How does Langford, McVea or Joe J do in place of Johnson vs. Burns. There's talk about Burns not being in good shape by a few select people, so instead of this thread getting bogged down with that nonsense... let's assume Burns is at his best.
Sam McVey was scheduled to fight Burns, but the promoters switched the opponent to Johnson. Assuming McVey won, he might not have picked Johnson for a title defense. If Burns won, he might not have risked another though fight vs Johnson for many years. You could say had Hart beaten Burns, Johnson never gets a lineal title shot, because Hart had already beaten him however, we would have seen Johnson's true abilities tested as the Jeannette, Langford and McVey were so smaller, younger, and greener when Johnson beat them to put it mildly.
Okay, but if each of these guys had gotten a title shot instead of Johnson. How do you see these fights going? We don't need to turn this into a thread about what Johnson did or didn't do. I'm only asking how you see these fights going and who wins?
Burns had basically milked the title for as long as he could, and he decided to cash out against one of the top black contenders. Yes he would have fought to win, but if he had got past one of them, he would probably just have cashed out against another. Apart from Johnson, the person most likely to get a fight against him was McVea. Personally I find it hard to see Burns beating McVea. Either way Johnson was waiting in the wings, and he was probably not going to be denied.
Maybe I framed my question wrong... I'm simply asking... How does the best version of Burns do against these three men. So it's burns vs. 1. McVea 2. Langford 3. Joe J It's not, he fights McVea first and if he wins, what would he do. I'm basically asking. If these three had gotten a shot at Burns, how would those fights have gone.
I suspect that McVea would just have crushed him. The guy was a wrecking ball, and he was knocking over rated men. Sam Langford was still gaining his feet at heavyweight, and had not beaten anybody genuinely elite in that weight class yet, so Burns probably has a fair chance. Jeanette getting into his stride at heavyweight, a little bit faster than Langford at this point. He was still a work in progress however, and might have been better for Burns stylistically, so again Burns has a fair chance. The big money was always likely to be with Johnson or McVea at this point however.
I think I'm right in saying Burns was only stopped by Johnson? Therefore I can't envisage Jeanette getting a stoppage, but might have had enough of an outside game to keep the much smaller man on the end of his jab and point Burns, but at the same time would have been lacking in the experience department at this point. Burns certainly gets a little overlooked in terms of his ability in the ring, probably due to lack of footage Langford was a deviatating puncher, but was still yet to find his best form. Although he has a chance to stop Burns, I'm not sure I could make him a heavy favourite. I think Janitor's already summed up how I feel about this one. McVea would match Johnson in becoming the first man to stop Burns assuming he didn't just try and bum rush him the way Hart did.
