I think its fair to say that poor old marvin hart never gets mentioned at all when people talk about heavy weight champs from any era,he seems to have been removed from history and i think its only fair to have a post about the guy.I mean he did beat jack johnson,so seemed plenty tough enough. I found this online,a pretty good article about him,i wanted share with you all - http://www.ibroresearch.com/Articles/hart_marvin.htm So does any of the experts on here,know anything about the "The Kentucky Plumber,or is he jujst doomed to wander in eternity forgotten,just as he was seeminly in his boxing career. Also found this about the top 5 worst boxing champs ever,seems a bit harsh but am interested to see what you all think about it. http://www.iain.hampson.btinternet.co.uk/worst_five.htm
Jack at the time,said he was threatend,a man in the crowd had a gun on his lap,but later admitted that marvin won fair,he said he was a tough guy.
For 10 rounds Johnson gave Hart a boxing lesson, mocking Hart, but only countering when Hart lunged at him. Despite Zeke Abrams pleads, Hart continued to struggle. Johnson countering and eluding Hart's blows, bloodying his face, but failing to knock Hart down and still stepping back to admire his work. Johnson slowed down in the 11th and crowd cheered Hart; over the next nine rounds Hart did land several times to Johnsons body forcing him to clinch. Right at the end of the 20th a flashbulb went off and both fighters thought the match had ended, Hart realized his mistake first and landed a right that staggered Johnson at the final bell. As soon as the bell sounded Hart was awarded the decision. The press were split about the decision: WW Naughton felt although he was bloody and battered Hart's pluck and indifference to punishment gave him the edge. Buit the March 29th L A Times headlined "Fight decision a ***** one" The Police Gazette's George Siler stating: It was "the opinion of all faired-minded witnesses that Johnson beat Hart"
I will have extensive coverage of the Johnson-Hart fight in my book on Marvin Hart, an underappreciated fighter, who I like to compare to Arturo Gatti. Bottom line is how you score the fight depends on your scoring criteria. It was a tough one to judge.
The problem with Hart is that his reputation hangs on one huge win over Jack Johnson and that win is controvertial.
Doing a book on Marvin, even. Good. More attention needs to be focused on these forgotten champs. I have heard that there are some who do not consider him or Burns to be "linear" b/c Jeffries came back. This, I think, is a spurious contention, frankly. These guys won the title fair and square and should be remembered.
I agree mate aparently only three people turned up at the guys funeral,seems to have a lot of bad luck in his life,sad to see him so forgotten now.
Hart is hardly a forgotten fighter, he was a Heavyweight Champion by default that will give far more credit and press space than he deserved. There are legitmate (not alphabet crap) World Champions who weigh less than 176lbs who have still to have a post let alone a thread wrote about them on this forum.
This though is the first post about him ive seen,hes been mentioned in other posts before,but ive never seen a post about him,so i thought id start one,bet most casual fans will have never heard of the guy,even though they would of heard of jack johnson,dempsey maybe even jim jefferies.
If you are a fan who has heard of Johnson and Jeffries then it would be better than even money you have heard of Hart. Zakman would not be doing a biography if the market was not there.
That maybe,but he still does not get much publicity,thats all im saying,id like to know a bit more about him,but maybe i should wait till the book then :yep
I find it funny that people on this site talk glibly about Frazier being "half blind when fighting Ali,yet fighters like Hart and Greb fought for years with the sight of only one eye,as did Gypsy Joe Harris more recently,Frazier according to his fans was "shot at 29, legally blind ,racked with arthritis etc"talk about gilding the liliy,Hart is dismissed as a "cheese Champ,yet he campaigned while blind in one eye.
Thats why i wanted to post on the guy,he got a raw deal it seems to me,he was a champ,that history seems to not bother with,and was a decent fighter to it seems,i agree with you dude,he was a tough son of a gun.
