Was Harold Johnson unfairly not ranked at heavyweight?

Johnson certainly put the work in to deserve a ranking at heavyweight.

Unfortunately the NBA was against double ranking a fighter and even today the rating authorities aren't crazy about double ranking a fighter. Moore was an exception and even so it took years of Moore appealing to any media organization that would listen and fighting and beating every heavyweight he could until the NBA eventually gave in and gave him a heavyweight ranking without having him drop his light heavyweight status.

Here is a piece on the NBA giving him is heavyweight ranking after beating both Nino Valdez and Bobo Olson in 1955.

"Light heavyweight champion Archie Moore was rated today as the only logical contender for Rocky Marciano's heavy-weight title in quarterly ratings released by the National Boxing association.

The ratings declared neither Moore nor featherweight king Sandy Saddler has a logical contender.Fred Saddy, Milwaukee, chairmen of the NBA rating committee, said NBA was deviating from a longstanding policy by giving Moore a double rating. Usually NBA restricts a fighter's rating to one division."
https://imgur.com/uiBdMch

Here is another piece on how far Archie Moore went to get recognition for being the Logical contender for Marciano's title. This was in Late 1954 after Archie Moore stopped Harold Johnson.

The Case For Archie Moore

It isn't very often that a professional boxer taxes his case directly to the people. In our time working stiff of the beak-busting trade has become a piece of equipment used by managers, promoters, syndicates and sometimes thugs to pull their chestnuts out of the fire.

Of all the athletes around today, the pro pug has least to say about what he does and when he does it and we include those poor peons who are subject to baseball's reserve clause. Maybe that's a major reason why good fighters are getting so hard to find.

Archie Moore, the aging but agile light heavyweight champion, has probably taken his share of shoving around, too but it must be chalked up in his favor that he knows that he knows it and doesn't like it.

Seems that Moore has gained something of a rep a a maverick among the manipulators of the game; it must be so, because Archie has been the butt of one of the most elaborate run-arounds since the Marquis of Queensbury wrote his rule-book. At a time when the heavyweight division is supposedly groping for something that can be a logical "contender", the wiseacres look right past Moore at any oaf who can find his way into the ring.

Yet Archie has come close to cleaning up the field of "logical contenders" without ever getting a shot at the big bauble.

So, Moore (or his ghost-writer) is taking the case to the public, in hope that the resulting clamor will force the hand of boxing rulers. Here's the message that's being mailed and wired to sports editors all over the nation:

"I believe I am the only logical contender to fight Marciano for the heavyweight title. I believe Rocky knows this and I am certain his manager does. But Al Weill continues to talk about Marciano fighting either Valdez or C**kell. I took a decision from Valdes, winning nine of the ten rounds. C**kell won't get into the ring with me."

"That's why I need your help. It seems that the only way I can possibly get a fight with Marciano is through the support of the sports writers throughout the country. And I solemnly promise I will make every effort to justify your support."

"I am willing to fight Cockell, Valdes and then Marciano within a sixty day period. Not sixty days apart or six months between fights but all three of them within sixty days."

"Normally, I am a heavyweight. yes, it is still possible for me to make the light heavyweight limit, but as you know, it was necessary for me to work several hours on the morning of the day when I last fought Maxim in order to come in at 175 lb. For the Johnson fight I took off seven pounds in the last 36 hours. I was working hard but my weight didn't start to break until that time. I came in at 173 lb. for that fight. When I knocked out Bob Baker a couple of months ago, I weighed 190 lb. and felt like a
million dollars."

"In the record book I have lost two fights in the last six years - one was a decision to Johnson in Milwaukee. After this decision, I beat Johnson twice, knocking him out in the last fight. The other record book loss was to Clint Bacon on an unintentional foul. In a rematch I knocked out Bacon. In these last six years I have beaten Abel Cestac (224 lbs), heavyweight champion of Argentina; Karl Sys (200 lb.), heavyweight champion of Belgium; Clarence Henry, Jimmy Slade, Jimmy Bivins, Harold Johnson, Valdes, Bob Satterfield and many others. Boardwalk Billy Smith, the current light heavyweight contender, jumped out of the ring in the middle of the eighth round while I was fighting him in Portland, Oregon. He said he'd rather quit than absorb the punishment I was handing out."

"I beg you to take my case to your readers because it is only through you that they can help me fight with Marciano. In my heart I know that I can beat him.

Respectfully,
(Signed) Archie Moore"

There's the case for Archie, and whether you're a Moore fan or not, you'll have to admit it contains more than a smidgin of logic. You'll also have to admit that this propaganda campaign is a pretty caggy move.

Whether the ring czars care to admit it or not, boxing belongs to a lot of people these days. Gone is the time when the only persons to be satisfied were the ones with the price of a ticket; boxing owes its continued existence to the TV audience more than to the one at ringside.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a silly idea to let the public vote for logical contenders just as it votes for the major league all-star teams. O'l John Q. couldn't do a such sorrier job of it then the jokers who now have the last word.
https://imgur.com/bTY3HiR

 

Should I watch Harold Johnson's fight against Willie Pastrano?

 

People still speculate that Marciano was ducking Valdez.

The reality is, that he was expecting to fight Valdez next, and then Moore overturned the applecart!