Could Ali of beaten John L Sullivan in Bare Knuckle Boxing

Interesting. Have you seen the Ali-Inoki match? I think Ali would have done whatever it took to survive and/or win.

 

Didn't he previously defeat Mitchell ? That said it was more than just bare knuckles but throwing to the ground, wrestling, etc .. not Ali's game at all ..

 

So do you believe he would beat Carnera or not?

And how about other brutally strong fighters like Liston, Foreman, Ibeabuchi, Vitali, etc... does he beat them as well?

 

Yes Sullivan had previously defeated Mitchell in a Queensbury bout.

 

Yes, probably under both bare knuckle and Queensbury rules.

If it is an LPR fight, then it is always tempting to pick the man with experience under that rule set, over the man without experience under that rule set.

It is just such a different sport.

The strongest argument on your side, is probably Sullivan himself ironically!

He proved a that a Queensbury specialist, could rise to the top in LPR.

 

Not sure about this fight specifically but I’ve noticed when watching BKFC, fighters who fight in a bladed stance, off their back foot and are jab heavy or “Pure boxers” never do well, now I understand that BKFC isn’t exactly the same as the LPR rules of last century but i found it interesting

 

Ali is far too talented. Of course he might do permanent damage to his hands and never fight again, but in a hypothetical one time fight, not a career, he's going to beat Sullivan with boxing gloves, bare knuckles, oven mitts, children's mittens, whatever....

 

I'm not sure how well a stick and move style would work on dirt or a sand covered area. Also, why would you let a guy jab you silly? Lean in and let him bust his knuckles on the top of your head; that was a common strategy well into the 30s at least.
I don't think that the practice of not throwing body punches would translate well either. Hitting the body is easier on the hands and does a lot of damage. Finally, bare knuckles takes some of the thrill out of "blistering" multi punch combinations because you have to be conscious of where the punch is landing and on what part of your hands. You can seriously hurt your hand with a nothing punch..

 

I don't think modern bareknuckle really says anything about LPR or other historic bareknuckle boxing.

It completely lacks the main things that set bareknuckle apart from modern gloved, that is fights to the finish, throwing opponents to the ground, and fights ending when either is down. Plus they have wrist support, so it doesn't even really say anything about the punching technique.

Probably the only footage that could be considered to be from true LPR boxers (that I know of) are the bits of exhibition footage of Billy Edwards and Jem Carney

 

Good points. Ali is bigger, faster, more skilled, but why would he want to fight a bare knuckle fight? Unless there is enough money in the pot to make the purse big enough that he would never need to fight again, why take the damage to his hands? As greynotsoold mentioned, anybody should be smart enough to try to take punches to the top of the head, damaging the other fighter's knuckles. I've known two fighters who have fought a bare knuckle fight in the last month. One lost in less than 2 minutes, got stitches all over his face, and still got a hand injury. The other won in about a minute and got a hand injury. About the only "safe" places to hit someone is the nose or the side of the jaw and even then there is the chance of catching a tooth or sharp edge and cutting the knuckles. I don't see anything in fighting bare knuckle unless there is a lot of money involved.

 

Sullivan had no desire to take part in a bare knuckle fight, but the public and the media would not recognize him as the champion, based upon a gloved bout.

Ali would have been faced with the same dilemma.

 

Ali had lousy hands, so

 

Ali would have made John L exhausted from missing so much !

 

Not for three hours he wouldn't!