Why is it that people are saying that griffin was better than martin? Martin recorded the better wins, DESTROYED hank head to head, and rates higher h2h.
Martin dominated with his left jab in a good fast fight. Hank was badly marked up by the forth, dropped several times in the sixth and ko'ed by a flurry of punches in the seventh.
Bad, bad loss for Griffin. LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12.—Big Fred Russell knocked out Hank Griffln, late of Bob Fltzsimmons' camp. In the fourteenth round to-night. The fight was a good one and kept 4000 spec - tators Interested from start to finish. Rus - sell was the aggressor from beginning to end and Hank failed to display any of tha new tricks he claimed to have learned in Fitzslmmons company. In the fourth Russell sent the big black fellow to the floor with a left hook on the jaw. Hank was up and fighting after a few seconds on the canvas. Griffln placed several clean right crosses on Russell's ear and head, but always a little too high. Russell sus - tained a bad gash over the left eye from a collision with Griffin's head. In the fourteenth round Russell rushed and swung wildly, one of his left swings landing on Hank's face. Hank retreated in a hurry, but unfortunately got into a corner. Russell was upon him, swinging for general results, and In the melee Hank went to the floor. He attempted to get up immediately, but had scarcely lifted him - self to a crouching position when Russell, who stood directly over him, sent in a short left hook to the Jaw. Hank went down and was counted out. Tho Century Club managed the night.
Wonderful posts on this and the Jeffries thread. Do you have any posts which actually directly comment on how Martin, Griffin, Armstrong, etc were viewed as contenders. Were they thought of as real threats at the time?
Martin was decent, but he did not exactly beat Jack Johnson. Griffin was un-defeated vs Jack Johnson. I tend to think Griffin was a tad better than Martin was. Both the Martin and Johnson fights vs Griffin happened when Hank was slightly past his prime.
Hank was not seen as a contender, while Martin was mooted as an opponent for Jeffries as early as 1901 but Jeff brought in the colour line at that time. Armstrong was rated as a coming contender when he beat Slavin but Childs and Butler soon changed that and I cannot recall reading that he was considered a title contender after that.
But the report you quoted on the 1902 Armstrong-Martin fight indicated that Armstrong went in the favorite.
Denver Ed Martin beat armstrong in 1902, he was supposed to get a title shot at jeffries but never did. what happened? "Martin proved the cleverer and never gave his opponent a chance, being declared an easy winner on points at the close of the fifteenth round; Martin, it is announced, This content is protected " (Associated Press)".
I doubt if Jeff would ever have fought him, but Martin, I would point out, fought Armstrong in December and was knocked down six times and then proceeded to lose consecutive fights to Johnson, Armstrong, and McVea, which eliminated Martin as a serious contender.
News papers are full of fights that never happened. If you read enough of them, you'll see 100's of examples like this. Back then a fight wasn't officall until the money was up. Press releases did not count for much. Today they mean a bit more. We also have to look at the time lines here. This headline was 1902. In 1903, Martin lost to Johnson on points, was KOd by Armstrong in 3, and KOd by McVey in 1! Hardly worthy of a title shot to Jeffries in 1903.
Jeff had no intention of fighting Martin in 1901 but Ed was certainly put forward by some as a contender for a brief spell. Johnson was also mentioned later, pre-Hart as a contender but for some reason Armstrong never got in the frame. Maybe the prior loss to Jeffries or his other numerous defeats came against him and Griffin was held so lowly at this level that his bout with Jeff was a barely reported exhibition.
