Why is Jack Johnson a top ten heavyweight?

[Silencers]

His style was ahead of his time, relatively high hands for the era, great at feinting and blocking with his arms and gloves, rarely see him get hit flush in his younger days, of course there aren't too mant videos of him so I could be wrong about that. He also beat the best of his era.

[The Hammer]

36 is close to 40 which is what I said in the first place. Either way he was past his prime.

Do you think Joe Calzaghe is past his prime at age 36? What about Vitali at age 37, if he defeats prime Peter will that be a good win?

[Guest]

it looks admirable now that we look at it today. one man, standing in defiance against people that hated him unconditionally. sounds nice, but it did nothing at all for the black people around that time. what the black community needed then was not someone to stand in definace of racism, they needed someone to show racists that a black person could be just as respectful as any white person.
Jack Johnson didnt do that.

and honestly, Ali wasnt exactly the best role model either. and his situation with the Vietnam war was completely different for a number of reasons.

Honestly, I respect Jack Johnson a lot for being his own man.
I respect Ali for different reasons.
But I have a lot of respect for individualism, period.

[Scott9945]

His style was ahead of his time, relatively high hands for the era, great at feinting and blocking with his arms and gloves, rarely see him get hit flush in his younger days, of course there aren't too mant videos of him so I could be wrong about that. He also beat the best of his era.

I got here a little late, but you said it well Silencers. Johnson was an innovator in boxing and if you read his autobio you know that he had a very sharp mind for the sport. He dominated the division for years under adverse conditions. He deserves to be among the top 10 heavyweights, although it is difficult to get a realistic perspective of someone who fought so long before all of us were even born.

[TheGreatA]

Do you think Joe Calzaghe is past his prime at age 36? What about Vitali at age 37, if he defeats prime Peter will that be a good win?

It's a different era though. Some of the fights Peter Jackson had weren't really the type of boxing contests we have today, they were brutal wars.

Jackson's fight against Gentleman Jim Corbett lasted 61 rounds, the fight was stopped when neither man was able to continue.

[Jim Jeffries]

Do you think Joe Calzaghe is past his prime at age 36? What about Vitali at age 37, if he defeats prime Peter will that be a good win?

He was trying to say Jeffries ducked all black fighters, even though with only 22 fights in his whole career, he still managed to fight two very good ones. That dude can rag on Jackson all he wants, but he was still a tough challenge for a guy with 7 fights.

As far as the thread goes, you look how accepted blacks were in boxing after Joe Louis. Johson could have done that if he wanted, but he was too much of a greedy scumbag.

[Guest]

I got here a little late, but you said it well Silencers. Johnson was an innovator in boxing and if you read his autobio you know that he had a very sharp mind for the sport. He dominated the division for years under adverse conditions. He deserves to be among the top 10 heavyweights, although it is difficult to get a realistic perspective of someone who fought so long before all of us were even born.

Yeah, it's not like we can watch high-def vids of him on youtube.

[joseph5620]

Do you think Joe Calzaghe is past his prime at age 36? What about Vitali at age 37, if he defeats prime Peter will that be a good win?

I hope that's not a serious question. That's all I'll say about that.

[Steak]

I got here a little late, but you said it well Silencers. Johnson was an innovator in boxing and if you read his autobio you know that he had a very sharp mind for the sport. He dominated the division for years under adverse conditions. He deserves to be among the top 10 heavyweights, although it is difficult to get a realistic perspective of someone who fought so long before all of us were even born.

I dont see how hes better than
-Ali
-Louis
-Holmes
-Foreman
-Marciano
-Liston
-Lewis
-Frazier
-Holyfield
-Charles
-or even Dempsey

[TheGreatA]

As far as the thread goes, you look how accepted blacks were in boxing after Joe Louis. Johson could have done that if he wanted, but he was too much of a greedy scumbag.

Can we really call Jack Johnson a scumbag for what he did? He did what the majority of us would do in his situation in my opinion.

Joe Louis was an exceptional man.

The difference is that Jack Johnson lived the rest of his life wealthy while Louis was screwed over by the government. What's the moral of that story?