Johnny Risko
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dempseyfire
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 5534
- Joined: 29 Oct 2003, 22:56
Johnny Risko
Is there any surviving film footage of this overachieving heavyweight from the 1920s/early 1930s?
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Ambling Alp II
- Super Middleweight
- Posts: 15179
- Joined: 04 Nov 2012, 18:31
Re: Johnny Risko
The Risko-Schemling fight used to be on Youtube; however it looks like it must have been taken off. Several years ago on ESPN Classic, I believe one of his fights was on. It may have been against Mickey Walker. You would think he would have several fights on Youtube considering he fought so many great fighters, but there doesn't appear to be any right now.
He has always intrigued me as well, having lost so many fights but having so many wins against great fighters.
He has always intrigued me as well, having lost so many fights but having so many wins against great fighters.
Re: Johnny Risko
"The Baker Boy" Johnny Risko...In 1927 alone he fought 24 times !!....his record reads like a who's who of his day...young stribling, jack sharkey, gene tunney, paul berlenbach, mike mctigue, tommy loughran, jimmy slattery, jack delaney, george godfrey, ernie schaff, max schmelling, mickey walker, king lavinsky, max baer, two ton tony galento...all top boys in their day....gene tunney said "he's the toughest man i ever fought" and wouldn't fight him a second time....his 1929 fight with the great max schmelling was ring magazines 'fight of the year' and is documented below in an article from 'The Coshocton Tribune' dated 2nd Feb 1929...
..............
"It takes a great man to beat a very good man and Johnny Risko, with the heart of a lion and the Jaw of a gorilla, was as good as ever he was last night when, reeling and punch poisoned he was called out on, his feet after a minute and five seconds of the ninth round by a humane referee. Yes, John was good, very good, but Max Schmeling, the German, was so much better that he actually was greatness itself as he punched Risko until he was silly, leaving nothing Referee Arthur Donovan to do but award the Dempsey of the Deutschland’s what is said to be the first legitimate knockout ever scored at Risko's expense.
Four times he had Risko on the axminster and not another man in the ring today would have arisen from the second and third knockdowns which were perfect bull’s-eyes, but Risko has the chin of all chins and so he got up and fought back heroically. He still was striking out blindly at his tormentor with the fighting instinct of the true fighting man, although barely able to keep his feet, when the referee wisely decided that too much was a great plenty. He saved this amazingly brave man from an actual knockout since it was inevitable that even this glove swallower never was destined to see the tenth and final round.
The fight was nothing less than a ring masterpiece, a 'saga of glorious courage that filled the eye and gladdened the heart. Risko furnished much of this with his last game stand against the inevitable but it must be admitted that it was the great fighter and not the very good one who turned in the performance that sent the witnesses gibbering out into the night.
He did things in this fight that left not the slightest doubt of his greatness. No other kind of a fighter could have taken the mauling Risko gave him thru the third fourth, fifth and sixth rounds and then, with a single punch in the seventh, practically ruin a man like John for the remainder of the evening.
No other kind of a fighter, not even the old Dempsey, could have put a faster and neater finish to a man than Schmeling did in the ninth and last round. This was master workmanship, no less. The witnesses rushed the ringside when it was all over to babble incoherently about "the next champion of the world" and frankly, there was nothing that could be vouchsafed against it.
Incidentally, the young man knows something about keeping the old potato protected, as Risko discovered after casting five hundred rights and lefts at it thru the first seven rounds. John wasn't casting anything after that except possibly a weary eye at his corner. It was an epic sight to see this remarkable punch catcher being beaten down and even unbiased newspapermen were so carried out of their customary lethargy as to wave frantically at him to quit before he was badly hurt.
But there never was any quit in Johnny Risko and he didn't mean to begin last night. No less thrillingwas the picture of the cool, yet venomous Schmeling as he calculatingly made his "kill" businesslike He cut Risko down more rapidly than the writer ever has seen a fighter finished, except by a one punch knockout. And nobody scores that kind against Johnny Risko
Each of Schmeling s four knockdowns was scored with a different punch, proving that the man has both snap and variety to his hitting: John was more than holding his own in the eighth when the third knockdown came It came from aleft hook and a right cross to the chin, as beautifully timed as a swiss movement. They hung John in the air and then let him drop forward on his face. A glimpse of his face on the way down showed that he was out. But he didn't stay out. Shaking his head to clear it, he finally made the grade at nine and lasted to the belL I don't have to think about any other heavyweight getting up from this. I know he wouldn't.
