Heavyweight Outliers

[Slugfester]

Wasn't Primo himself an ex strongman going up against boxers? All his fights might be thought of as outliers.

[kara]

Wasn't Primo himself an ex strongman going up against boxers? All his fights might be thought of as outliers.

I've seen others have the same take, more or less.

[Anthony342]

During his "exile" in Europe while champion, Jack Johnson had a fairly extensive exhibition wresting career. This was separate from his worked matches in the 1920s and 30s, in the US and Australia, that took place long after his tenure as champion.
While living in Europe, Jack found a very good living winning and sometimes losing against some of the best grapplers on the continent, and in the long tradition of Vero Small (Samuel Hadley), Captain James Daly, Professor William Miller, Patty Ryan, Gus Lambert and many others before him, Johnson was a skilled catch wrestler.

A partial listing of Johnson's wrestling matches while in Europe would include:

1913
Oct. Willi Urbach, Paris, France......W
Nov. Jimmy Easson, Paris, France.....L
Nov. Andre Sproul, Paris, France.....NC W KO Foul
Nov. Joe Rogers, Paris, France.....W
Dec. Aimable de la Calmette, Paris, France.....W

1914
Jan. Fred Marcussen, Berlin, Germany.....L
Feb. Martin Zikoff, Hamburg, Germany.....W
Mar. Charles Hansen, Gothenburg, Swd.....W
Mar. Rudolf Grüneisen, Gothenburg, Swd.....W
Mar. Iivari Tuomiso, Gothenburg, Swd.....D
Apr. Ernst Erlenkamp, Geneva, Swiz......W
Apr. Saki Hevonpää, Helsinki, Finland.....D
May. Oswald Buchheim, Vienna, Austria.....D
Jun. Heinrich Lobmayer, Graz, Austria.....W
Aug. Heinrich Weber, Budapest, Hungary.....W
Aug. Paul Westergaard-Schmidt, Berlin, Ger.....D
Sep. Buzovac Mourzouck, Minsk, Rus.....D
Oct. Josef Smejkal, Pilsen, Czech Rep.....W
Nov. Josef Smejkal. Pilsen, Czech Rep.....W

1915
Feb. Gustav Naber, Brussels, Belgium.....W

1916
May. Guiseppe Masetti, Rome, Italy.....W

1918
Jul. Juan Ochoa, Bilbao, Spain.....W

Makes sense, considering all the grappling that used to be allowed in the old days of boxing.