Would jack johnson style work today

got me there, pissed off or not i'd laugh at that.

 

McVey was rated high enough that a promoter gauranteed Champion Jeffries a big purse to fight him.Jeffries went a bit deaf and fought no hoper. Jack Finnegan instead
McVey was significantly heavier than Johnson at the time of their fights and he had more fights than boxrec credits him with as Apollack has found out. Johnson won every round against McVey and made no effort to stop him until the last round when he stepped on the gas and halted matters. McVey and Johnson became fast friends and shared houses together McVey often seconded Jack, and was there helping him back to his corner after Willard dethroned him .Johnson paid for McVey's funeral.

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...J-Janitor?

 

Chavez Jr. looks as modern as Mayweather but they don't look like the same class of fighter, and they don't do the same things. They both throw punches, block, and dodge punches but that's where the similarity ends.

Battling Siki and Mike McTigue are fighting in 1923 and they look like two journeymen today. They obviously are not novices nor are they masters. In the same era, the mid-twenties you actually have the first three guys who look good on film Gene Tunney, Mickey Walker, and Tommy Loughran and any one of them looks like they would have destroyed Siki or McTigue.

Take note of the footage date 1923. The cinematic record shows a clear progression in boxing skill from 1900 to the 1930s when skills reach their height. By 1923 things had progressed to about 90% of what they were going to be. In 1900, we are just a decade out of the bare knuckle boxing era and styles are still rough. There is a lot of holding, and wrestling. Over the next 30 years footwork improves, the jab becomes far more important, and people throw combinations instead of looking for single shots.

In the 30s Henry Armstrong, Joe Louis, Barney Ross, Tony Canzoneri, Jimmy McLarnin, and Freddie Steele all look leagues better than Sam Langford, Joe Gans, Jack Johnson, or Stanley Ketchel and it's not just the footage. Men didn't become fitter or more athletic in the intervening years, but the craft of boxing improved. Trainers, styles, and forms all improved.

 

I think the 20's was the era when skills really developed in a general sense, but this does not mean there were not exceptions many years prior to that.

We have no way of knowing how good Young Griffo was for example, the little footage we have of George Dixon is rather dissapointing.

I think Gans looks fine in the limited footage,Langford too.

Ketchel's best bouts have not been seen by anyone living, but he looks crude on what we have.

If you think the 30's saw a significant leap forward I would disagree,many of the fighters you cited learned their trade and won titles in the 20's, they just happened to straddle two decades.There were as many,I would actually say more, complete boxers in the 20's as the 30's.Some of whom are still rated at or near the top in their respective divisions today.
Leonard
Mandell
Driscoll
Delaney
Loughran
Slattery
Tunney
Attell.
Eight of the finest jabbers ever .

Great box fighters like
Berg
Chocolate
Labarba
Genaro
Shade
Smith
Welsh
McFarland
Moran
The 20's were the glory days of boxing there were figths almost every night and big money to be made, those guys learned their trade.

I've seen todays champions with no idea about defence, half of them cannot slip a jab.
The heavyweight division is at its nadir.

A guy who would have been a rated fighter but not a dominant one like Winky Wright embarrassed Trinidad with nothing more than a jab,and Trinidad is called a great fighter.

Every so often a natural comes along like Mayweather, but the reason he lasts as long as he has is because he only has a handful of fights ,and he is meeting guys that would be journeymen in the 20's.

 

Rather than disagree at length I would like thank you for laying out your thoughts here. I know when I am not going to budge on an oppinion and it look like you are not going to either. Cool with that. Thanks again.

 

Play nice Mcvey. We are having a fair talk on Jack Johnson. If this bothers you I suggest you rent the movie grumpy old men. It has a nice ending.

 

Now that you have correctly conceded Jeannette and Langford not being career defining wins, lets talk about Sam Mcvey. Do you know he quit boxing for a year after losing to Martin. It's true. So Johnson beat a teenager who shortly after quit the game. Hardly an impressive win

 

Pretty damn good post !

 

Agreed! Some great learning around here lately.

 

You are both very kind. Ovid's Exile makes good posts, and he may come back to blow mine out of the water.

 

Post of the month :happy