Jack Johnson .Vs. John L. Sullivan

Interesting idea.

What rule set would they fight under?

 

I go with Johnson. Corbett troubled a past prime Sullivan with his defense and while Johnson´s was different, it was also better and he would be quite a bit bigger. Johnson by KO between round 10 and 20.

 

That would normaly be seen as tiping the ballance towards Sullivan, although Johnson was an acomplished wrestler and was good enough with bare fists to compete in battle royales.

Sullivan is always going to be harder to interpret as a fighter than Johnson.

All I can say for certain is that Johnson probably had the defensive skill to potentialy frustrate and defeat Sullivan while Sullivan probably had the power to potentialy stop or discourage Johnson.

This is a bit like a Johnson Dempsey match up with the ballance tiping to whoever adapts better to the rule set.

 

I ight would favor Sullivan in London Ring Rules jophnson was stopped by Choynski

 

Yeah, but that was a green undersized Johnson not the one he would become later on.

 

Charley Mitchell the British Middleweight persuades me in favour of Johnson ,under London prize ring Rules and under modern rules ,I think Jack makes a ****** out of John L.

 

How so?

 

Johnson took part in Battle Royals.. and won nearly if not all of them he took part in. Sullivan would be KO'd.

 

Mitchell drew with Sullivan on Rothschild's estate over 39 rds ,despite being out weighed by 40lbs ,the muddy conditions doubtless hampered the bigger man ,but still what a middleweight could do ,I feel Johnson could improve on.

 

My questions would be:

A. Was it a prime Jawn L?

B. Did Mitchel get a draw just for finishing on his feet?

 

Not quite the same thing as a London Prize Ring Rules fight though.

 

Good questions.It was March 10th 1888,a year before Sullivan went 75 rds with Jake Kilrain,in the last Bareknuckle Championship fight,Sullivan was 30 ,so I assume if he could go that distance with Kilrain a year later he was in his prime,John knocked Mitchel down 15 times ,but the Englishman came to scratch fresh every time ,both men wre exhausted at the finish and a draw was suggested and accepted by both parties,no prior arrangement of finishing for a draw was agreed .Mitchell was destroyed by Corbett,and much the smaller man against Sullivan ,also he dropped John in their first fight .Johnson was light years better than Mitchell,and thats what I base my conclusions on.Lil Arthur under any rules,except perhaps a bar room brawl.

 

My observation would be that Sullivan was badly disipated by alchohol when he signed for the Killrain fight, but Muldoon put him into detox and managed to roll back the cobwebs for one last hurah.

I think his best days were behind him by his late 20s and that probably includes the Mitchel fight.

An interesting question is how Sullivan would have fared against a prime Jem Mace who was verry mobile and scientific.