The Workshop of Jabs: Harold Johnson vs. Ezzard Charles

Expectation: High. I'm basing that off of a previous viewing a few years back as well as boxrec's very solid review on it.

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Description:
1. Very close round. Both jabbed beautifully. There was quite a bit of clinching, but both were eager to fight; Charles focusing on the body, and Johnson primarily countering Charles. Johnson hurt Charles just a shade with lefts on two occasions near the end of the round. Johnson.
2. The two opened to a fast start with both giving away a couple of flogs. They kept it up for about a minute before declining into the jabbing sessions. Charles later walked into a counter right, but pulled out alright. Johnson.
3. A close round of jabbing with an edge to Johnson, but Charles hurt Johnson a little bit as he leaped in, first driving a left hook into Johnson's stomach, then a second upstairs, encouraging Johnson to clinch. As always the jabbing was very close, but I thought Charles the better man after that. Charles.

 

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4. Both jabbed, but Johnson, unlike Charles did little else. The middle part of the round contained no activity worthy of mention. Johnson did land a really good right hand close to the round's end. Charles.
5. Johnson amped up his aggressiveness. He jabbed a lot more heavily than he had been, but more importantly threw a lot more overall. Charles did not appear to be accomplishing what he wanted to. Johnson.
6. One of the closest rounds of all. Johnson.

 

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7. Both opened very quickly with hooks. Charles returned to his reckless body work of the earlier frames. Charles.
8. Another extremely close round with a couple of crisp exchanges. Johnson.

 

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9. As the story so obviously goes, a close round for the scorecards, but Charles was a little more aggressive than Johnson and landed the more powerful blows. Another good exchange or two in this round. Charles.
10. Johnson popped a wicked right almost immediately that stunned Charles. However, at the end of the round, Charles landed a wicked right of his own. Johnson had his back to a corner and lost his footing and went down. Charles. Johnson's fall in round 10 is a tricky one to call. Slip or KD guys?

Final score: 5-5. Draw. I am not complaining about Johnson getting the decision though, given it was so close.

Assessment:
Charles-Strangely enough, Charles was actually more exciting here than he is in his other fights. He clinches a lot less and just sought out toe-to-toe warfare on a far more regular basis (although it didn't happen on a regular basis). So on that note, Charles looked more impressive, but on another note, looked less impressive than usual. I think the reason for that being that he and Johnson are both primarily technical fighters and so Johnson negated Charles' work to a high degree.
Johnson-And just as Johnson negated Charles, so Charles negated Johnson as well in my opinion. The main standout of the fight for me was just watching the two go at each other with their jabs. You could almost name this fight "The Workshop of the Jabs".

Note: This is the earliest commentary I've ever heard by Don Dunphy that was not dubbed in.

Verdict: Not the "bruising, slashing, action-packed brawl" described by boxrec nor the war of attrition described by Dunphy. That's what I'll never get about Dunphy fans. Sure he was respectful and had a good style, but basically when it comes fights, the guy's a liar. So disregard that. Although I was expecting a fight with a technical edge, I honestly was expecting a brawl, so the fight was a big let-down (as well as my memory, ha ha). However, from a tactical perspective, this is an awesome fight. Two of the best ring technicians in history playing their games is its own special kind of heaven reserved for me, red cobra, and George Crowcroft. Actually after rewatching some of those rounds for the write-up I am still sticking with my thoughts about it not being especially exciting, but I realized more so the second time what a beautiful fight it is.

 

Full credit and thanks goes to @McGrain.

 

That's true, some credit to them as well.

Well, I don't think I could fully appreciate it McGrain until I actually started my own playlist and uploading fights too. I love your channel btw.