Marvin Hart - The Champion or just another claimant?

Hart didn't just beat Johnson he'd beaten Root who was favored to win. Root in my opinion was a better fighter then Hart who'd win a majority of the time. He was certainly a more interesting one with a higher ceiling if he'd continued fighting. I would not have picked Hart for those matches over Gardner and Schreck but he won them fair and square.

While the NSC did designate their own champion after Hart v Root Burns was much more controversial then Hart. I think the NSC would have done that no matter what and were just waiting for Jeffries to exit stage left. I do not think given the balkanized nature of the world you were going to pick any 2 Americans to fight for the vacant title and have it just accepted. A reality evidenced by the anarchy at MW following Ketchels death a few years later. That kerfuffles likely the reason alphabet bodies exist.

But Root v Hart wasn't a bad matchup by any means. One thing is for certain Hart v Root is a stronger matchup then Maher v O Donnell.


https://web.archive.org/web/20060515214215/http://geocities.com/mgpaul2/TOP10.htm
Per this ranking Hart and Root were both ranked in the top 5. While Maher was ranked 5th and O Donnell wasn't in the top 10. Since the other 3 were Jack Johnson, Tommy Ryan(a MW) and Fitzsimmons it really wasn't possible to make a higher "ranked" matchup then Root v Hart at the time.

MWs are in the ranking because its based on H2H and boxing was fairly open at this point.

https://web.archive.org/web/20091027001016/http://us.share.geocities.com/mgpaul2/Fights.htm

Heres the full rankings if you are interested.

 

Hart had much success outside of the Championship or his "gift" Decision over Johnson.
He represented the new class of Lightheavy's great.
Birthyears after 1875
This was the launch of all the crop of new fighter's fighting in the new century 1900.

76 Hart 76 Root 77 Gardner 77 Young Peter Jackson 78 Philly O brien 78 Twin Sully 79 schreck 79 ferguson 79 fireman Flynn 80 Kid carter

These are whom you should compare him with his contemporaries he dominated most of them. Not only did he do well he even won against some full fledged Heavyweight's like Ferguson & Ruhlin.

He's a guy who definitely out performed his skill level having zero background in fighting before launching. He was a plummer.

Having read many newspaper reports on him he was called a "wonder" more than once.

If anything his Championship belt days really slowed his momentum just like it did to Jack Johnson. They went from fighting multiple times a year to very few. Same thing happened to Corbett.

But as stated in a previous thread Hart changing trainers seemed to be his real downfall, but he accomplished quite a bit.

 

His title claim was controversial at the time, but it seems to have since put down roots.

I will continue to recognize him as champion because I don't want the hassle of rewriting history retrospectively.

 

Champ to me. He and Root were set up by Jeffries as the fight for successor. It has been argued that his win over Johnson was dodgy, but it was the decision of the time and the circumstance...an aggressive but ineffectual crowder/puncher being given a decision over a cautious boxer...is common in boxing and still with us today.

So I don't see how he wasn't the man.

 

I remember reading an old newspaper article written by Jeffries where he discusses why Hart vs Root was a fight between the leading top contenders at that time. Hart, by beating Johnson, eliminated Johnson.

 

Nice pun there.

 

He actually worked for Wolfram & Hart. A lot of people don't know that. Does it make him evil? No. Does it make him a true champion? Not in and of itself. Does it make him interesting? I guess.

 

You had to start somewhere after Jeffries retired. Hart-Root got the ball a'rollin'. Fortunately, as events evolved Johnson became champ, so I don't see any particular harm in acknowledging Hart as champion.

 

But the succession ended up going through this line, so it seems to have worked well enough.

 

So how does it start with Burns if no Hart?