Any idea what Tommy Ryan was doing fighting Ed Martin 4 years after his retirement?

Billed as an exhibition, apparently. Seems a little harsh to tack it onto the end of Ryan's record as a defeat.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1911-11-29/ed-1/seq-2/

 

Ryan was to have an exhibition with middleweight Fritz Holland, but Holland's promoter refused to allow his fighter to come to Portland, because he had a big fight with Knockout Brown scheduled for December. He was substituted by Denver Ed Martin, who was preparing to go to Australia for a tour. The exhibition was for three rounds.

Morning Oregonian wrote:
The two bouts mentioned, which were really worth while, served to help out a lameless situation, in a measure, for the exhibition between Tommy Ryan, former middleweight champion, and "Denver" Ed Martin fell rather flat because of the bulk of the giant negro.
Ryan gave a clever exhibition, but it was like an ant and an elephant, Martin standing six feet three and weighing 220 pounds.

Oregon Daily Journal wrote:
When Frank Gotch and his crowd of merrymakers rolled along and "entertained" the Portland sport fans several weeks ago it was generally judged that the acme of farce in athletic contests had been reached, but it was not so. Last night several hundred fans witnessed a program that went the Gotch thing one better in the athletic line. It was the poorest sporting event that has been seen in years, and it was no wonder that many of the fans did not wait to see the stellar event of the evening, a three-round love tap affair between Tommy Ryan and Denver Ed Martin, which could hardly be termed an exhibition, broadly as that term may be construed.
...
Martin and Ryan boxed three tame rounds. Tommy has a bay window and Ed was slow. Ryan's footwork and punches showed traces of his old-time skill. About the only satisfaction the fans got out of the bout was that of drawing a mental picture of how poor Stanley Ketchel must have looked against Jack Johnson in their ill-matched fight at Frisco.

 

Now that we're on the subject, Tommy Ryan almost never lost through 20 years as a professional: knocked out by the naturally larger Kid McCoy, DQd against George Green but avenged it by KO three months later and his NWS loss to Ed Martin was clearly an exhibition. Legendary stuff.

 

There is no mention of either fighter doing better in this exhibition, I don't know where the boxrec editors took Portland Oregonian supposedly giving newspaper decision to Martin. I quoted what it wrote on the fight, above.

 

Senya fills in the blanks once again.:good

 

On a side note, I don't understand how Ryan could be ranked #9 and Kid McCoy only #43 at middleweight.

 

I see no comparison between McCoy and Taylor. Experts differed on who they thought was better between the two, but both were seen as great even if they never had fought each other. McCoy won one fight cleanly, and the other two were about even. If you liked aggressive fighting better, you picked Ryan, if you liked boxer-puncher and counter-puncher, you picked McCoy. The loss to Ted White in London was controversial from what I read. The loss to Billy Steffers was an accident, pure and simple. He didn't lose any other bouts at middleweight.

 

Ryan was a middleweight longer than McCoy? He was the middleweight champion for years? McCoy's win over Ryan is his only significant accomplishment at the weight?

Are we talking about the same fighters?

 

Ryan's claim to middleweight championship is recognized by whom?

Ryan's first bout at middleweight that I'm aware of was against McCoy in March 1896. McCoy's first bout above welterweight that I know of was his bout with Al Roberts in October 1894. But if you want to take it literally, from their first bout at middleweight limit until their last bout at that weight, well, perhaps Ryan was at it longer, although I'm not sure about McCoy's weight in March 1905 bout vs Jack Crawford.

We'll have to disagree on whether McCoy should be ranked high even without considering his first bout with Ryan.