John L Sullivan vs Sam Langford 15 rounds

Interesting match! For me, Sullivan is too much of an unknown factor to pick him here. He certainly had the reputation of being a beast during his championship reign. In his losing effort against Corbett, he was still good enough to last into the 21st round even though he was past it. Charley Mitchell took him 39 rounds to a draw and Kilrain went into the 75th round of a bare knuckle bout with him. He is generally considered to be a dominant champion, at least until the rise of Peter Jackson. Langford has a well-established record over a long period of time and he proved himself a most worthy battler against the best of his era. Sullivan would probably be a dangerous opponent for anybody at any time, but I would pick Langford on the basis of his proven record.

 

Sullivan is obviously very hard to rate, but overall I'd pick him.

Not sure why you'd pick 1920's rules since it was after Langford's prime, and after Sullivan had died

 

Sam wouldn't be at a huge size disadvantage (3" in height, same reach) in this fight - so I guess, I'll go with a proven great fighter, against an only slightly bigger opponent, we have never seen. Langford by KO.

 

Yeah, we don't know much about Sullivan so I have to pick very proven fighter who looks fantastic on the film.

 

langford

 

I mean the rulesets back then were very inconsistent. In general it'd make it a lot easier for Sullivan to impose his weight, rough Langford up.

Bareknuckle would be far harder to say

 

He would have the perfect skill set for an 1880s gloved bout.

How he would do in a bare knuckle bout is harder to say.

Sometimes being a top notch gloved fighter, translated into being a top bare knuckle fighter, and sometimes if didn't!

 

Without those pillows on his mighty fists Sullivan destroys Langford, as bare knuckle was Sullivans original stock-in-trade

However with gloves changes things somewhat, however certainly before the effects of the demon drink affected Sullivan he could in his own words "Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House" he was a hard man in hard times.

I think in a bout with Sullivan before his prowess was hindered by alcohol would result in eventually Langford being bullied, Sullivan did not go in for the fancy dan malarkey, a fit Sullivan pressuring like that must have been a scary prospect, especially in a not expansive boxing ring, and without the option that Charley Mitchell had in their Chantilly bout of going to ground when the going got tough

That said i think later on once Sullivan had been caught by the effects of the old "John Barleycorn" then Langford was more than capable of defeating Sullivan, as long as he able to avoid the initial onslaught after which Sullians 'wind' would be gone.

 

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