Some fresh 70's LHW footage - Jerry Martin and Mike Rossman (at 160 pounds!)

Jerry the Bull fought in a golden era of LHW. He fought Eddie Mustafa Muhummad for title and then fought Mathew Saad Muhummad and Dwight Braxton in back to back title shots. Talk about difficult fights. Like Yaqui Lopez definitely would have being champ today.

 

Although Martin's ability wasn't very high on a technical scale his strength and pressure were. I wonder if he would be able to walk down and defeat any of the current 175 lb champs. Thoughts?

 

I was a HUGE James Scott fan back in the late 70s - when Martin beat him soundly, it was a shock. Scott had an insane training regime, but then again, why not? What else was there to do in prison 24/7? Between that and his skill set, I thought he was an uncrowned champion ... but lacking decent sparring partners, and the fact for all intents and purposes he'd never see the outside again, the handwriting was on the wall and there was scant reason to go on much farther. Per Wikipedia, he was released in 2005 and, suffering from dementia, lives in a nursing home in New Jersey. Sad end to another warrior ...

 

Johnson was a champion in his own era. I think he’d probably have a pretty similar career today.

 

Would have loved to have seen him fight the best light heavies of the current era. I don't think he would be a dominant champion if he were around today though. He'd be undersized today and had some traits that could be exploited with a proper game plan. That being said, I think he had the toughness, work rate, and power to test and potentially expose virtually any 175lber.