Floyd Johnson pugile

Floyd Johnson (23 July 1900, Des Moines, Iowa – 1 June 1986), nicknamed "The Auburn Bulldog", was an American heavyweight boxer who was known for his stiff punch. His (incomplete) boxing record comes out to: 38 wins (27 by knockout), 13 losses, and 11 draws. In 1923, he was considered a leading contender, and described in Time magazine as "possibly the fifth-best heavyweight in the ring." His manager was Alec Greggains. After his boxing career ended, he went into promotion in White Center, Washington. and served as a deputy sheriff in King County, Washington in the mid-1920s.Born July 23, 1900 in Des Moines, Iowa, Johnson was partly of Scandinavian stock, a handsome, light complected, blonde, blue-eyed young man. At eighteen, he briefly attempted a career as an iron worker which ended after a dispute with a co-worker. Early in his boxing career, at least by 1921, he traveled to San Francisco where he could box away from the distractions of home and the objections of his parents. In one of his first amateur bouts, he won the Amateur Championship of the Pacific Coast by knocking out Sydney Chermis in one round. In what may have been his first amateur victory he knocked out Jack Morris in one round, and was awarded a diamond studded belt buckle which he wore for decades.On February 17, 1922, some sources report that Johnson fought an exhibition with the great black former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in Milwaukie, Oregon.In their first meeting on January 26, 1922, Johnson lost to Jack McCauliffe II, in a six-round points decision at the Auditorium in Tacoma, Washington. McCauliffe was a Michigan heavyweight who fought a few great heavyweights in his career, including Battling Levinsky and Primo Carnera. On July 12, 1923, Johnson defeated McCauliffe in a first-round knockout at Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey. Joe Jeanette, the famed black heavyweight acted as referee, and counted out McCauliffe.On October 6, 1922, he defeated "Fighting" Bob Martin in a tenth-round technical knockout at Madison Square Garden. Johnson had a lead as early as the first round, had Martin dazed by the end of the third, and was indisputably in command by the fifth. Thirty seconds into the tenth round, Martin's seconds threw a towel into the ring to stop the fight. Martin was a talented boxer who was an American Expeditionary Forces boxing champion from the WWI era as well as a 1920 Ohio State Heavyweight Champion.On December 22, 1922, he defeated "Italian" Jack Herman in the third round at the Arena in Syracuse, New York. The telling blow was a right to the chin of Johnson, who had far from a stellar boxing record, and was described by one publication as a "fifth rater". Herman's face was badly beaten in the bout, and the referee considered stopping the fight earlier.