John L. Sullivan, American Icon Myth ?

Yes, you are right he was 33.

 

I don't think that you could be more wrong to be honest.

We don't know what the records of Sullivan's opponents were, because most of their resumes are probably missing.

What we do know, is that they seem to have been the best opponents available, and he was dominating them.

Some historians think that he defended the title successfully more times than Joe Louis.

The fact that he had a drink problem while compiling this record, only underlines how far ahead of the available opposition he was.

The fact that you think that his greatest accomplishment was lasting 20 rounds against Corbett is truly shocking.

You apparently think very little of the fact that he unified every existing title claim of the era, under both Queensbury and London Prize Ring rules!

His failure to fight Jackson and Goddard is of minimal significance, because he had virtually no career overlap with them.

 

You really don't understand the title politics of the period.

He unified two separate title claims under Queensbury Rules, and another two under bare knuckle rules.

The very reason that bare knuckle boxing disappeared when it did, is because he rounded up every title claim, and announced that he would only defend any of them under Queensbury rules.

He was called the Champion of Champions, because he was precisely that.

The only black contender of any note while he was active was George Godfrey, who lost to somebody who Sullivan had beaten.

 

The people who held the title claims, and the people who the media saw as the best prospects to lift the title from him.

We don't know how good they were, because of the paucity of records of the period, but it is probably safe to say that there wasn't anybody much better.

 

Well what exactly are you looking for?

The only thing that we can really go on, is what the media thought about his challengers at the time.

 

i know he chosenot to face a sizeable portion of thepopulation. thats all there is to it, his title wasnt the whole world.

but ty for mapping out what he did do.

 

By a sizable portion of the population, you mean one man.

 

no i mean anyone classed non-white, of course.

 

No offence, but you seem to have failed to grasp almost everything about the era.

The fact that you actually believe that he was inactive from 1884 until he fought Killrain shows that you have no clue what was going on here.

You say that he was fighting nobodies, but it is hard to see who he could have fought that was better.

You say that the game evolved in the UK and Australia while it stagnated in the USA, but I really don't see any evidence of this.

You make light of his accomplishment in defeating Killrain because it was under bare knuckle rules, but you fail to mention that Killrain was the beat bare knuckle fighter in the world, and Sullivan was a gloved fighter working under an alien rule set.

If you are so impressed by his losing effort to Corbett, then you should probably give him some credit for dominating Jack Burke, who had defeated Corbett.

If you want to learn about the subject, then I suggest that you read Adam Pollacks second biography of Sullivan.
It will show you that you are wrong on pretty much everything that ti is possible to be wrong about here.

 

Not an issue if there are no outstanding black challengers.