Makes me wonder how a boxer also trained in Judo would have done. Leg sweeps and hip throws suck ass especially if you haven't practised falling from them.
I've found one report from "The Brooklyn Daily Eagle". It states "It was the almost unanimous opinion of the crowds that saw the fight that had the affair progressed it could only have ended in defeat for Corbett." I found this source from page 178 of "In the ring with James J. Jeffries." It doesn't list the date unfortunately.
It'll be the next day report, veiwable here https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031151/1898-11-23/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=11/23/1898&index=11&date2=11/23/1898&searchType=advanced&SearchType=prox5&sequence=0&words=Corbe'tt+Corbet.t+Corbett+Corbett’s&proxdistance=5&to_year=1898&rows=20&ortext=&from_year=1898&proxtext=corbett&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1 The consensus was definitely that Sharkey was having the better of it, but if you read various round by round accounts, Corbett seems to have been getting back into it. Due to the weird ending, and the reports having such different opinions, I don't think you can take much from it. https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030272/1898-11-23/ed-1/seq-2 Here's another report. There's many more, but most aren't avaliable for free.
A lot of contemporary observers said that Sullivan was a good technician. I will grant you that gloved boxing was in its infancy, but the sport of boxing was centuries old. We can't simply assume that Sullivan was crude. Also Sullivan was obviously the best puncher of his era, so he wouldn't necessarily have to be a master boxer to beat Tunney. Sullivan fought the best professional boxers of his era. I lean towards the idea that it was a weak era, but I can't prove that it was. By no means everybody from that era fought leaning back, Sullivan himself being a case in point. Corbett was fairly unorthodox by the standards of his era, so I would not assume that he was typical. Sullivan might have been 33 when he fought Corbett, but he was a chronic alcoholic, who had been inactive for years, and he had lost much of the mobility in his left arm (after he broke it in the Cardiff fight). It is safe to say that he was pretty shot.
I noticed that Teddy Atlas lists John L. Sullivan as #8 on his all-time Heavyweight list. I'd love to ask him how he came to that conclusion. Teddy Atlas, 2011: Joe Louis Muhammad Ali Jack Johnson Rocky Marciano Gene Tunney Jack Dempsey Sam Langford John L. Sullivan Larry Holmes Sonny Liston
You could make a case for having Sullivan in your top five. He was as dominant as anybody has ever been.
Supposedly he also said dempsey would have koed sullivan in about two seconds. Re robert smith world boxing and wrestling
Exactly so. A lot of people assume that they have some sort of handle on the man, until we swipe it out of their hand!
When the Great John L see Tunney wearing a Corbett style thong into the ring (Tunney thought it was a great idea to wear a thong like the man who defeated Sullivan as a psychological plot to enrage Sullivan), he is immediately filled with lust so strong that he is actually dizzy. Tunney takes advantage of his evil plot and slaps Sullivan mercilessly for the entire first round. After drinking a full glass of whiskey back in his corner, Sullivan becomes revitalized and begins to land heavy shot on Tunney's chin, who then gets on his bicycle for the rest of the right, avoiding the bull like rushes of Sullivan. Final result is a UD for Tunney.
Thinking that John Sullivan fought in a similar style to Jim Jeffries might not be a bad guess, but there really is no way to be sure. I would not attempt to guess at a winner of John Sullivan vs. Gene Tunney without film of young Sullivan to analyze.
I think they were quite different. I get the impression Sullivan was somewhat closer to Dempsey. Much more aggressive and a better finisher, while Jeffrieswas more methodical. Though I rate big Jeff higher than either. Jeffries isn't the easiest to get a handle on either, for sure he fought in different styles in different fights.
