BoxRec

Johnson was a safety first fighter when he got the holy grail or what was to all intents and purposes the white HW title. But he defended the so-called coloured title against greats...

He had wins over

McVea x3
Jeanette x3 with 1 draw (and some NDs)
Langford

and the capable Martin twice...

Of course in monetary terms the risks involved in fighting this calibre of opponent was not so much.

In a sport of splintered titles and claimants, 7 wins and a draw against this kind of opposition is pretty amazing. Other than Ali who else could boast this level opposition at HW?

Is it not possible (just possible is all I'm saying) that Johnson was the gratest ever HW?

Ezzard wrote: In a sport of splintered titles and claimants, 7 wins and a draw against this kind of opposition is pretty amazing. Other than Ali who else could boast this level opposition at HW?

- A bit tedious to always have to point out to noobs the context of the above claims.

A much more formidable Sonny Liston also spent a 2-3 years in his prime spinning wheels as he awaited his shot as a point of comparison. Me thinks his opposition was decent overall that he gets overrated for beating, a prime Folley, Williams, Machen, and DeJohn.

Do you think he would get near the acclaim had he knocked out a 19 yr old Dempsey{McVey], beating Mr Larry in his 1st 10 pro debut fights[Jeannette], or fighting a life or death battle against the 150 lb Duran who beat Leonard[Langford]?

Well, no accounting for the veracity of members on this forum who might rate that highly. If anything you gents get the order reversed. What made McVey/Jeannette/Langford great was that as untested heavyweights they were willing to step in against a prime Johnson, and were often very competitive and Jeannette actually scores a win.

Hank Griffin was undefeated against a seasoned Johnson in a 3 fight series, and Klondike Haines fought him even up in a 3 fight series and nobody bigs their credentials up, so the boxing fraternity is a strange bunch when it comes to ranking fighters.