Would Liston have intimidated Jack Johnson !?

I wish I could remember where I read this, but there was a story of Jack Johnson punching the light bag around 1935 and someone asked him, ''Making a comeback, Jack? Who are you training for?" to which Johnson replied, "Why, that Louis boy, of course!" He went on to say that he himself would have been a more formidable foe for Louis than Carnera and Baer, who Louis had recently defeated.

As late as 1946, just before his tragic death, Johnson had been asked about the current state of heavyweight boxing. At that time he said that the best around was Louis. Interestingly, he made no noise at that time of challenging the current titleholder, although he had been critical of Louis' style almost from the beginning. In fact, Johnson, like many of his predecessors and successors, was often unfavorably critical of those titleholders who came after him.

 

Jack would have laughed in Sonny's face. Like a lot of others.