A Re-assessment Of Gentleman Jim Corbett

Sullivan did have a short prime though. I don't think he was the same after 84. Probably the shortest prime out of all the HW champions. As for Corbett while I do think he was a good boxer. You're right in saying his record isn't deserving of a high ranking. I think he really cared more for acting than fighting. Wish he had fought more though he might've changed some minds about him. Who knows?

 

That would explain nothing!

You would still have to account for why certain guys out boxed others and certain characters out trained others.

You can’t explain away everything by saying, everybody from that era was bad!

 

Didn't say that. Said the "greats" weren't really great. You seem to want to use Corbett’s lack of dominance to elevate others; I see it as possibly suggesting his own lack of elevation.

 

I see myself more as arguing the middle way here.

 

What was so good about Dominic McCaffrey ?

 

He was probably the best of a weak crop, but he gave Sullivan a vaguely competitive fight, and seems to have been too much for most of the rest.

 

The other question is how well Corbett’s style would translate into other eras.

People often use footage of Corbett as evidence that boxing science has advanced.

This is a mistake in my opinion, because Corbett was a highly unorthodox fighter, for his era.

He fought with his hands low, and relied on reflexes and feints to avoid getting hit.

In this sense he was rather like a bigger version of Jimmy Slatterey.

Most fighters would get their head handed to them today fighting like this, and the same was probably true in Corbett’s era.

There is a good argument for saying that he was the best feinter of all the heavyweight champions, and frankly I think that he would have been a nightmare for anybody.