What years cover Jack Johnson's best?How often was he in top shape in it?

I guess you don´t agree there?

That´s a decent peak I think. It´s really astonishing what he did given the hape he often was in.

 

Nearly 10 years difference in the pictures.
Here he is prime 1910

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Me either.... But thinking out of the square, what if he thrashed Burns because Burns had jaundice and was well under his usual weight? :think

 

Burns did not have jaundice, and he said himself he was in good shape,in fact he thought he might have overtrained. Burns is on film belting Al Kaufman around just prior to the fight with Johnson . Burns was often a trifle pudgy ,but he was in good shape for Johnson according to his own reminiscences.

Burns stated he badly underestimated Johnson's skill.

 

Johnson was in good shape for the Jeffries fight, but he declined verry rapidly after it.

Even prior to it he ofet came into title fights out of shape. Like many champions, he likley lost a little focus once the title was in his hands. Unlike many, he got away with it because his style was so economical.

 

That's an interesting observation and there probably is something to it. The Maxim-Robinson thread made me think of his fight against Willard in Havana, how it was quite a feat for him to hang in there under those conditions, at that age and shape and against that opponent.

 

I didnt mention Jaundice!:angel

I think that an energy sapping virus might be a possibility, but all that is speculation. The real killer for Burns came when johnson kd ed him early in the fight. That punch changed the course of the fight and Johnson dominated because of it.

 

You asked the question,but what if Burns had jaundice ? Well he didn't.:huh
Johnson dominated because he was superior to Burns in every fistic department. He was better at long range, had more power, better defensively, stronger, bigger, faster ,and better inside where Burns thought he would be the master.
Burns was on the floor seconds after the first bell rang, courtesy of a right uppercut he never saw. At the end of the round the result was allready a foregone conclusion.
Burns was down again in the second and ,at the close of the round had a badly bleeding mouth and a rapidly closing left eye,and Johnson was not even warmed up.

" I had forgotten more about boxing than Burns ever knew. Burns was a strong fellow ,and had a good right hand punch,if he could have landed but my defences prevented that.
No crouching little man can hit a good big man.
He has to straighten up to deliver and ,if the other chap's good and fast enough ,all he has to do is get him when he is coming up" Jack Johnson.

" My aim in the fight at Sydney was to show Burns,after all his boasting,and his talk about the yellow streak down my spine,that I could out box him,and outslug him.
I wanted to beat him in a clever way, without a chance of being beaten myself.
If I had knocked him out quickly, the public would have said it was a fluke.
When I beat him in a long fight ,it gave the other side no chance to talk"Jack Johnson.