What was the story with Heavyweight John Holman '47-'57?

My dad was telling me about Johnny Holman when i was a kid. I've even got a pic of him somewhere in old photos where my Pops took a pic of him in training. By what my Dad had said, I garner he was a good hitter but maybe on the slow side. If there was footage maybe we'd all have a better idea what he brought to the table. His Apex was when he was included in the box-offs for the vacant crown when Rocky retired. The actual lineup was Patterson v Jackson and Bob Baker v Holman with the respective winners meeting to decide who fights Moore. But apparently the Baker-Holman fight was dull and rather than proceed with Patterson-Baker, they just dropped Baker and matched Patterson against Moore. The issue here was these bouts were put together word of mouth rather than contractually like the '68 tournament. So basically, Baker got screwed.

 

When Marciano retired Holman was one of the 6 finalists to succeed him with Patterson, Moore, Jackson, Baker and Parker. They didn't have a tournament per say but a series of eliminators culminating in Patterson v Moore being recognized for the title. Holman lost the first of these eliminators to Bob Baker.

Holman was in this group because he'd stopped Satterfield(who'd beaten him twice prior) right after Satterfield beat Valdes. Before that win he was rated 4th by the Ring magazine at the end of 1955 though this was his only appearence in Rings top 10.

At 6 ft 3 Holman was the 3rd biggest top HW of this small era after Parker and Nino Valdes and while Holman finished only 10 wins above .500 his SOS was very high. Remember making a HW top 20 for the 50s and while I don't remember where exactly I rated him Holman easily made that list.

 

They had Baker fight Jackson in another elim after the ref had dissented in Patterson-Jackson. The ref would also be the dissenting voice in this fight which Jackson won. Jackson then got his rematch with Patterson and got shutout. Baker started losing killing whatever claim he might have otherwise retained from this.

Part of why these tournaments aren't discussed much is they often became a mess.

The 20s tournament to find Tunneys final opponent was decided by draws and the one to find his successor ended in Schmeling v Sharkey I.

The 40s had a more straight forward 4 man tournament(with Walcott getting a by) but because the Kahut v Maxim fight was seen as a universial robbery you had the loser(Maxim) advance to the final.

 

“Now let me tell you about a heavyweight I had named Johnny Holman back in the fifties. Holman was just about ready for the scrap heap when he came to see me in Miami. The first thing I did was make him feel like a human being. I gave him a new nickname, ‘Big Jawn.’ Every time he walked in the gym, I yelled ‘Hey Big Jawn, you’re lookin’ great.’ I got everybody to say it until he started to believe it.

Well, surprisingly, Holman started winning and gaining new confidence every fight. And now he started talking about his dream house he always wanted to buy. I finally got him a good payday for fighting Ezzard Charles, the ex champion in 1955. Charles still figured to beat Holman easy. They made him eight-to-one. And ol’ Ezzard was giving him a boxing lesson early in the fight and I could see Holman’s ready to toss in the towel.

I almost have to prop him up in the corner, but now I’m yelling in his ear, ‘You’re letting that old man steal your dream house. He’s already taken the shutters and the doors.’ Well ‘Big Jawn’ got the message. He goes out that next round like a tiger, and damned if he didn’t knock out Charles in the ninth round.”

- Angelo Dundee


Enjoy the quote my friend, I know I did.

 

This thread jogged the old memory on Angelo Dundee. It was quite some time ago (1974 to be exact) and the Foreman-Ali fight was looming. Back then everyone (except for me) was saying Foreman is a monster and he was going to kill the old man. Well, this one night I'm watching this local talk show in my town called Kup's Show (moderated by Irv Kupcinet), who would invite visiting celebrities on to the show for "the lively art of conversation." And a couple of his guests this night were Angelo Dundee (don't know why Angie was in town) and actor Jan Murray (possibly in town doing dinner theater). Anyways, remember, back then everyone knew something about boxing and big fights were all over the papers so everyone had an opinion. When asked why he thought Ali was going to beat this invincible structure called Foreman, Dundee said, "Listen, I took over training Johnny Holman years ago and we signed to fight Bob Satterfield and I told everyone who would listen that Holman was going to knock out Bob. Everyone thought I was crazy because Satterfield had knocked out Johnny twice already. But I trained him specifically for the fight and Holman knocked him out. I know what I'm talking about. Believe me when I say, Muhammad Ali is going to knock out George Foreman." With that, Jan Murray lets out a loud chuckle. Dundee just gave a stoic glance of the eyes towards him. I'm sure he wanted to say, "Hey, go read some lines that someone else wrote!"

Sorry for being wordy. That memory has been stuck there with no where to go until now.

 

Thats why i think boxing is mainly a mental game the fight starts in your head, dundee probably gave jawn the will to win with that speech "all or nothing its you or me"

 

Thats interesting, the trainers are a big role in a fighters career if there was a trainer today that could mold fighters styles temporary for certain opponents there would be more champions

 

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Angelo Dundee understood the mental game more than most.

He had a couple of simple but imo powerful rules:

1) “I only talk winning.” He pumped his boys with confidence and talked about how they would win, why they would win and what would happen when they would win. The power of positive thinking.

2) He never used the word “tired” in the corner. He wouldn’t even say the other fellow was getting tired, figuring his guy might think subconsciously “well if he’s getting tired, I’m in there too so maybe I should be tired.”

3) He knew his fighters and developed a trusting relationship with them. They knew if he told them they were ‘blowing it’ (as he did with Ray Leonard famously vs Hearns), they needed to step it up. He did the same in one of Willie Pastrano’s fights, lighting a fire under him when he was losing and patting him hard on the rear when he went out for the next round … in which Willie knocked his man out.

 

Hey, these were great. Thanks for posting.

 

Thats beautiful its crazy how a mental talk can make a losing man win, i wonder if there will be more trainers like dundee and d,amato because todays trainers dont really preach about anything like the 19th century trainers did thank you for the post i enjoy reading these

 

John holman did look a little slow in these fights idk how he won the first fight but he did land good punches the shouldve cut the fight when Charles got knocked down the first i dont like seeing the dude wobbly after the last knockdown probably contributed to cte