I view Sullivan as a less refined Ingo Johansson type. I'm sold on Sullivan having power, good hand speed, and for his time, good feet, but boxing technique back then was raw. We must remember, he was a pioneer, the gap between London / Bare knuckle / gloved boxing as we know it. If Sullivan were a bit taller with better reach, I'd increase his chances to upset bigger, larger more modern boxers who benefited from the evolution of the sport.
They were two guys with about the same height and reach, both with top right hands and mediocre left hands.
Boxrec is pretty useful here: http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/John_L._Sullivan "In 1892, Sullivan faced James J. Corbett in New Orleans. They fought under the Queensberry Rules and wore five-ounce gloves. The contrast in styles was obvious. The powerful, steadfast Sullivan had little use for ring trickery or defense, while Corbett was known for his peerless boxing ability. Young and agile, Corbett outboxed Sullivan, who was out of condition as a result of his indulgent lifestyle." and "In an article run in the San Francisco Call June of 1905, Sullivan claimed the only man to knock him down in the ring was one Jack Hogan, a former blacksmith, in a fight in Providence, Rhode Island. He declined to mention the date." Sullivan sounds like a physical prodigy for the time, and a hard-headed, hard-punching slugger. That's the good news. The bad news is that Ruiz is 6'2 to Sullivan's 5'10 and 240lb to Sullivan's 210lb. Sullivan was malleted by 178lb Corbett in his last fight and KO'd. Things get worse for Sullivan if we examine their respective records. Sullivan has a long string of wins over debut fighters* and a couple of guys with decent records. Ruiz on the other hand has been in with some of the best heavyweights of our time, and beat them. Not only did he beat boxing thoroughbreds like Holyfield and Rahman, but his lineup on average was undoubtedly composed of larger and more skilled opponents than Sullivan's. Ruiz himself had an awkward spoiling style (that I hated btw) but it can't be denied that he was effective in disrupting the games of the opponent and imposing his own mauling paradigm on the fight. From how Sullivan is described, I'd be relatively confident that he'd pose little danger to a guy like Ruiz. Ruiz to win. Obviously without footage we can't tell for sure, but that's my best guess. * I'm pretty sure that these debut fighters had fought before, and we have simply lost record of those fights. However, the fact remains that there are records for some of his other opponents, which indicates that possibly these 'debut' fighters don't have a record because they may not have been good enough to attract the attention of the newspapers and scribes.
The whole thing about Sullivan being a right handed fighter is a myth, that arose because he broke his left arm late in his career. Beyond that, his stance and style of attack, were completely different from Johansen's. If anything I would say that his style was most like Floyd Patterson's.
No, Boxrec is almost completely useless here. If you want to get anywhere close to the facts on this, then you will have to research further. A lot further!
The second biography of John L Sullivan by Adam Pollack, is the best interpretation of his career available at the moment. I stand by his conclusions as being broadly correct.
Well it' really hard to say when no living person has seen suliven fight. We know he was 5"10 stocky and fought with hands constantly moving in the odd distinctive old style, Ruiz was decent but not elite, I'm honestly going to lean towards Ruiz simply because he's bigger and has a modern style.
Well ..there s actually a guy that comes in to my local pub ..and he swears BLIND that he once saw John L scrapping . with Jack Dempsey of all.people !!Won't tell me who won though the old swine !
The book raises as many questions as it answers, but it quickly becomes apparent that there is a hell of a lot more to Sullivan's career, than what Boxrec have dug up. It soon becomes apparent that the Boxrec profile, is more misleading than informative. Many of Sullivan's so called exhibitions, were in fact title defenses, where the title would have changed hands if he had lost. Some of them were simply exhibitions. By examining the primary sources, the author shows which were which. The author has been able to confirm that Sullivan fought more than thirty bouts, where his title was on the line! It also becomes apparent that some of the men who he fought, who only have a few recorded fights today, were regarded as being among the best of the era, and legitimate threats to the champion. You still come away thinking that it was a weak era, but it becomes apparent that Sullivan beat most of the people who mattered, with the odd exceptions that you get with all great champions, and dominated most of them.
Interesting video. Would have been MUCH better though, if they could have found someone to train for 3 months in the spikes that Jesse Owens would have worn and on the same tracks. Or even just a few weeks. Probably difficult though to find an in form professional athlete who is willing to take a few weeks out. And of course recorded the time electronically, gonna be a big margin of error when you time by hand, at the start and finish.
I agree that he might have done somewhat better with more time to prepare. It's hard to overlook the fact that he didn't come particularly close to matching Owens time however. Definitely gave me pause for thought.