Could John L Sullivan train in 1882, then take a time machine (along with his corner) to arrive in the mid 1970's, on the day of a fight against Ken Norton, and still prevail? also: If Sullivan and Norton had come along at the same time, each devoting themselves to boxing, who would you favor?
Sullivan was a tough *******, and we saw Norton unable to put away game men that were smaller then Sullivan in Stander. Or even Quarry. I really wouldn't rule out Sullivan landing a bomb.
Kinda of hard with out real fight footage of Sullivan outside of mock fighting with Corbett, with a few feits. I would make Sullivan the favor base on his legend status, and I belive, well in most cases anyway, you have to be pretty special to beat a fighter of that class. I dont think Norton is one of em.
Norton's blackness would force a forfeiture on the part of Sullivan. I do have a certain admiration for Sullivan. Sullivan is the person responsible for making boxing become what it would later. His claims of defeating any challenger, and actually trying to carry it out, is what gave interest to this sport. I also remind myself that Sullivan is the fighter boxing was created to defeat. If Sullivan were transported in time, boxing would have evolved way too much for him to compete.
I would strongly favour Sullivan even given the uncertainties surrounding his style. Lets face it Norton did not match up well with punchers who were world class or even those who were somewhat short of being world class in some cases. The one thing that we can safely assume about Sullivan is that he was a dynamite puncher with fast hands and a good finisher. I would say in verry general terms that Sullivan had power and hand speed comparable to Jack Dempsey. The testimonies of people who saw him fight or fought him speak for themselves.
That is the legend but the reality is a little different. History has been verry kind to Jim Corbett in large part because he wrote it. He may have been many things but the farther of modern boxing is not one of them. Sullivan although an offensive fighter was prety technical. The forerunner of methodical offensive fighters like Jack Dempsey and Mike Tyson. I would also add that he was using the left hook before Jim Corbett had ever heard of it. The first technical boxer in the modern sense was Jem Mace though even he based his style on earlier fighters like Nat Langham. When Sullivan came allong there had been nothing like him in living memory. There had been small technical fighters like Tom Sayers or Jem Mace, and big fighters with modest technique like John C Heenan and Tom King. Suddenly here was this 200 lb wrecking machine who hit like Heenan but had the handspeed of a middleweight and was a technical boxer to boot. No wonder he became a global sports star.
