1882 john L Sullivan vs 1892 James J Corbett

Up until the end of 1882 Sullivan had a total of 16 listed fights,the total fights engaged in by his opponents prior to meeting him was 6! Big fish ,tiny pond.

 

I don't think my response was positive towards Sullivan!

 

12rds, i could go both ways on this tbh, but on balance i'd favour jim.

long/finish fight, 1882 Sullivan all the way.

 

Exhibit A: Charlie Mitchell, a middleweight type lasted 33 rounds with Sullivan once and floored him ( Sullivan won in three rounds, though ) in the other match.

Corbett KO'd the same man in three rounds!

Exhibit B: Corbett KO'd McCaffery in four rounds, Sullivan AGE 26 for his fight with McCaffery took him the distance of seven rounds.

Hmmm...

Corbett faced top competition taking punches from hitters in Peter Jackson, and Joe Choysnki. He also took Jeffries past 20, losing later.

In addition, the fight between them which happened when Sullivan was past it, showed he could not win a round or even 30 seconds of a round and hardly laid a glove on Sullivan. Skills and tactics of the gloved game have changed by then!

I think Corbett schools Sullivan, and might even stop him late in a 20-25 round scheduled match.

As always had Sullivan fought Jackson, Slavin, Goddard, or even Maher, we'd get a better idea of his true ring prowess.

 

The Sullivan Mitchell fight held in France, was fought on turf ,in driving rain that quickly transformed the ring into a muddy quagmire. The conditions favoured the lighter Mitchell who survived by falling down whenever Sullivan mounted an attack. Sullivan crucified him in the second fight.
Corbett beat a 36 years old McCaffrey who had won just one of his last 4 fights. This was nearly 5 years after he had fought Sullivan!
Pollack's book on Jeffries states Jackson was not regarded as a big puncher. Choynski was a novice when he faced Corbett who was the Frisco AC instructor.

 

It was the first fight where Sullivan took care of Mitchell in 3 rounds. I don't really know though who would win this. I think Sullivan in his prime could take it and finish him in a finish fight. If it was a set distance like 20-25 rounds Corbett probably gets the decision.

 

Amended.

 

Prime Sullivan may well have been on Corbett quickly he was very fast into range and carried real power in his right. Tom Sharkey ,who was a crude rusher beat a less than prepared Corbett up.

 

Sullivan at his best was a class above Corbett, in my humble opinion.

I think that at his best he would have chased Corbett down, and put him away at some point.

 

Going off intuition, and little information, I pick Sullivan.
Based off style and testimonials.

 

I think I might lean towards him too.It took a prime Corbett an awful long time to get rid of a washed up, fat ,boozy John L.