This one puzzles me .... Johnson-Hart-Burns-Johnson

I suspect that Greggain's ultimatum on aggression been the main(only?) form of scoring ,forced Jack away from a counter punching style which would probably have yielded aa easy win in different circumstances but that is just a wild guess.

 

Good question.

Some of Ali’s results relative to others could be a bit bemusing also.

It seems Johnson beat Hart up pretty badly, doing everything but knock him out.

I guess Hart was a bit more go forward aggressive than Burns also which might’ve stifled Johnson more.

Greggains clear accent on aggression - even threatening a possible DQ if not duly satisfied - might’ve put more pressure on Johnson not to easily counter punch his way through the whole fight - exactly as @mattdonnellon has already stated.

Can never say for sure, but all in all, I think Johnson was stitched up every which way in that fight - the intention being to remove him from the picture one way or the other while Jeffries was still Champ.

The Hart loss stopped quite an impressive run of wins Johnson had leading into that fight - so that might be seen as an anomaly in itself.

 

Jack Johnson improved.

 

The respective results just confirm what I have always thought.Johnson was fighting against a stacked deck. Greggains was a promoter,as such he wanted fan friendly fighters on his shows,preferably white ones. look up Greggains record as a referee , his officiating was mostly confined to two arenas in which he had an interest, self appointed judging to his own self interested criteria . I don't put much if any stock in that result.

 

As Burns told it, he didn't originally believe he could beat Hart, but realised that Hart's weak spot was his hot-headed temperament. He purposely goaded him into a rage by taunting him and shoving him before the opening bell, and when the fight started Hart forgot his boxing and just charged out swinging wildly. It wasn't till the seventh round that someone talked him into calming down and by then he'd already burned too much energy to turn the fight around.

https://ibb.co/qYTmkCMg
https://ibb.co/SwrLkY3C

 

It might be simply that Hart was strong enough to impose himself on Johnson, and smother him, while Burns wasn't.

 

I don't think any fighter imposed his strength on Johnson.

Prior to this fight,Johnson had conceded15,16 and 25lbs to McVey in 3 fights and thrashed him in each one.23lbs to Denver Ed Martin and beat him and toyed with Sandy Ferguson ,despite giving him 30lbs. A year prior to the Johnson fight Hart received a decision against Ferguson that was widely recognized as a robbery.
"According to the New York Evening World, Sandy Ferguson was clearly robbed of a victory by the decision of referee Patsy Earl. "Ferguson outclassed his man as a boxer. He hit him when and where he pleased, and several times during the contest had Hart on "***** Street"." Ferguson decked Hart in the seventh, and in the 13th only the ropes saved Hart from going down again. The crowd disagreed vocifeously with the unjust decision. Referee Earl later stated he gave Hart the nod because he had done most of the leading."

 

it is akin to today's S-HW Giants verse normal size HW's, height & reach wise...

I think the answer is Size.

Burns was able to 'get' too Hart, easier than he was too Johnson - HEIGHT & REACH in 'Most' cases wins the day out!

 

It’s not uncommon really:

George Foreman obliterated Ken Norton who beat (and gave fits to) Muhammad Ali who stopped Foreman.

Roberto Duran beat Ray Leonard who beat Thomas Hearns who nearly decapitated Roberto Duran.

Like OP said, styles make fights.

 

Burns is a criminally underrated fighter in general IMO. from accounts, it appears Hart just couldn't cope w/ his all-around speed.

Incidentally, Hart was revealed after his death to have been blind in 1 eye @ the time he won the hw title. Not sure which eye it was, whether he had the same (lack of) vision for both the Johnson & Burns fights, or if & how it factored into the differences in his performance, but I just figured this was food for thought.

 

MFers be sleeping on Tommy Burns. He's not so easy if you don't have an entire decade to plan for him, tailor for him, etc.

TB's a GOAT level treated like he's hardly even an ATG. Its sad. Stop sleeping on Burns

 

He could be viewed as the first real "world" champion, defending his title all around the planet and giving a title shot to a black guy.

 

I am of the belief That Hart was a better heavyweight than Burns. I think the same thing happened to Stanley ketchel as Hart from what i read... on sep 1908 bout with Papke he got under his skin on the handshake and Ketchel didn't fight his normal fight. Burns antagonized Hart from the start got under his skin & got him out of his gameplan. He started head hunting and bleed away rounds. It happen's. There sure should of been a rematch! Burns avoided it at every turn in the newspapers..probably because he knew he got away with one.

To me A Hart victory over Jack Root is far better than anything Burns accomplished as champion...as you notice Burns avoided Root also.

Burns deserves credit for globetrotting the title but I don't think he was that good. The bout with twin sullivan shows you his true potential he lost. Twin sullivan was very good & Burns wasn't any better than him and Twin sullivan certainly isn't as good as Jack Root.

We just missed the chance to really see how good Tommy Burns was because he had a fight with Sam Langford scheduled then he had the lacosse accident which ended thing's as his knee turned bad. Maybe Tommy Burns improved as champion it's something we don't know...but beating up on a stiff Like Bill Squire proves nothing to me. Bill Lang is a solid win as he fought Jack Johnson hard enough in pouring rain.


Also is should be noted that Twin Sullivan was considered by the press as the premier in-fighter...unfortunately he didn't always come to fight. But when he was clicking he was a monster...more than you realize.