Johnson is one of the finest fighters ever to come out of Philadelphia. At 5'10 and with a 74 inch reach he has about the same dimensions as Roy Jones. But those two were polar opposites. Jones, at his best, was all reflexes, speed and power. Johnson was never that kind of athlete. At his best he was a Ricardo Lopez quality technician and a great ring thinker. Johnson was a boxing textbook. Feints, double feints, an excellent jab, mechanically sound footwork etc. Sometimes he LOOKED blazing fast, but when you watch the film again what you see is it wasn't reflexes, he was moving first. He KNEW what the foe's next move was going to be and he preempted it. His right hand counter was magic. As you'd expect of a wonderful technician Johnson was great late into his career, winning the title at 33 and holding it until he was 35. He defeated ranked men when he was 39.
Johnson appeared in the Ring rankings across an extraordinary nineteen years and was the undisputed light heavyweight champion in the early 1960's. He is famous in boxing circles for having a true nemesis. A man just a shade greater. Archie Moore handed Johnson his first loss in 1949. In the span of three months in 1951-2, the two fought a trilogy with Moore winning twice. Finally in 1954 Johnson got a title crack against the Mongoose and was knocked out in the fourteenth round of a razor close fight after dropping Moore.
Away from Archie Moore, Johnson was spectacular. He defeated HOFers on two occasions and ranked men on over twenty occasions. Several of those were over top five ranked heavies where Johnson gave up between 10-30 pounds.
Ring lists Johnson as the 7th 175 of all time (as of 2002) and IBRO ranks him as the 17th finest (as of 2005).
Here are two clips. The first is highlights of the Johnson-Mongoose title fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7wSmNaEW4
The second is a broader compilation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8xqtIkXsk
