After the title was made vacant after Kid McCoy there never seems to be a fighter who cleans up From my research i have a afew names that claimed the title before Tommy Ryan but his his claim as undisputed Champion substantiated Ryan takes over the throne in 1902 but there are still 5 claimants Charley McKeever 1900-1902 Philadelphia Jack O'Brian 1901-1905 George Gardner 1901-1902 Jack Palmer 1902-1903 Add Tommy Ryan to this mix and there is no certain champion, George Green breifly held a claim because of a DQ win over Ryan but i will discount him just now asi am focusing on the Ryan-Green claim. Charles McKeever's claim appears to be from him holding the Welterweight title. His only recorded (from Boxrec) Middleweight 'Title' fight is for the British version which he lost to O'Brian. O'Brian appears not to defend his title but beats top fighters in Choynski, Maher, Joe Walcott and McKeever again. But were these fights in the MW limit and did O'Brian still have a claim when Ryan took over the championship? George Gardners claim is with a win over Jack Moffat. He defends the title twice against Kid Carter in 1901. However he seems to have outgrown the Middleweight division and dosent defend the title in 1902 before moving up and winning the Light Heavyweight Title in 1903. Jack Palmer won British recognition in 1902 with a win over Joe White. He then picked up obscure British Open Championship at 158lbs (so Middleweight) and the outh African MW title. Before moving up to Heavyweight. So thst the other claimants. The first bit of evidance i can find of Ryan holding the Middleweight title is his 1898 fight with Green which mentions Ryan defending his Middleweight title. So perhaps his claim was substantiated with him being the Welterweight Champion when McCoy retired. But after 1902 he dosent seem to have defended his title. So unusually all the title claimants seem to have fizzled out about 1902-1903 leaving no other claimants. But why is Tommy Ryan considered Middleweight Champion? Did he have the most substantiated claim? Is there stuff i am missing?
After i have this sorted I'm going to have a look at the Middleweights after this era that is even more complicated
