How good was Marvin Hart?

Hart made Johnson shut down, limiting his offense to virtually nothing in the second half of the fight.

If you read the reports, Johnson faded in some of his title fights. He was tired vs Flynn they say at ring side when it was stopped on a DQ, and he was running out of steam vs Jim Battling Johnson, and did the same later in the Moran fight.

Hart wasn't a 5'7"-5'9" tall man Johnson could simply clinch and hit. No sir he was a legit heavyweight the same size as Johnson and made him fight at a pace he didn't like.

I'm not sure when he lost vision, but fighting with one good eye is very difficult.

 

Hart (after beating Johnson) and Root were the top two hwt contenders at the time they fought for the vacated championship. True Jeffries appointed these two to fight for the championship but they indeed were, or they logically can be determined as, the top two at the time of their bout. Jeffries gave a excellent explanation of this which was confirmed by Ring in their analysis back in the early 70’s.

There is no way to accurately measure Hart as their is zero film footage of him in action.

 

The film footage shows Johnson toyed with Flynn. It was a completely one sided fight.

 

JACK JOHNSON FAIRLY PLAYED WITH JIM FLYNN

Jack Johnson is weight "champion pi the world, and another "white hope,"has been added 'to the roll of hopeless.
Jim Flynn was battered unmer- cifully, as the negro toyed with him during most of the fight. Bloody from head to waist, it was only a question of a few more rounds before Flynn would have taken the count.
The state police stopped the fight in the ninth round, and un- der an agreement that the man ahead at the time 'the fight was stopped, if there shou.ld be police interference, was te get the decision.
Referee Smith slapped the
smoke on the back.
Flynn fought one of the rough-
est fights in ring history. In one department of the game, at which the black race is supposed to ex- cel, the white man showed his su- periority. He had the hardest head. Several times he jumped clear of the floor to butt Johnson in the chin with his dome. These, occasions were the only ones on which Flynn "used his head." He did not class with the champion. Constantly during the fight Johnson turned away from the challenger to talk with friends at the ringside.

 

WHITE MAN BADLY PUNISHED.
San Franoisco, Thursday.—Jack
Johnson easily defended his title of
champion boxer of tbe world against
Jim Flynn, at Las Vegas this morning.
Tbe police stopped tbe fight in tbe
ninth round, when Flynn, committed
a deliberate foul.
The white man was frightfully beaten, whilst the champion was hardly marked. Throughout the light Johnson played with Flynn, who, in the last three rounds realizing that he was
a beaten man, tried to lose by butting his opponent. Johnson held himself in reserve always, and fought carefully.
Special trains brought thousands to
Lis Voijas, and tbe big canvaa arena
was well filled.
Both men were apparently in splendid condition. The weather was clear and fine.
Johnson, before the light, declared
that be would win within ten rounds.
Flynn, however, expressed himself
confident of beating the champion. Johnson offered to bet 10,000 dollars to 1000 dollars that he
would win. The referee was Mr El.
Smith, a well known Cbioago sporting writer,
THE ROUNDS.
In tbe first round Flynn started
rushing Johnson, who easily avoided the onslaught and Flynn appeared after a rally with a deep cut under his
left oye. Then with left and right
books, Johnson shook Flynn considerably.

In the second round Johnson simply toyed with bis opponent, who be
gan to bleed freely from the moutb.

In tbe following turn Flynn rushed
his man, and hooked both right and
left to Johnson's moutb, bringing
blood, but Flynn himself was stream
ing with blood as he went to bis cornet at the end.

Flynn was badly punished in the
next three rounds. He tried to reach
Johnson's stomach, but tbe latter kept him off, and merely laughed at hisMefforts. The champion dazzled the spectators with his speed.

Flynn started butting in the sixth
round, and was cautioned by the referee. He claimed Johnson was holding him.

Then Johnson dazed Flynn with a
volley of straight lefts and rights to
the face and then slackened his efforts apparently to prolong the fight.

In the seventh round Flynn, failed
to land a single blow, whilst Johnson
landed a dozen bard punches, and
made the blood fairly gush from Flynn as he rained blow after blow upon him. Flynn started butting and was again warned. When the round closed he had not touched Johnson.

The ninth round opened with Johnson holding his opponent at arms length in an attempt to prevent him from butting. Finally Flynn got close, and jumped a foot in the air. The police thereupon stopped the fight, and the referee gave Johnson the decision.

An angry scene followed. The
crowd was very wrathful, and vigorously booed Flynn.

Later Johnson's victory was hailed with great jubilation at Chicago by the negro population, ending in a riot, which was quelled by police. The police used their batons' freely on the ******s heads and arrested a number.

 

Not sure. But it was. Put someone like Canelo Alvarez in a time machine and he’s probably a legitimate heavyweight contender back then.

 

Marvin Hart? More like Marvin fart.

 

Seamus and Kev crack me up lol

Oh and I agree with kevin ... He didn't really beat Johnson in my view, he got the verdict with a clear bias in effect, on my levels.

 

Lol all of this is wrong and you know it Mendoza

 

Root was better than Jack Johnson?

The more I learn around here. Mostly thanks to you, good sir!

 

Johnson was eliminated via Hart’s win over him. Who is “better” is not relevant.

 

Wait, in the Greb thread, didn't you say we can judge him based on his resume and reports, even with no footage of him in action?

 

Full blood racist Jeffries eliminated Johnson before the bout actually.

 

Random tidbit: Hart was actually a more virulent racist than Jeffries. Such a known bigot that when the Johnson fight was made at least one paper (I think the Boston Globe?) ran a story about how boxing people suspected that the fix might be in for Hart to rescind the color line he’d adamantly drawn in the past. Called Johnson all kinds of racist slurs, too. But it seems that he needed to fight Johnson in order to get a shot at Jeffries.

 

Just like Jeffries it is difficult to rank Hart as there is no film footage (in the case of Jeffries good film footage). With Greb however his record is overwhelming in its depth. A literal who’s who of boxing greats he beat one after another. It’s a record no one can ignore even without the film footage to back it up.