113 years ago: Noah "Tommy Burns/Little Giant of Hanover" Brusso vs. John Arthur "Jack" Johnson

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Combined they earned what is today a very meager annual salary of 35k USD. That is 1.75% of what Jake Paul made last time out.

Johnson, nicknamed "The Galveston Giant" (which would not fit the thread title's character limit, alas) was legitimately large for his day, and he had an advantage of 25½lbs here. He would by modern standards be a cruiser, but Brusso would in today's day-before weigh-in era likely be a super welter.

Given the physical disparities you would never see this sanctioned nowadays - but even if it were, when Johnson began asserting his dominance it wouldn't have taken long for Burns to be in a "show something or you're being saved from yourself" position. For it to last fourteen and ultimately take police intervention to halt is frankly bananas. Burns was outsized but just as much outplanned. Forcing the smaller man to not only pressure but do so while remaining on the outside by using such prolific clinching was devilishly clever of Johnson, making it easy in the later rounds to rip counter uppercuts on the tiring and desperate champ. Even more so than the challenger's strength and strategy, though, you've got to commend the fiery little Canadian's heart shown in defeat. Never stopped flinging himself at the superlative Giant, until the long arm of the law cut in.

 

Tough little Canuck.

Physically speaking at least, the white version of Sam Langford in terms of height, reach and weight transcendent pop in his punch.

 

Burns took $30k of the $35k on offer ,[a then record amount,] and after beating Burns Johnson declared that was his price for defending his new title.
Johnson commended Burns for his courage and later said he gave him a harder fight than Jeffries.

 

Give Burns his due for taking on Johnson. A little guy but tough as boots.

 

For damn sure. Case in point, look at that uppercut Johnson fed him early in round eight. That should have felled a typical man of Brusso's mass right then and there, game over. He trudged on another six rounds & change!

He was only ever stopped once, in his final bout, twelve years AFTER he fought Johnson - and even that was by corner (and career, by extension) retirement, not him being knocked out cold. That despite the fact that he often faced massive gulfs in size, usually not as pronounced as with Johnson but still enough that he probably belonged at least a division or two removed from his opponents in the bulk of his thirteen world heavyweight title defenses.

 

If Johnson spent more time boxing as opposed to talking smack and grinning like an idiot this bout might have been interesting. The crowd was certainly not entertained, they looked frankly bored to be there.

 

Burns stupidly fell in in clinch after clinch. And let Johnson hit him and hold him. Not impressed with Johnson defense. He got killed today, no side to side movement and a low guard. Not that it matters in this fight. Burns had nothing on him.

 

I mean, being the much smaller and less athletic man and forced to not only pressure but do it from the outside while the much bigger man alternates between countering and clinching you is a uniquely tough position to be in. Not something fighters trained for them, nor do they now. I'm frankly not sure what Brusso could have done any differently to have more success.

 

The funniest thing is that Burns was the kind of fighter most people here would expect to kill Johnson. He was a very good combination puncher who varied his attacks and used angles well. In other fights, Burns looked quite good yet Johnson made him look like a fool.

 

True, Burns had a lot going for him but his abilities notwithstanding, the size difference was a huge disadvantage v Johnson, just as it was for Langford when he fought Jack. I think Johnson was immensely skilful but the frequent clinching just proved itself as the least taxing option to shut his opponent down. And as often as Johnson did clinch and manhandle, it was as boring as bat ****. LOL.

 

Anybody familiar with a website called 'boxinghalloffame.com'? Apparently they were around for a while, as Google claims to have first tracked it more than a decade ago with a cache from as recently as 2018. Anyway, that is the one place I've seen traces of Burns' retirement bout versus Joe Beckett uploaded anywhere online. Both the website and the YouTube channel that hosted the video embedded on the site appear to now be defunct. You can view the cache here:
https://webcache.googleusercontent....s-day-july-16-1920/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

So the footage is out there, somewhere, theoretically available to be reuploaded.

 

We're still a couple of months away from the 117th anniversary, but if you want to celebrate in style you can use my free design and order yourself a sick Burns tee.

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https://www.customink.com/designs/T...s4JWdercDJ6bl6u32sLHUKdxQgq__9AASyh-qA.SKGNUp

 

Nearly 4 years on and this fight isn’t getting any younger.

Proud to say that this fight went down in OZ, Rushcutter’s Bay, Sydney in 1908.

A plaque was unveiled in 2019 to commemorate the unprecedented, historic event (see below).

I believe that well known Australian artist Norman Lindsay did the art work promoting the fight.

Lindsay, slightly built himself, was otherwise controversial for his nude drawings, paintings and sculptures of “voluptuous” women.

I’ve actually visited Lindsay’s house which is now a museum. Everywhere you turned there was a rudey nudey to ogle. Norman FTW.

He also built incredibly detailed models of the old tall ships.

He was a highly talented artist across the board.

https://wbcboxing.com/en/jack-johnson-y-tommy-burns-son-inmortalizados/

 

I'm heading down to Sydney in a few weeks time and planning to visit the site and check out the plaque. I stopped in at Peter Jackson's grave the other day when I went past in Brisbane. After licking Burns, Johnson travelled up to Brisbane by steam boat and paid homage to Jackson.

 

That’s a nice story re Johnson paying homage.

Some photos of Peter Jackson’s grave and headstone: -

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7365587/peter-jackson/photo