Did Tommy Burns ever draw the color line?

I get what you are saying, but he defended his title fourteen times, and most of those defenses served no purpose.

As far as I can sell he was the author of this business model.

 

A handful of them were essentially exhibitions, yeah. But the two subsequent defenses against Squires were necessary to prove the first fight wasn't a fluke. Lang, Roche and Palmer were all national champions and would have been considered eligible to challenge Burns as a result. Even Flynn had a couple of good results against Jack Twin Sullivan going into the fight with Burns. They were all perfectly acceptable mid-range contenders that typically flesh out the resume of any champion with double digit title defenses.

The fact is, he faced top contenders when he needed to, attempted negotiations with other contenders, and eventually faced Jack Johnson, who was the number one guy. There's more wheat than chaff on his championship resume.

 

Burns like a lot of titleholders of that time wasn't against fighting black fighters before becoming a champion, but once champion he immediately drew the colorline. However, unlike Sullivan, Corbett, Jeffries, etc... Burns didn't have the same earning capacity while still maintaining the colorline and got tired of the abuse he was getting from the newspapers and Jack Johnson, so even though he didn't want to he gave in and made the most of the situation.

Here is a piece in 1907 discussing Burns finally agreeing to defend his title against Black fighters if the price is right.

Tommy Burns has publicly declared that he is not disposed to raise the color line any longer and that if any negro pugilist thinks he has a claim on the heavyweight championship he can come forward with a challenge in the regular way. "Jack" Johnson intimated the day after the burns-Squires fight that he would like to take Tommy's measure, and no one doubts that he will be heard from without much delay. it would, consequently, appear that the next big fight will take place between Burns and Johnson, but the probabilities are that several months will elapse before the men can get together.
https://imgur.com/pvF3efb

Here is a piece from 1913 with Burns giving his thoughts on what forced him to fight Jack Johnson.

Tommy Burns writes to a friend in Chicago that he always feared Jack Johnson and that he gave the negro a chance to fight him only because he was forced to do so by newspapers.

Tommy says he believes every boxer fears some other fighter. He admits Johnson had his "goat" and that he boosted the price so high he did not believe it would be met. It is a lifelong regret that he ever consented to meet Johnson. Burns insists, however, that he would have won from the negro had the referee allowed the bout to continue.
https://imgur.com/xqsbRLp

Also, Johnson when he started fighting on the west coast made connections with a lot of wealthy and influential people. The wealthiest I can think of was Edward Ripley, who was the President of the Santa Fe Railway, who became of fan and supporter of Johnson after seeing him beat Jack Jeffries. Leon See was also a big supporter of Jack Johnson years before Johnson got the fight with Burns. Another supporter I can think of was D**kerson, the Colorado Daily News Editor, who was very influential nationally and thought Burns was an embarrassment as champion, so he gave Johnson a ton of support until the fight between Burns and Johnson happened.