Who Thinks Jack Johnson Could Step Out Of A Time Machine And Fight For A Belt?

It is unfair to envision Johnson forced to emerge from the time machine and enter the ring as is against competition 100 years later. We have built on the legacy of the past; past greats jolted out of time machines would not know what the heck is going on.

Given time to prepare for his opponent, Jack Johnson would reign supreme because he mastered the fundamentals of offense and defense; that is, he was a complete performer with the tools to adapt for victory. He fought often en route to the title. He had huge strength and could hang with any heavy. And his confidence and psychology were second to none.

Time does not make greatness fade. Johnson was great because he transcended the circumstances of his time. And a great knows how to win. These guys fighting today are the best around now, but have hardly transcended much of anything yet.

 

This is a joke, right?

 

Hell no.

 

I just don't see a small heavyweight who feasted on middleweights offering anything effective against an athletic giant who is well trained to use his assets of height and power. That swatting/parrying type defense of Johnson used against 170lb'ers would have no effect against Wlad's jab. Jack would probably just get his hands pulverized. I don't suspect Johnson- fresh out of the mythical time machine- would last two rounds.

Just my opinion.

 

Johnson did not just fight middleweights. He fought a lot of bigger fighters as well. He seems to have employed a verry diferent style against them and to have shut them out as convincingly as the middleweights.

He has been verry unlucky in the selection of his fights that have survived on film.

As for Johnson being a small heavyweight he was a chisled 208 lbs for the Jeffries fight. Certainly as big as Evander Holyfield when he beat Riddick Bowe.

The crucial difference is that Johnson had power.

 

208 is very small in this day and age. Only a juiced Holy could make that weight even come near working. Still, when faced against a somewhat chubby- undermotivated Bowe- he came up short.

The big guys Johnson fought were not of the caliber-skillwise- that exists today and most had pretty horrible records. Again, it was a different time, records meant different things and the concept of skill was more closely wedded to 19th century fighting, a completely different bag. There was not the level of training there is today.

In the power department, it is Wlad- who has something like 39 KO's in 45 fights against comparative goliaths, who is far and above superior. Far bigger, far stronger. He was throwing around Brewster- a big man- like a rag doll.

Let's turn the question on its head; if Wlad got into a time machine and floated back to 1905 he would have held the title until the 20's.

 

It is quite common throughout history that when the talent pool dilutes, the tall, limited but strong heavys come to the fore. That is really what has happened since about the 80s.

Are you serious? Not the same level of training? I can only hope that this is an acknowledgment, that training in todays times have vastly deteriorated (as common sense would suggest it should) due to a variety of factors including: Boxing is no longer mainstream to the sam extent, times are not as tough, sparring conditions need to be more controlled etc.

By the way, records certainly did mean something different. Back then even the contenders had to fight the top contenders and former champs regularly had to fight the best contenders just to get a shot. When was the last time a champion or challenger actually fought the best contender available. Has any modern boxer ever done it on more than say 2 occassions? Lewis is the only recent one that springs to mind.
In the power department, it is Wlad- who has something like 39 KO's in 45 fights against comparative goliaths, who is far and above superior. Far bigger, far stronger. He was throwing around Brewster- a big man- like a rag doll.

Let's turn the question on its head; if Wlad got into a time machine and floated back to 1905 he would have held the title until the 20's.[/quote]

 

So the talent pool has been diluted since the 80's? So, for what, 20 years or roughly 20% of the modern era? If we take into consideration, the war years (I, II and Korean), plus the rest of the Joe Louis' career not included by WWII, that's something like 40% of the history of modern boxing. And might you be the same sort of lad to lead me to believe that Ali v Spinks, Dunn, Evangelista, Cooper or Norton III was part of the greatest era? Or perhaps Holmes winning string of defences v Zanon, Jones, Parkinson Ali, LeDoux, Coke Spinks or Scott was the greatest era?

Boxing may no longer be the mainstream, working class American domain but it has numerically more fans than it did in its heyday of the 50's -70's. You just find them in Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe and increasingly Southeast Asia. In the "Golden Epoch" these regions were largely shut out, including Eastern Europe's inability to even compete.

I guess it all depends on what stream you live in when you say mainstream.

 

It has started to become noticeable around the 80s and certainly is getting much worse in the 90s. Wasnt the 50s or so the peak time? As other sports have professionalised, not just the likes of basketball baseball football etc but what former amateur sports like running swimming etc, plus welfare programs and scholarships have become far more wideflung. There are simply more viable options and alternatives around now, and boxing does not have the advantages it used to have. Sure it is still big, and manyof the modern fighters would still compete in the older days, maybe some would even dominate but there is no denying that the talent pool today is not what it was 50 or even 100 years ago.

Fans maybe (though i doubt it), competitors definitely not (though i am open to change ifyou have statistics which say otherwise). You raise an interesting point. Certainly, it does look like the Eastern Europeans will dominate. It really is a shame that we rarely got to see the best eastern europeans or cubans in the past.

If we were comparing the Russian fighters (for example) to the russian old timers, you would have a much better point.

 

He might never have been more than a footnote.

It took everything that Wlad is acused of being deficient in to get to the top in this era.

 

i know was no match for Willard, Hart, Choynski and Burns. They would have wiped the floor with him

 

Klitschko would KO Johnson in the early rounds

 

You´re a comedian!

 

Based on what?

 

You know ironicaly at least two of the fighters you listed would pose a verry serious threat to him.

There are fighters like Purity, Sanders and Brewster in every era.