Would jack johnson style work today

This is correct.

Jack Johnson would do well today because he was a great fighter. He would stand out and be successful in any era because he was great.

Today's pace would suit him. In another era where the pace was fast he would slow it down to suit him. What he did worked then and it would work now. He could fight, he was strong, he was fast and he was very very clever and experienced.

I don't see the klitschkos brining anything more than what Johnson had. They are great and Johnson was great. Right now the brothers use their size, experience and greater intelligence to their best advantage in the ring. It is exactly what Johnson did. Without using their size the Klitchkos w would still be great because they would still have experience and intelligence over everyone else. So would Johnson. Prestigious champions of that ilk know where to stand, know when to feint, know when to pull the trigger,where to step to make the other man react the way they want him to. They know what the other man is going to do before he does it because they know how to control a good man at the top level.

The way a fighter looks today has nothing to do with if he is great or not. The style a fighter has will have nothing to do with if he is great or not. There is no wrong way to be successful. A fighter is either successful or he is not. If he dominates then he is special regardless.

 

I count 13 guys over 200 lbs on Johnson's record, 18 on Joe Louis', 27 on Max Baer's, 69 on Primo Carnera's, Lee Savold has 33, Jersey Joe Walcott has 15, Ezzard Charles has 16, Sonny Liston has 26, and Muhammad Ali has 37.

Joe Louis vs 200lbers

1934-10-31 193 Jack O'Dowd 210
1934-11-14 193½ Stanley Poreda 208¼
1935-04-22 198 Biff Bennett 200
1935-06-25 196 Primo Carnera 260½
1935-09-24 198 Max Baer 210
1935-12-13 200½ Paulino Uzcudun 207
1936-10-09 202 Jorge Brescia 205½
1937-01-11 200½ Steve Ketchel 216
1937-08-30 197 Tommy Farr 204¼
1939-04-17 201¼ Jack Roper 204¾
1939-06-28 200¾ Tony Galento 233¾
1940-02-09 203 Arturo Godoy 202
1940-06-20 199 Arturo Godoy 201½
1941-03-21 202 Abe Simon 254½
1941-05-23 201¾ Buddy Baer 237½
1941-09-29 202¼ Lou Nova 202½
1942-01-09 206½ Buddy Baer 250
1942-03-27 207½ Abe Simon 255¼

Max Baer vs 200lbers

1930-06-11 194 Buck Weaver 205
1930-12-19 200 Ernie Schaaf 203
1931-01-16 201 Tom Heeney 208
1931-10-21 204 Jose Santa 244
1931-12-30 202½ Arthur De Kuh 219½
1932-02-22 199 Tom Heeney 211½
1932-05-11 205 Walter Cobb 221
1932-08-31 200 Ernie Schaaf 209½
1934-06-14 209½ Primo Carnera 263¼
1936-06-15 226 Tony Souza 222
1936-06-19 220 Harold Murphy 205
1936-07-02 224 Buck Rogers 217
1936-07-13 214 James Merriott 215
1936-07-24 212 Bob Williams 220
1936-08-25 216½ Cecil Myart 219
1936-08-29 217 Al Frankco 212
1936-09-02 217 Al Gaynor 202
1936-09-04 210 Cyclone Lynch 215
1936-09-14 217 Bearcat Wright 230
1937-05-27 212 Ben Foord 208½
1938-03-11 212 Tommy Farr 208½
1938-10-26 221 Hank Hankinson 214
1939-06-01 210½ Lou Nova 202
1939-09-04 218 Big Ed Murphy 200
1940-07-02 221½ Tony Galento 244½
1940-09-26 223 Pat Comiskey 207
1941-04-04 220¾ Lou Nova 202¾

Jersey Joe Walcott

​

1938-01-20 187 Jim Whitest 210
1938-04-12 196 Lorenzo Pack 200
1938-12-23 190 Bob Tow 202½
1940-02-12 192 Abe Simon 256

1944-06-28 189 Ellis Singleton 208
​

1945-01-25 191 Johnny Allen 204
1945-03-15 195 Johnny Allen 202
1945-08-02 188 Joe Baksi 218
1945-11-12 189½ Lee Q. Murray 207½
1946-01-30 192 Johnny Allen 202
1947-12-05 194½ Joe Louis 211½
1948-06-25 194¾ Joe Louis 213½
1949-08-14 194 Olle Tandberg 208
1950-03-13 197 Johnny Shkor 216
1950-05-28 201 Hein Ten Hoff 219

​

 

How many fights do you have for Johnson?

