How underrated is Jack Johnson

[them_apples]

Take in what he was doing in his day. White girlfriends, smiling at the crowds that hated him and cursed him, threatened to kill him. Considering the time period when he was doing all this, I think it puts a little into perspective who he was.

it’s a lot harder to study a career of a fighter like Johnson because it goes so far back. We don’t know all the details of his fights or the leadup. On his most motivated night though, judging by his character - I would figure he give anyone a rough night. Jack Johnson was a legend, not some scrub they picked off a farm to fill the rank of a heavyweight champ. Nobody wanted him there.

[Ivich]

Take in what he was doing in his day. White girlfriends, smiling at the crowds that hated him and cursed him, threatened to kill him. Considering the time period when he was doing all this, I think it puts a little into perspective who he was.

itâs a lot harder to study a career of a fighter like Johnson because it goes so far back. We donât know all the details of his fights or the leadup. On his most motivated night though, judging by his character - I would figure he give anyone a rough night. Jack Johnson was a legend, not some scrub they picked off a farm to fill the rank of a heavyweight champ. Nobody wanted him there.

And so the White Hope Era to try and dethrone him began.

[Willie Pep 229]

And so the White Hope Era to try and dethrone him began.

IMO they (WS) would try to dethrone him even if he does all the right things.

He just made it easy for them by alienating himself from the reformers and black community, and left himself open to attack. No one had his back because he didn't trust anyone.

[Ivich]

IMO they (WS) would try to dethrone him even if he does all the right things.

He just made it easy for them by alienating himself from the reformers and black community, and left himself open to attack. No one had his back because he didn't trust anyone.

I'd say he was right not to!

[QueensburyRules]

- - He trusted Nat after softening him up.

In turn, Nat made him #1.

Top 5 Historical Boxer.

15-20 career wise.

Top 10 sociopath…

[Willow The Wisp]

The term Underrated always throws me. Can't help but ask "Underrated by whom?"

Jack Johnson is on the "Mt. Rushmore " of Heavyweight Champions in almost anyone's book if they know their history.
The majority of boxing people who'd seen Johnson work proclaimed him the master of heavyweights, including J.J. Jeffries himself.

Trying to lightboard his reign against today's world is folly. Racism was as common then as seeing the sky as blue is today. It's simply the standard way of thinking in 1908.
Johnson had no capacity to frequently defend his title on the road the way Tommy Burns did.

Many might look at his roster of title challengers and imagine that he could have kept as busy and proliferate between 1908 and 1915 as Langford, Jeanette, McVey and Morris; but they are mistaken.
He had no such opportunity.

Still, Jack Johnson, like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali who followed; was the most well known black person on earth in his day.
Just imagine that.

[them_apples]

The term Underrated always throws me. Can't help but ask "Underrated by whom?"

Jack Johnson is on the "Mt. Rushmore " of Heavyweight Champions in almost anyone's book if they know their history.
The majority of boxing people who'd seen Johnson work proclaimed him the master of heavyweights, including J.J. Jeffries himself.

Trying to lightboard his reign against today's world is folly. Racism was as common then as seeing the sky as blue is today. It's simply the standard way of thinking in 1908.
Johnson had no capacity to frequently defend his title on the road the way Tommy Burns did.

Many might look at his roster of title challengers and imagine that he could have kept as busy and proliferate between 1908 and 1915 as Langford, Jeanette, McVey and Morris; but they are mistaken.
He had no such opportunity.

Still, Jack Johnson, like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali who followed; was the most well known black person on earth in his day.
Just imagine that.

Among smart people yes, he is well known and respected. Not many of them left though.

[billeau2]

Take in what he was doing in his day. White girlfriends, smiling at the crowds that hated him and cursed him, threatened to kill him. Considering the time period when he was doing all this, I think it puts a little into perspective who he was.

itâs a lot harder to study a career of a fighter like Johnson because it goes so far back. We donât know all the details of his fights or the leadup. On his most motivated night though, judging by his character - I would figure he give anyone a rough night. Jack Johnson was a legend, not some scrub they picked off a farm to fill the rank of a heavyweight champ. Nobody wanted him there.

I think there is something inherently racist that many people do, without trying to be racist: One must ask, why couldn't jack Johnson, just be "jack Johnson?" and not a black man, an uppity n----, An Ethopian (as London egged others on to proclaim him to be....) . I really believe that at least one thing Johnson wanted, and I sympathise as a guy who happens to be White but feels the same way... was just to be left alone, and evaluated on his own merits and not as a stereotype. JJ would not be the first individual, nor the last, to find white girls attractive, many white, black, indian, chinese, spanish.... etc... find white women attractive as well! So he happened to be black... it certainly does not mean he would have thrown a prime Pam Grier out of the sack now does it?

Johnson had great gifts: his father was apparently a specimen, who taught Jack how to be strong and healthy, he had the strength of the strevedores that worked the docs, the speed and agility of a cat.

[Ivich]

I think there is something inherently racist that many people do, without trying to be racist: One must ask, why couldn't jack Johnson, just be "jack Johnson?" and not a black man, an uppity n----, An Ethopian (as London egged others on to proclaim him to be....) . I really believe that at least one thing Johnson wanted, and I sympathise as a guy who happens to be White but feels the same way... was just to be left alone, and evaluated on his own merits and not as a stereotype. JJ would not be the first individual, nor the last, to find white girls attractive, many white, black, indian, chinese, spanish.... etc... find white women attractive as well! So he happened to be black... it certainly does not mean he would have thrown a prime Pam Grier out of the sack now does it?

Johnson had great gifts: his father was apparently a specimen, who taught Jack how to be strong and healthy, he had the strength of the strevedores that worked the docs, the speed and agility of a cat.

Johnson's first "wife " was black. "I believe I have the right to decide who my mate shall be". Johnson.
Joe Jeannette's wife was white,but he kept his head down,and wasn't "uppity".lol

[The D3vil]

I gotta admit, I'm probably underrating him.

It's hard to rate somebody from that early in the 20th century unless you're a super hardcore fan who can track down all that fight footage.