Tommy Ryan breaks down the top fighters of 1907

The depth of talent and level of competition in a lot of divisions around this time has been lost on the average boxrec warrior.

Untill the 1940s, Billy Papke would have been in the discussion about greatest middleweights of all time allong with Ketchell. People would have argued for a top 5 slot.

Ketchell was a great midleweight champion who beat other great champions.

 

Clay Moyle's 'Sam Langford' book quotes Sam that Ketchel was the best white fighter he ever fought.

 

Burns wasn't well liked at the time, in part because he came off as brash and arrogant (he talked a lot of smack in the fight with Hart), and in part because he succeeded a long reigning and failry popular champion in Jefferies. Ryan may have been an astute observer of the game, but it's very possible that Tommy's personality rubbed him the wrong way and maybe affected his analysis of Burns as a fighter.

 

Another reason could be because Tommy did not have great success against the middleweights Ryan listed above. Tommy lost to jack sullivan and drew with Hugo Kelly multiple times. He never beat Papke or Ketchel. If Ryan holds these fighters in such a high class, perhaps he feels burns left the middleweight division because the competition was too tough for him.

 

Joe Gans is amazing imo.

 

Joe Gans is hands down the most modern looking fighter on film pre 1905. He is also hands down one of the greatest fighters of all time, regardless of era. I guess thats just my opinion. But it's hard to argue with what I said above.

 

Well, Ryan said that Burns was a good fighter, so he wasn´t thinking bad of him. He just thought he wasn´t a good champ. He thought highly of Johnson at the same time. Perhaps Burns avoiding Johnson has something to do with it.

 

Did Burns avoid Sam Mcvea?

 

You mean in terms of dominating the centre? I suppose that's true. I have no doubt that Gans would be great in any era personally.

 

I don´t know. But what I do know is that Ryan said Burns was a good fighter but a bad champ. At the same time he said Johnson was the best fighter of the division. We also know that Burns avoided Johnson. So, my assumption that Ryan did not think highly of Burns as a champ because he avoided the best holds some water.

 

I never read much up on how the fight played out. That's fantastic though, to outbox the master. Was he using the jab? I suppose on the footage one thing to put to use against Gans would be a great jab. Langford is one of the very highest rated when all is said and done.