Comments like Johnson was lucky to get a draw when he was all but 36 , had been out of the ring for over a year and a half,fighting with a broken arm,and a comment that is based on a wire service report at that,[ NY Times had no reporter present at the Paris fight] illustrate just how much hatred can distort a persons viewpoint.So much that their opinion is no longer rational.Who in their right mind would use those circumstances to form an objective opinion of Johnson's abilities?

 

I make it 17 fights for Johnson, including the fixed ones, going off of boxrec and the information you provided, which is still less than 8 of the champions from before the 70s. He may rejoice that he has more than Marciano, Dempsey, Braddock, and Schmeling but that's about it. A bunch of Dempsey and Max Schmeling's bouts don't have any weights listed for them at boxrec so they may have more. In addition some of the contenders from those times also had more. I just counted 19 for Paulino Uzcudun, 24 for Ernie Schaaf, 30 for Elmer Ray. Harry Wills fought at least 17. A quick glance at the record shows 22 bouts for Sam Langford over 200 lbs, though that is obviously incomplete because the five foot seven boxer fought 22 bouts with Harry Wills alone. George Godfrey held the black version of the title and I counted his up to 32.

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" I was just investigating whether that was true or not. It was not.

And I still believe the fact that 74 of Johnson's fights were against opponents under 200 lbs is germane to the discussion at hand.

 

could johnson's style work today - somewhat, but if you try to fight like that you will have trouble with proficient 'movers' and combination punchers.

could johnson himself work today - of course, He'd make a few adjustments but a smart strong man fighting an unusual style is almost certian to have some success, HW champ? beating haye or wlad probly a step 2 far without some steroids

 

Glbert Odd records that Johnson had 82 paid contests before he won the title from Burns.Are you aware of this?

 

It looks like boxrec is missing 17 of his early fights then. Where there any opponents that you haven't listed yet and that don't appear on boxrec that were over the 200lb line? Otherwise, that's almost a hundred smaller opponents who wouldn't be considered heavyweights today.

 

I doubt that there is a single fighter from that period who has a complete record on boxrec.

 

But he did fight smaller men for the most part. Johnson also fought the very young, in-experienced, and old. His title reign was very poor as he did not meet Langford, Mcvey, or Jeannette.


Did johnson win a match over a hall of fame fight above 175 pounds when that fighter was in his prime years?

 

Though he lost, the performance Johnson put up against Willard was enlightening.

For numerous rounds he set himself and then sailed in with both hands; hooks, uppercuts and body blows. With each rush he drove Willard off balance but just couldn't crack his younger, more rugged opponent.

Having just watched Pulev take his sweet time to get going against Thompson there is no reason to believe that this measured approach of feinting n' pouncing would not work. Tony managed to make his man stall with basic manoeuvres; Johnson would do far worse with his jittery repertoire.

We need not get our hands sticky tackling the K brothers, but introduce Johnson to the modern world and he'd smile his way into contention. Perhaps a few more pounds would grace his frame, and he may even have to suffer a foghorn of a corner man, but his instincts would knit the rest together.

Joe Cortez would fail to spot his dirties, Don King would get out-yapped, and America could do nothing but grimace as Jack spoke about his purely physical relationships with Salma Hayek, Miley Cyrus and Beyonce.

 

We don't know how much they weighed, what we do know is that Johnson was fighting at 168lbs in 1900.

 

This post is worth an entire thread.

Thank you helping us to cut the crap and call fighting fighting. It is not brain surgery. These men were great then and would be great now. Especially now since there are so many other ways to make millions other than with you fist. For the men of the past all of these skills were formed out of neccessity to protect themselves from men who lived in times almost like midieval times.

These guys today would be bleeding and screaming for the ref if they had to deal with 20 rounds of Harry Greb, Jack Johnson, or Jack Dempsey.

 

The ending of City Light brings me close to tears. I have rated that film over Godfather I and II at times. Back to boxing.

 

My point that these a great fighter is a great fighter.

With the clearness of the film we get to see two fighter do all of the moves that we see today. They looked as modern as Mayweather. And while we are Mayweather. Is he doing cartwheels or something? Rolling your shoulders and ducking is as natural for a professional fighter as throwing punches. We should be suprized to hear fighters not doing those things.

If we had the quality like that of Gans we would be very impressed.