Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson

[Flo_Raiden]

What are your thoughts about Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson. I don't have much knowledge about him but I've been dying to see more videos of him in his prime. The videos below gave me the idea of how impressive of a fighter he was in his hey dey, despite the weight class he was in. Someone fill me in on him because I really like to know more about him. I've heard that he was also a complete boxer.


Skip to 7:37




And check out his crazy "Matrix style" dodging @ 1:18. Unbelievable.

[Boxing Bob]

Too Sharp was an awesome fighter, good boxer, good puncher. He might have been the reason your hero Lopez didn't come up in weight. I think Ricardo could have handled him though.

[Scott9945]

Johnson was an excellent flyweight, probably one of the best American flyweights ever. He doesn't get mentioned enough considering that he fought a lot on US TV.

[$coinblatt$]

great fighter and very underrated.

[JK1700]

Very skilled and slick fighter, I remember his fight with Fernando Montiel back in 2003. Great performance considering that he was past it by then. How good he really was and who he could have beaten in still up for debate though, because he didn't get to fight the big name fighters of his era like Chiquita Gonzalez, Michael Carbajal, Ricardo Lopez etc, even though they were a division lower, he was calling them out and they could have moved up to fight him (I believe he and Gonzalez even had the same promoter for several years). I personally think Gonzalez and Lopez would have beaten him, but he would have had a real shot with Carbajal because Michael was very hittable and struggled with guys that could box. Gonzalz beat him twice by moving, Pastrana did something similar, I thought the Castro fight was very close and Arce was boxing circles around him until he got caught. That doesn't mean Carbajal wasn't a great fighter, but he did have flaws.

Johnson was avoided by alot of guys because he was a big risk/low reward kind of opponent. For guys who have already got a big name and are making big money, there was no reason to take a big risk against a guy who most casual fans didn't know about and a guy who would probably make them look bad regardless of whether they beat him or not.