I am not asking how these fighters would fare against the curent crop, more how marketable they would be and how they would be perceived in the media. Lets assume for the sake of argument that their ring effectivness in this era is prety much the same as in their own era. What sort of careers would they have? John L Sullivan: crowd pleasing wrecking machine with a penchant for generating headlines outside the ring for all the wrong reasons. Jack Johnson: charismatic eloquent and a briliant self publicist with a tendency to generate headlines outside the ring. Perhaps not the most exciting style. Max Schmeling: a genuinely elite German born heavyweight with good business savy. This one might just be a potential goldmine. Feel free to add others.
I reckon John L sullivan would be really popular now...A world class white Irish Amercian heavyweight with an exciting style would be massive in the US surely. There is big money to be made in German boxing as well so Schmeling would do alright for himself im sure. Jack Johnson would probably be more reliant on what he did in the ring to make his name...his out of the ring controversies back then would be childs play today and we probably wouldnt bat an eyelid at them. He wouldnt have to struggle against the discrimination he faced back then so it wouldnt be such an uphill battle in that respect. I guess he may have made a name for himself by getting through a bevy of famous beauties, and probably would of died crashing his Bugatti Veyron while doing 250mph.
Bob Fitzsimmons - A Manny Pacquiao-esque freak who moves from Welter to Light-Heavyweight and cant fight at Heavyweight due to commisions deeming him too small. A cocky character that divides the boxing world, love or hate him. His odd style but hard punch makes his fights exciting.
Sullivan would hiptoss and crash beer bottles over the heads of all the contenders in the division..and finish them off with his roundhouse bar room right hand. Johnson would do very well..he is underrated today. He had freakish strength and was a skilled inside fighter. he could fight in close quarters with anyone, no one would be able to manhandle him, and he would be able to pick them apart with his short accurate pinpoints. With his amazing countering abilities, stiff left jab, and good power in both hands, I see him easily outclassing every heavyweight in the division...with only Wladimir Klitschko being able to compete with him.(I think Wlad takes it due to styles). but no one else beats him(including old Vitali) Max Schmeling would do great. With his lean back counterpunching style, devastating pinpoint sharp right hand, fast combination punching, and physical strength...he could beat anyone. He would murder a fighter like Vitali Klitschko who loves to hold that left low by his waist..and he would nail sam peter with overhand counter rights all day long like toney did. Haye would have a good chance vs Schmeling..but Adamek is too slow and stationary for Max. I think Haye has a explosive punchers chance, and Wlad is a good bet to beat him with his jab(schmeling had issues with long jabs because he didnt protect the left side of his face. Johnson and Schmeling beat everyone except Wlad, imo.
Today he might be no more controvertial than sombody like Floyd Mayweather. He was verry charismatic and media savy.
Jack Dempsey (NP). Two handed brilliant ring general with extraordinary endurance and stamina, 130, 135, 140, 147, 154, 160? Jack Johnson is the one. Johnson would be huge.
Keep in mind the state that boxing is in today with the nearest thing to boxing on free TV is ESPN and sometimes the internet. First of all three would be Crusierweights. They would all at least at some time hold a championship. The WBA heavyweight championship might be open to them, but I think they are too small for the Klitchikos. Jack Johnson with his speed has a slight chance to beat Vittili. Unless they were among the top 5 perhaps top 3 boxers in the world. Any of their outside the ring anticts are most likely going to go unnoticed by the world. If Jack Johnson was around today and he was Maried to a white woman. It would not be that big of a deal. Thankfuly we live in more enlighted times and only a small minority of biggots care about that kind of thing. My opinion is that they would be top curserweights. If the status of boxing is going to be improved a Ali or Tyson like heavyweight champion who not only gets the attition of boxing fans but sport fans and perhaps the general public. Needs to come along. None of those 3 would be it.
Dempsey made the first million $ gate. Plus 4 others, bring in money that not even the Babe was able to pull. Wonder what kinda of money gate that would be like today and could Dempsey repeat it?
Sam Langford would most certainly be a popular character. Apparently he was quite the joker and would no doubt win titles in many weight divisions.
