Who had the better competition in title matches, Johnson or Charles?

If this were championship fights alone, then Charles is my pick. What's forgotten about Jack Johnson is the fact that many trainers and historians consider his fights before he won the heavyweight title more perilous than a lot of the other heavyweight champions resumes. Considering he fought and beat the avoided black contenders Sam McVey, Sam Langford, Joe Jeannette and Denver Ed Martin.

 

i thought charles , and then according to your post it is clearly charles.

 

When they were young, with a handful of fights, and far away from their heavyweights primes. When they were, he avoided them like the plague.


As for the topic question: Charles' hw title resume is easily better. Louis had seen better days, but was still an excellent contender and would even prove that after the bout. Jeffries had been inactive for five years and unlike Louis, did not prove top form afterwards. And then there's the Walcott win.

 

Agree on all accounts.

To polish things up a bit, Jeffries was actually off for 6 years, not 5. And there were many who felt that Ezzard Charles actually deserved the nod in 3 out of his 4 meetings with Walcott. Additionally, he is also commonly listed as the greatest light heavyweight of all time, and defeated a slew of all time great 175lb men who were as big or even larger than many of the best fighters Johnson beat.

Frankly, I think its a no brainer.