What type of an athlete was John L Sullivan?

I suppose he was very strong man and he was probably explosive too.

 

He was a member of a mixed race rowing team early on.

 

I can did around a bit, and see if anything else turns up.

 

I bet he was a great drinking athlete

In all seriousness, I imagine he was a short stocky guy with big power and slow hands. I could be wrong though.

 

I think before he won the title that he was a disciplined athlete to a degree but after that the drinking sessions became more and more frequent

apart from the recovery camp overseen by Muldoon Sullivan was never fully in shape after beating paddy Ryan in 1882

 

The one thing that everybody seems to have agreed about, is that he had fast hands.

 

Ah thanks, then he must have been a really good athlete

Do you might have been somewhat similar to Andy Ruiz? Obviously not nearly as fat, but Ruiz has surprisingly fast hands and good power. If Ruiz slimmed down, I could see him being a real threat.

If Sullivan had fast hands and a big punch, I could see him being a smaller version of Ruiz.

 

yeah I agree.

Regarding losing hand speed at 32, I imagine being overweight would significantly change hand speed. If Sullivan was completely out of shape vs Corbett, I would imagine it would effect his hand speed drastically.

I do agree that hand speed does not decline as quick as foot speed does. I mean Ali still had lightning fast hands at 32 vs Foreman but he was much slower on his feet. But Ali was in tremendous shape though.

 

The closest we can come to quantifying his hand speed, is Joe Choynski's claim that Sullivan was as fast as he was. To give context, Joe Choynski once fought an exhibition with John L Sullivan. While Sullivan was touring Australia Choynski was interviewed by an Australian journalist and questioned about how Sullivan might have fared against Peter Jackson and Joe Goddard. On Goddard he said:

“I don’t think he would have a ghost of a show with Sullivan. You see its this way. Sullivan is quicker than I am and he hits with terrible power. If I had a tenth of Sullivan’s force Id have beaten Goddard both times I fought him. Now its easy to figure out. I honestly think that John would smash him down with little trouble”.

“You have never seen Sully fight Smiler. His right arm don’t do any swinging, it come across like a flash of lightning with a jerk, and if he misses he is so quick you can’t get your head out of range before he’s back ready for another shot at your jaw and how it does fly ping ping”.

If we take Choynski at his word that Sullivan had faster hands than him then it is quite instructive because we have footage of Choynski sparring with Jim Jeffries:

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I never thought to compare them before, but you might not be that far wrong!