Not in my opinion. Dempsey had a unique combination of explosive punching power and a technical approach that made him an offensive machine. I don't see Sullivan in the same mould. Whatever Willard's faults, and there are many, he's a huge dude who had the strength and heart and chin to convert those advantages into a winning formula against the guys of that era.
Willard. Sullivan had trouble with Patsy Cardiff and was knocked down by a 150 pound man who wasn't named Bob Fitzsimmons. That same 150 pounder is the only major opponent he ever stopped. While Jack Dempsey was a renowned KO artist and took out 3 guys Willards size early alone. Willard is one of the lesser regarded champions. Sullivan should not be favored against a single HW champ that came after him IMO. Willard is 6 ft 6 with an 83 inch reach. Sullivan is not Dempsey.
I see Sullivan as being in exactly the same mould. The only questions ifs whether a few extra technical wrinkes ahd been worked in by Dempsey's time.
Do you think that his arm being broken might have had something to do with that? If we are going to start talking about who dropped Dempsey, then it is a very long list.
Charlie Mitchell was quite the puncher himself, and the way he dropped Sullivan was kind of funny. Mitchell literally crouched as low as possible and put all of his body weight into punching the rushing Sullivan, who said his feet being crossed was the main reason he was knocked down. Take that as you will, but he wasn’t the only person who saw the fight that said that. Either way, I don’t see how that’s a knock on Sullivan. Every description says he got up within a second and resumed battering Mitchell like a red headed step child. It’s not like Dempsey was above being hurt by smaller men, Carpentier caught him in the first round of their fight and Dempsey was probably much more hurt there than Sullivan was against Mitchell.
A fit, non-boozesoaked Sullivan slaughters him. Willard was all slow twitch and would get pummeled by the athletic, explosive Sullivan. Dempsey is not Sullivan.
I’d pick boozing Sullivan over Willard tbh, unless Willard somehow makes it past the early rounds and John L. gassed like he almost did against McCaffrey and Burke when he was boozed.
Up in the air for me. I don’t know much about Sullivan and I’m not overly impressed with Willard. Take your pic
From Feb 4, 1918. A story by Allan Markley appearing in numerous East Coast papers... "What would Jess Willard have looked like in a bout with John L. Sullivan? Jim Corbett... says it would have been a farce with Sullivan on top. Jeffries says that none of the younger fighters could have stoop up under John L.'s mighty wallop. Willard has not expressed himself."
This is a hillarious anecdote on the Mitchell fight from boxing rec "Sullivan pleaded in vain for the police to let him get "one more crack at him" but when the police refused, Sullivan walked back to his corner in tears." I think that fight should be considered the start of the HW lineage instead of Sullivan v McCaffrey two undefeated fighters, MSG classic fight. But entertaining as the fight must have been thats the only major stoppage win of Sullivans career. He probably would have finished McCaffrey with more time. But he outweighed McCaffrey and Mitchell by 40 pounds. Sullivan probably should have lost the belt to Cardiff(who he outweighed by 45 pounds) when he broke his arm but it was ruled a draw. He then didn't fight with gloves for 5 years. In bare knuckle he couldn't take out Kilrain in what is equal to 25 modern rounds(it was a corner stoppage). You can say that fight and the Corbett fight are testaments to Sullivans durability but they don't look good for Sullivans power. People think Wilders KO rate is inflated Sullivans other 31 knockouts besides Mitchell had a combined record of 3-5 with 24 of them making their debut. A few of those opponents were respected bare knuckle champions but they were very old.
You can argue that Sullivan was the greatest heavyweight puncher prior to Dempsey. The sheer number of people who committed to running after Sullivan touched them is pretty unprecedented, his power was, quite literally, revolutionary for the sport. Seems like he was truly a generational puncher. I think Kilrain, McCaffrey and Cardiff lasting so long was more of a testament to Sullivan’s poor shape, their commitment to a sprinting strategy rather than engaging, and possibly Sullivan’s anxiety of a police interference like what happened in the first fight against Greenfield and the Paddy Ryan rematch. Hard to knock someone out if you’re grossly overweight and your opponent refuses to engage, instead opting to go down or clinch every time you open up. Also worth noting that Sullivan broke his left arm in the first round of his fight with Cardiff, but when he landed he hit so hard that Cardiff didn’t want to take any risks for the rest of the fight. The fight was basically Cardiff refusing to take risks with an injured John L. stalking him, not taking any risks himself due to his arm. Apparently, his arm would never fully recover. Against McCaffrey, Sullivan’s lack of training appeared to show much more, however he claimed that he should’ve had the stoppage over McCaffrey at many points throughout the fight. Apparently, the third round in particular where McCaffrey’s brother apparently had to pick him up off the ropes. McCaffrey went down in rounds 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and relied on excessive clinching and running to survive. Sullivan said afterward, “It is a matter of impossibility to fight a man who is continually either running away from you or hugging you like a child would its mother. I am not a sprint-runner.” “McCaffrey’s tactics were to evade, dodge back, duck his head, dodge into Sullivan’s arms, and dodge down to his knees. He played this game with expertness and activity, but this was not fighting.” (Cincinnati Commercial Gazette) Kilrain also committed to surviving early on as well, he was getting knocked down, and purposefully going to his knees to avoid a knockdown throughout the fight. Mike Donovan, Kilrain’s second, said that Sullivan would’ve ended it in three rounds had he been at his peak. I don’t think his inability to score the knockout in these fights really say much about his power, as much as it reflects Sullivan’s poor conditioning and injuries affecting his performance against fighters who were keen on surviving the moment he laid a glove on them. Boxrec can be deceitful when it comes to the record of these old timers as it wasn’t really legal to have fights, and when they did it often went unrecorded. New info on fights are popping up yearly. Sure, most of Sullivan’s more skilled opponents were smaller men like Mitchell, Burke, McCaffrey, Donovan, but it’s also worth mentioning that Sullivan pretty much obliterated the big men he faced on perhaps a comparable level to Dempsey. Paddy Ryan was 200-220 and was described by many newspapers as clever and was believed to beat Sullivan due to his improvement in science and skill in the lead up to their fight, which is deceitful to his record. Sullivan obliterated other big men like Sylvester Le Gouriff who was 300 lbs, and Herbert Slade who was 220-230, in early and dominant fashion. Other people similar to Sullivan’s size that he obliterated within 4 rounds are the Canadian champion Jack Stewart (6’1 200 pounds), Morris Heffey (195 pounds), Frederick Crosssley (6’1 200 pounds), John Laflin (6’2 210 pounds). Running and holding appeared to be the only way to survive Sullivan, or hoping he decided to come in out of shape.