Oakland Billy Smith knocking Harold Johnson cold in two rounds

Awesome! Yeah, my thoughts exactly after watching this. Smith took two very hard jabs from Johnson before dropping the bomb. Very impressive. Great stuff.

 

Nice Power

 

Burley looks better and better...Very nice to finally see this. Smith looks like he carries very serious power. I know this is an understatement, but you can see him really trying to time that right hand towards the end of the first round, he threw two really hard right hands near the end of the round...he must have seen he could time Johnson, and he was bringing that left hand back a little low.

How would you guys(especially the old timers) characterize Smith's power compared to other light heavies?

Addendum: Thanks for posting!!!

 

Excellent stuff..thanks so much for this.

I like how Smith feints with his shoulders at the end there to set up that right. Shapes up to do everything but throw that right upstairs and then BOOM!! baby.

 

never saw a KO in clinch like that

 

Smith is a huge puncher, I'm thinking he would be the hardest puncher of his Light Heavyweight era. For pure punching power definitly, on composite power probably not because a certain Archie Moore was around.

That sort of one punch power is very rare, as Harold Johnson was anything but 'chinny' he was fairly solid and very hard to KO, yet Smith can cold-**** him with one right hand. Superb.

Thanks for upping this McGrain

 

One mistake can cost you badly against a puncher like Oakland Billy Smith, or 'Boardwalk' Billy as he was called at this point in his career. Harold Johnson had survived Bob Satterfield's biggest bombs, but a single right hand from Smith put him down for the count.

Harold turned a weakness into a strength later on in his career as he was near impossible to hit with right hands by the 1960's, which the hard-hitting Doug Jones found out. He missed a ton of rights. That's the thing about a technician like Harold Johnson, you may beat him once, but you're going to have to come up with some new tricks in order to beat him again because he will surely be prepared for whatever you beat him with the first time. It's unlikely that Smith would have found a homerun right like that the second time around.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8xqtIkXsk[/ame]

3:20

 

It's unlikely smith would have even won a round the 2nd time vs Johnson. He got extremley lucky the first time in all honesty. Some people(not you) don't realize how great Harold Johnson was. Just as good as Charley Burley, and one of the best technicians of all time. Harold would have given Marciano all he could handle plus more around 54-55. Patterson wanted no part of johnson, that's a dangerous fight for him in the late 50s.

 

I wouldn't say he necessarily got better but in his mid 30's he had to make up for the loss of athleticism with greater skill and experience. No one knocked him out post-Oakland Billy Smith, not including the foreign substances that KO'd him against Mederos...

 

I think putting him on par with someone like Burley is a step too far. Personally, I think he is one of those 'second tier' greats who were solid champions but never quite reached the illustrious heights of their peers, I think the Archie Moore series of fights demonstrated this.

But I do agree he was one of the best technicians of all time, a joy to watch. There is no doubting Smith got lucky, but he saw the opening, threw the right and it landed. He made his own luck and with power like that all you need is a small opening to do serious damage.

Charles was his prime performance IMO, closely followed by the Doug Jones bout.

 

Moore did stop him though, with right hands over the left jab. Two consecutive fights where the same weakness was exploited.