Risko staggered on his way to the corner but came out fairly fresh for the ninth. In the first minute, however, he was clipped with a right hand that spun him around and left him groping dazedly with his back half turned to the enemy. He was in perfect position for a left hook and this smart German, never more impressive than now, began pumping lefts to the target with a rapidity and an accuracy that was amazing. John was forced to bend blindly under the storm and then Schmeling looped a right behind his ear and dropped him ,for another nine count. He lurched to his feet and weaved drunkenly to the other side of the ring. There he essayed to make his last desperate stand and was lashing out gamely toward an unseen foe when he reeled and all but fell from his own weakness that was enough for both fighter and referee.
If there was any fault to be found with Schmeling last night, it was his seeming inability to,handle a fighter that persisted in staying on top of him. It was thru this system that John carried the fourth, fifth and sixth and was well out in front when the lightning struck.
But that's one thing about lightning and punches. They will strike."
..............
"It takes a great man to beat a very good man and Johnny Risko, with the heart of a lion and the Jaw of a gorilla, was as good as ever he was last night when, reeling and punch poisoned he was called out on, his feet after a minute and five seconds of the ninth round by a humane referee. Yes, John was good, very good, but Max Schmeling, the German, was so much better that he actually was greatness itself as he punched Risko until he was silly, leaving nothing Referee Arthur Donovan to do but award the Dempsey of the Deutschland’s what is said to be the first legitimate knockout ever scored at Risko's expense.
Four times he had Risko on the axminster and not another man in the ring today would have arisen from the second and third knockdowns which were perfect bull’s-eyes, but Risko has the chin of all chins and so he got up and fought back heroically. He still was striking out blindly at his tormentor with the fighting instinct of the true fighting man, although barely able to keep his feet, when the referee wisely decided that too much was a great plenty. He saved this amazingly brave man from an actual knockout since it was inevitable that even this glove swallower never was destined to see the tenth and final round.
The fight was nothing less than a ring masterpiece, a 'saga of glorious courage that filled the eye and gladdened the heart. Risko furnished much of this with his last game stand against the inevitable but it must be admitted that it was the great fighter and not the very good one who turned in the performance that sent the witnesses gibbering out into the night.
He did things in this fight that left not the slightest doubt of his greatness. No other kind of a fighter could have taken the mauling Risko gave him thru the third fourth, fifth and sixth rounds and then, with a single punch in the seventh, practically ruin a man like John for the remainder of the evening.
No other kind of a fighter, not even the old Dempsey, could have put a faster and neater finish to a man than Schmeling did in the ninth and last round. This was master workmanship, no less. The witnesses rushed the ringside when it was all over to babble incoherently about "the next champion of the world" and frankly, there was nothing that could be vouchsafed against it.
Incidentally, the young man knows something about keeping the old potato protected, as Risko discovered after casting five hundred rights and lefts at it thru the first seven rounds. John wasn't casting anything after that except possibly a weary eye at his corner. It was an epic sight to see this remarkable punch catcher being beaten down and even unbiased newspapermen were so carried out of their customary lethargy as to wave frantically at him to quit before he was badly hurt.
But there never was any quit in Johnny Risko and he didn't mean to begin last night. No less thrillingwas the picture of the cool, yet venomous Schmeling as he calculatingly made his "kill" businesslike He cut Risko down more rapidly than the writer ever has seen a fighter finished, except by a one punch knockout. And nobody scores that kind against Johnny Risko
Each of Schmeling s four knockdowns was scored with a different punch, proving that the man has both snap and variety to his hitting: John was more than holding his own in the eighth when the third knockdown came It came from aleft hook and a right cross to the chin, as beautifully timed as a swiss movement. They hung John in the air and then let him drop forward on his face. A glimpse of his face on the way down showed that he was out. But he didn't stay out. Shaking his head to clear it, he finally made the grade at nine and lasted to the belL I don't have to think about any other heavyweight getting up from this. I know he wouldn't.
Risko staggered on his way to the corner but came out fairly fresh for the ninth. In the first minute, however, he was clipped with a right hand that spun him around and left him groping dazedly with his back half turned to the enemy. He was in perfect position for a left hook and this smart German, never more impressive than now, began pumping lefts to the target with a rapidity and an accuracy that was amazing. John was forced to bend blindly under the storm and then Schmeling looped a right behind his ear and dropped him ,for another nine count. He lurched to his feet and weaved drunkenly to the other side of the ring. There he essayed to make his last desperate stand and was lashing out gamely toward an unseen foe when he reeled and all but fell from his own weakness that was enough for both fighter and referee.
If there was any fault to be found with Schmeling last night, it was his seeming inability to,handle a fighter that persisted in staying on top of him. It was thru this system that John carried the fourth, fifth and sixth and was well out in front when the lightning struck.
But that's one thing about lightning and punches. They will strike."