

 

Swarmers won't beat Johnson. Again an awesome ATG with unparalleled skills is completely underrated here.

In close Johnson is not clinching or holding. He is controlling his opponents. His opponents are free to punch. Holding was illegal back in those days even more so than today. Look to the comments of the ref of Johnsons filmed bout with Flynn.

 

Only 20 ,with 60 fights under his belt, considerably more than Johnson.
Johnson was getting $30,000 to defend against the likes of Jim Flynn because the White public wanted him fighting White challengers,he obliged them.

 

Perry makes an interesting comment about the clinch in Johnson's day. Perhaps clinch is the wrong word for what Johnson was unparalled at. Look at any picture of Johnson in fights. His hands were always on the inside of his opponents (allowing him to protect himself). He always grabbed the biceps of his opponents, when in close. This means that the opponent was prevented from throwing proper blows and (shock and horror) combinations. A fighter cannot throw a 5 punch combination if his opponent has hold of his hands. By contrast though, from this position, Johnson is in prime position to release one of the arms and land his uppercut. This is what made johnson so good. It doesnt even really matter (not that Johnson usually was) if his opponent had the advantage in size and strength because with his hands in the inside position All fighters will have the potency of their blows greatly reduced.

MY point is that this is a skill that the more modern fighters are not trained to fight against. You cant throw 6 punch combos if your arms are tied up. The strapping alone prevents effective tying up. Effectively, this tactic is stopped through conditions. In a combined fight, it must be allowed, meaning the modern fighters have a huge obstacle to overcome.

To take things further, if John Jackson was to be brought into the equation, i dare say that his Cudgel or sword would give him a pretty big advantage over Jack Johnson or any other fighter of more modern times.

Taht is the point i was making.

 

What Johnson did was rest his gloves on the sides/backs of his opponents arms at close quarters. Nothing prevented his opponents from throwing punches but Johnson in this position took away their leverage. Johnson was really a master of blocking punches to his head in close from this position also. In between he would counter with left and right uppercuts. At distance he had that great jab and if he wanted movement. One needs to better understand boxing AND jJohnson before stating all he did was hold or clinch. Holding was very illegal in his day and as a hated black man you know he would have been penalized in indeed his tactics involved holding.

 

Sorry, but you ar wrong about him not grabbing the biceps. There are quite a few still shots of him doing exactly this. I am pretty sure he commented on this quite a bit. He definitely comments on the importance of hand placements and positioning.

Much of what else you say is correct though. I dont believe anyone has ever said that he "only" clinches.

One of the interesting things he did share is that in his opinion the secret of the old 1-2 is that it is not a straight left right, but it is in fact a strike to the solar plexus folled by an upper cut, almost with the one blow. That combination, he once said, was his best punch.

 

The only known photo of Johnson and Langford together. I think you will agree there is a discernible size disparity.

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Once again......holding was illegal in Johnsons day. As hated as Johnson was he would have been disqualified many times if what he was doing was classified as holding. As per the ref of his bout with Flynn...."Johnson was not holding. Flynns arms were free to punch". If you watch this bout indeed this was the case. Flynn did try to punch to the body but could gain no leverage as Johnson controled his opponents arms and body leverage. From this position Johnson could sense when punches were being thrown to his head and neatly block them. Also finding photos of Johnson holding an opponents bicep does not mean Johnson was holding his opponents over the course of rounds. He would have been disqualified many times if indeed he was breaking the rules. How many times was Johnson DQed for holding during his career?

 

Johnson habitually held his opponents biceps and squeezed them with his powerful hands, he was known for it.
In Johnson's time fighters were often asked if they wanted to agree to ."clean breaks by the referee",or "to fight their way out of clinches" ie everyman for himself.
The underlined can be put into perspective this way.
Fritzie Zivic was one of the dirtiest fighters that ever entered a ring. In a career total of 233 fights , he was never DSQ'D.

 

Holding was illegal in Johnsons day. Please look at the comments of the ref of Johnsons second bout with Flynn. A black hwt champion was not going to win many fights fighting with illegal tactics.

 

Please read Adam Pollack's excellent two volumes on Jack Johnson.1.The Rise 2.The Reign.