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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Obviously I never saw him live... but from the film Ive seen and what Ive read, I judge him as the best. The best defensive fighter ever, and someone who won the greatest title in the world when ALL of white America was against him.
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I think you are correct to give Johnson credit for his defensive skills but understand the context - he was an innovator, among the first to successfully adopt certain techniques of defense. This made him, in his day, a great fighter.
But the person to do it first is not neccessarily the best - in fact, he is almost always NOT the best and is inevitably succeeded by people who do it better.
It's like the first few times a team played 4-4-2 - a complete shock to the system, and no one knew how to handle such an approach. Now, it's old hat.