John L V Max Baer??

But as i said, Vitali does the same thing before every jab he fired against lennox.

 

That never happened.

 

Corbett describes the thigh slap and he used it to know when a right was coming allowing him to spin away (etc) from corners to avoid the blow. The third round Sullivan for once did not slap his thigh but was met with a blistering straight left followed by several other blows that broke his nose. As follows:

From the beginning of the round Sullivan was aggressive-wanted to eat me up right away. He came straight for me and I backed and backed, finally into a corner. While I was there I observed him setting himself for a right-hand swing, first slapping himself on the thigh with his left hand-sort of a trick to balance himself for a terrific swing with his right. But before he let the blow go, just at the right instant, I sidestepped out of the corner and was back in the middle of the ring again, Sullivan hot after me.

I allowed him to back me into all four corners, and he thought he was engineering all this, that it was his own work that was cornering me. But I had learned what I wanted to know - just where to put my head to escape his blow if he should get me cornered and perhaps dazed. He had shown his hand to me.

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John L. Sullivan
In the second round he was still backing me around the ring. I hadn't even struck at him yet, and the audience on my right hissed me for running away and began to call me 'Sprinter.' Now I could see at a glance that Sullivan was not quite near enough to hit me, so suddenly I turned my side to him, waved both hands to the audience and called out, 'Wait a while! You'll see a fight.'


...So far Sullivan hadn't reached me with anything but glancing blows, and it was my intention, when the third round started, to hit him my first punch, and I felt that it must be a good one! If my first punch didn't hurt him, he was going to lose all respect for my hitting ability.

So, with mind thoroughly made up, I allowed him to back me once more into a corner. But although this time I didn't intend to slip out, by my actions I indicated that I was going to, just as I had before. As we stood there, fiddling, he crowding almost on top of me, I glanced, as I had always done before, first to the left, then to the right, as if looking for some way to get out of this corner. He, following me and thinking I wanted to make a getaway, determined that he wouldn't let me out this time!

For once he failed to slap himself on the thigh with his left hand, but he had his right hand all ready for the swing as he was gradually crawling up on me. Then, just as he finally set himself to let go a vicious right I beat him to it and loosed a left-hand for his face with all the power I had behind it. His head went back and I followed it up with a couple of other punches and slugged him back over the ring and into his corner. When the round was over his nose was broken.

At once there was pandemonium in the audience! All over the house, men stood on their chairs, coats off, swinging them in the air. You could have heard the yells clear to the Mississippi River!

But the uproar only made Sullivan the more determined. He came out of his corner in the fourth like a roaring lion, with an uglier scowl than ever, and bleeding considerably at the nose. I felt sure now that I would beat him, so made up my mind that, though it would take a little longer, I would play safe.

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"Gentleman Jim" Corbett
From that time on I started doing things the audience were seeing for the first time, judging from the way they talked about the fight afterwards. I would work a left-hand on the nose, then a hook into the stomach, a hook up on the jaw again, a great variety of blows, in fact; using all the time such quick side-stepping and footwork that the audience seemed to be delighted and a little bewildered, as was also Mr. Sullivan. That is, bewildered, for I don't think he was delighted.


In the twelfth round we clinched, and, with the referee's order, 'Break away,' I dropped my arms, when Sullivan let go a terrific right-hand swing from which I just barely got away; as it was it just grazed the top of my head. Some in the audience began to shout 'foul!' but I smiled and shook my head, to tell them, 'I don't want it that way.'

When we came up for the twenty-first round it looked as if the fight would last ten or fifteen rounds longer. Right away I went up to him, feinted with my left and hit him with a left-hand hook alongside the jaw pretty hard, and I saw his eyes roll. . . . Summoning all the reserve force I had left I let my guns go, right and left, with all the dynamite Nature had given me, and Sullivan stood dazed and rocking. So I set myself for an instant, put just 'a little more' in a right and hit him alongside the jaw. And he fell helpless on the ground, on his stomach, and rolled over on his back! The referee, his seconds and mine picked him up and put him in his corner; and the audience went wild."

 

Sullivan likely puts on a demolition job and ends it within 4. I do wonder if his chin holds up, but by all accounts he appeared to be very durable and tough. It’s hard to envision him being the inferior technician too.

 

Sullivan sucks compared to Baer on every level. Punching technique, defense, power, size, opponents, wins. The guy who beat John L looked a bit weird in there himself. Boxing was still working out the technical issues during this period and didn't fully develop until the early-mid 20th century. Get real. Max would be sent into a deep depression as a result of what he would do to Sullivan. That would be Sullivan's best blow on Max. Sullivan matters because he was an early adopter of boxing and advanced the sport but thinking he would beat Baer is deluded.

 

Typical of Corbett to exaggerate Sullivan’s technical deficiencies to make himself seem like a more revolutionary technical figure in the sport. Even funnier how the only time he didn’t slap his thigh was the time Corbett countered again, once again “proving” how excellent Corbett is

In his book, Professor Donovan said he told Corbett that Sullivan’s first instinct is to slap his thigh repeatedly before throwing a 1-2,

"I want you to do the first thing Sullivan will do," he said.

"All. right," I answered, and did, as I had done scores of times before, showing him how Sullivan would slap his thigh several times with his left hand in order to get started, then try to break down his guard or disconcert him withhis strong chopping left; then swing hisright for the neck and jaw, using hisarm as though it was a club."

You can argue it’s a telegraph, or one of those weird habits fighters have to get themselves focused before they set up their punches. Not clear if Sullivan would chop to the body either to set up for that right hand, and if prime Sullivan’s had ridiculous speed then you can see how a set up like that could be difficult to exploit. This didn’t stop Donovan from regarding Sullivan as an excellent technician either,

“he is the cleverest big man the ring ever saw. He ducked away from several blows with a quickness that astonished me." Donovan, 1887

 

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Corbett, who only really beat an obese alcoholic by the point he beat Sullivan, looks miles better than Baer does on film. So do fighters who predate Sullivan like Mike Donovan and Billy Edwards, who looked at Sullivan as a great technician. You can look at fighters around Corbett’s era as well like Jack Root, Fitz, Joe Choynski and Jeffries who look more advanced than Baer in the limited footage there is of them. I’d say these guys look better than a good chunk of Baer’s contemporaries like Galento, Carnera, Simon and Baer’s own brother Buddy.