Marvin Hart - The Champion or just another claimant?

But this makes Hart look better because thats where Burns claim comes from though. Jack Johnson who lost to Hart beating Burns and reigning for years also makes Hart look better.

Another factoid that isn't mentioned here is that Root started his career 41-0 and has no unavenged losses. This matchup was probably made with Root winning as the outcome that was "supposed" to happen. Root would beat Hart then he'd start working his way down the line. Because Root retired after 2 HW fights he comes off as less relevant in this picture then he was.

At HW lineages don't change as much because guys don't change weight classes much. When theres a new lineage every 20 years its easy to aspire for the perfect replacement matchup. But in smaller weight classes where everyones vacating an alternative strategy is just going backwards from whoever wins a unifier and pretend they were the champ all along. Like at WW Crawford beat Spence so we go back to Manny v Bradley 3 instead of Thurman v Danny Garcia or Shawn Porter which we'd probably go back to if Spence had won.

 

He was clearly a member of the group but he did not dominate it. Against Schreck, Gardner, Root, Twin Sullivan and O Brien Hart was 3-6-1 with a DQ win in a fight he was losing.

Schreck, Gardner, Root and Twin Sullivan should get the edge over Hart.

https://ibroresearch.com/marvin-hart-true-heavyweight-champion/