I have thought this through and come to some surprizing conclusions. Sullivan was a gloved fighter who reluctantly steped into the bare knuckle prize ring, in order to cement his claim to the title. His style was not particularly well suited to fighting under London Prize Ring Rules. Most of his Queensbury bouts were of short duration e.g 4, 6, or 10 rounds. He relied upon a fast start and delux finishing skills to score quick knockouts within that time and take the judges out of the equation. Knockouts were easier to score than in some later eras because the police often stopped bouts after a few knockdowns. Jeffries never fought under London Prize Ring Rules, but he had a skillset much better suited to it. By his era the Queensbury bouts were of longer duration with title fights generaly being of 20, 25 rounds duration or more. His fighting style was based around winning an endurance contest and breaking his oponents down peice at a time with a sustained body attack. He was also a world class wrestler in an era when wrestling moved were being squeezed out of boxing. I think that Sullivan would fare much better than Jeffries if they were both fighting in the modern era and I think that Jeffries would have fared batter if they had both fought in a pure bareknuckle era!
Janitor, I pretty much agree. In a pure bare knuckle era, if Jeffries had met Sullivan, that 30 seconds + 7 to come to scratch between knock downs probably would have let him weather the storms ..... it still would have take a while, though, if Sullivan were trained. In our era, I think a quick starter like Sullivan is a little better suited. I think Jeffries would have been great in our time, too, but it might have take a few more years for him to come together as a fighter than it did for Jeffries; I think, in our time, the Jeffries of '98-'00 might have been a little too liesurely. Now, this is if Sullivan and Jeffries come along at the same time; I do not believe that Sullivan c. 1882 was quite the fighter Jeffries was c. 1903; but that's mostly because of the evolution of the sport.
Ironicaly, Sullivan himself is the strongest argument for those who argue that the fighters of today could beat the LPR champions at their own game. He is basicaly a queensbury champion who did it!
What an intriguing idea! I never saw it explained in those terms before but it lends itself to a greater truth. I could see Jeffries dominating the old prize ring, when the rules were informally agreed on, there was no ref just an umpire, and based mostly on both contestants willingness to see who the better man was. Before the wrestlers and the runners muddied the game up. Sullivan got outfoxed in both conditions of the sport, Mitchell and Corbett. Like Dempsey, his fighting heart is what took him to the top. Jeffries wasn't a natural man killer like them. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TroTAs25RkU[/ame] www.youtube.com/eslubin
Janitor, i have a question for you. Much is made of Queensbury fighters not being skilled under LPR rules. But i have to ask, what fighters, if any, were successful queensbury fighters but no good under LPR rules?
Verry good question. While a lot of bareknuckle fighters made the transition to queensbury rules (some more sucesfully than others), there are verry few examples of a fighter specializing in queensbury rules transfering to bareknuckle rules. Sullivan is one of a verry few examples. I will need some time to give a well thought out answer, but there may be some fighters who learned their trade as bareknucklers and did better under the new rules.
