Was John L Sullivan The Mike Tyson Of His Day?

Pretty much. Sullivan was described as being an explosive, early finisher with deadly punching power, fast hands as well as fast feet. He would also often fight out of a crouch, one newspaper said that he crouched as low as a featherweight. Maybe a Dempsey would be a more accurate comparison.

Apparently, despite naturally weighing 195-203, he would often come into fights out of shape at 225-245, but wear the weight surprisingly well and still manage to maintain his speed.

 

I suspect, if we had film of John L. Sullivan fighting, we would see something resembling Mike Tyson, at least in Glove fights, possibly with slightly less overall defense and also slightly less head movement. I imagine we would see more feinting, and misdirection, however, from John L. He was probably a two-fisted terror before he injured his arm. Except for George Godfrey (who I believe Sullivan could have defeated), he went through the Heavyweight Division of that time very convincingly, never losing a fight until his last one with James J. Corbett. In his prime I am sure he was a human wrecking machine.

 

I think that the analogy with Tyson is a good one.

He was fast, and explosive, disposing of his opponents very quickly.

He also made headlines and gained notoriety, for his conduct outside the ring.

 

I see him more like Tyson Fury given the amount of fights he planned that never ended up happening. I was reading an old thread about it the other day the amount of planned fights this man avoided is truly something to behold.

 

In terms of being a major icon in the sport who brutally KOd opponents with a fearsome reputation and a fearsome aggressive fighting style, yes that's a good comparison.

 

No.

1. John L. Sullivan was dead at 59, an obese, white-haired old man. Mike Tyson, who turns 58 this year, is ripped and fighting on Netflix this summer against Jake Paul.

2. Mike fought 15 heavyweight champions. (Make it 16 if you want to add his no-decision fight with Roy Jones) and an assortment of dangerous top contenders (Ruddock, Stewart, Golota, The "Truth" Williams, Savarese). John L.'s opposition was incredibly inferior for the most part, by comparison.

3. Mike has a lucrative weed business (with Ric Flair) and is financially sound (a multi-millionaire, in fact). John L. spoke out against the dangers of intoxication and didn't have much to show for all the cash he earned.



Jake Paul is actually more like John L. Sullivan than Mike Tyson is like Sullivan.

1. Instead of going from town to town, one bar to another (the gathering places of that age) saying he can beat any sonofabitch in the house (like Sullivan did), Paul goes from one social media tough guy to the next saying he can beat any sonofabitch on YouTube/TikTok and Instagram (the social media gathering places today), exciting the online masses.

2. Paul, like Sullivan was, is a master at cultivating headlines against basically non-descript opponents and earning a fortune along the way.

3. Also, like Paul, about 90 percent of Sullivan's fights were scheduled for no more than four rounds, many of them exhibitions with no judges.

4. Tough guys with little experience can't wait to fight Jake Paul, like tough guys with little experience couldn't wait to fight John L. Sullivan. Sullivan, apparently, didn't strike fear into too many people before fights. Every drunkard and wannabe thought they had a shot against him, like they do with Paul.

On the other hand, even experienced pro boxers were terrified of fighting Mike Tyson at his peak. Champions were visibly scared when the bell rang for their fights with him.


John L. Sullivan was a pioneer. But it's a disservice to compare him to greats who came later.

Sullivan was just the most recognized tough guy of the Gilded Age, like Paul is the most recognized tough guy for the Social Media age.

If there was film of John L and his opponents, it would probably resemble Paul's fights with his.

 

Which fights are they exactly?

 

Then at least John L learned something from his rich tapestry of mistakes.

 

Sullivan was the first American sports superstar ... he was more than a celebrity , he defined an age .. He may have been the most famous man on the planet , if not in the US for sure, by far , for a period of over ten years ... he was far , far more know. and impactful 9 with respect to the previous poster ) than Jake Paul is today ... Sullivan was known in crossover fashion by all classes and international royalty in an age forty years before telephones existed ... very very few athletes let alone prize fighters had that sort of impact ... Johnson did because of the color of his skin but he was equally hated as much as he was liked. Dempsey was box office magic , obviously and a film star ... he was right up there ... Louis going into the second Schmeling fight was gigantic , especially to the African American population ... Ali was huge but Tyson was most like Sullivan in both his cross over fame and his swagger, his gangster appeal, his crush and destroy attitude .. Sullivan and Tyson were very similar in that aspect of their exceptional fame ..

 

I don't remember which exactly. But I was reading an excellent thread on this site detailing the HW division of the late 1800s month by month. Seemingly every other month Sullivan was in discussions to fight someone he ended up not fighting. That was a key takeaway I got from reading the thread more than any individual he avoided.

Cleary maybe?

 

Sullivan's activity as a champion was mainly in the early 1880s.

He suffered from sever health implications in teh late 1880s, and was technically retired by 1888.

 

Despite this it seems he was often in talks to fight someone else whenever someone had a few solid wins and it just never ended up happening until 1892.

I can not recall name of thread. But it was very long.

 

He was retired from 1888 onwards, and had declared it publicly.

He is a retired fighter from that point onward.

No retired fighter is ever on teh line for anything.

He doesn't have to defend against anybody, but people are trying to talk him out of retirement.

 

My thread detailing the monthly history is here:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/monthly-heavyweight-rankings-from-1882-onwards.690313/

I intend on continuing this at some point, but other projects have taken over recently.