Grading Jack Johnsons reign

[Terry A]

I feel it's a C to be honest, I also feel JJ gets horribly over-rated. Call me crazy but, I think it's debatable to even have him in the Top 10 based purely on accomplishments.

It's so refreshing to read that. Seems like all I ever read is how great Johnson was, he coulda beat this guy, that guy, two guys, all guys.....

Personally, I could never figure out the love-fest some fellas have towards the guy. I just think some people say his name cause they feel it's fashionable.

I'm going to go back & read the rest of the posts in this thread now....Barnburner's post #2 in this thread side-tracked me. In a good way.

[Terry A]

overrated. His title reign was mediocre since he didnt fight the best out there, and his best wins over Jeanette, McVea and Langford happened when they were pre-prime. McVea was a teenager, Jeaneatte had barely ever been in a boxing ring, and Langford was still a natural welterweight. notice how Johnson never fought them when they were at their best.

those wins look nice on paper, but in reality were not that awesome. what top 10 heavyweight in history wouldnt have beaten a 150lb Langford?

how high you rate him depends on how highly you think of his era. personally, I dont think that HW era was all that special, but others disagree.

my big issue is people that rate Johnson in the top 5, whilst someone like Harry Wills doesnt even get rated in the top 10 by those same people. Wills beat Johnson's best wins, while they were actually prime. Im not necessarily saying Wills should be over Johnson, but for there to be that big of a gap is ridiculous to me, especially considering Wills also beat a number of other good fighters like Fred Fulton, Firp and Weinhart(among others) as well.

I "green-karma-ed" him AND sent him a friend request.

[Scott9945]

Yeah, BoxRec is notoriously incomplete when it comes to pre-1920 fighters. It's quite possible that someone like Jeffries, for instance, had more fights then he's actually listed for.....there's just no way to know for sure.

Poet

Boxrec misses lots of stuff way after the 1920's too. When I look back on local fights I watched growing up, I'm shocked by how incomplete the records are. Especially foreign records. When you see guys with supposedly sparse records fighting in main events in major cities, be su****ious.