Tommy Burns vs Bill Squires (1907)

I am not knocking Noah Brusso, I am a fan of his, he was crafty mobile ,had fast hands ,good footwork was a very good inside fighter ,and possessed a dangerous right hand wallop,as the film amply demonsrates :good

 

Squires looks pretty bad in that footage. Burns timing is spot on, though, catching him those rights over Squire's low left. Some guys can get away with that posture. Squires was obviously not one of those people.

 

Thanks Flamengo
With hindsight (allways useful!) Bill didn't beat much quality up to that point except perhaps the Irish/SouthAfrican Williams and Felix?
He did do a job on Roche later on and as somebody pointed Roche had a fairly respectable record.
Burns has indeed a decent resumee with the likes of Hart, Kelly, Sullivan, O'Brien, Flynn, Lang and Pelkey either held even or beaten. Has to be the most underated champion of them all.

 

No worries mate! Allways prepared to be corrected in the cause of accuracy,I took my info from Box rec,but I am quite prepared to accept your figures ,as I know you have researched Aussie fighters :good

 

From boxrec.

"Squires, champion of Australia, was a 10-9 favourite"

Also, Burns looked extremely strong. Prior to one of the knockdowns he throws Squires around like a ragdoll, and the knockdown punch following it basically throws Squires to the ground.

 

Note Burns' hopping and low hands, and compare it to:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkGP0AM14F0[/ame]

 

:good since totally different cultures and evolutions lead to a similar style this could mean this style is the best suited to barenuckle fighters repectivly fights with very small gloves.

 

McVey, the record comes from Max Ryan's book, 'Two Champs From Narrabri'. Detailing the careers of Colin Bell and 'Boshter' Bill. Clay Moyle mentioned the book on this forum a while back now.. should you like a copy, I'll make one available for you and Matt Donnellan.

Cheers.

 

Flamengo I am remiss in not trading Peter Maher 's book for Jackson's with you, time constraints and all that. Sorry, PM me please.
By the way do you have Bill Doherty's book, I have read extracts and it sounds great.

 

Jeffries also had an offer to come back.

Burns had some skills here. Amazing, he doesn't look this lively vs Johnson in the early rounds.

 

Naw... It ain't sad that nobody remembers the good points of Tommy Burns' pro career as a fighter...... Why? Cuz everybody is now dead whoever saw the guy fight...... Plus, films were brand new to the world in them days and also very crude, so much of the footage has been lost due to age, etc....... And only a handful of boxing / sports fans are gonna read a book about Tommy Burns since he was NOT all that popular to begin with....... It all adds up........

Tommy Burns being battered by Jack Johnson in 1908 Aussieville will ALWAYS be Burns' highlight reel....... That's just the way the cookie crumbles in life sometimes........

Thomas Burns died broke in 1955---circa and was buried in a pine box without a tombstone for a number of years until people chipped in and scored the dead man a stone..... Jesus H. Christ..... Now that's sad.......

MR.BILL

 

Surely you can come up with something better than that??

A book detailing the life and career of Burns would read far better than that of Jefferies, who by the way was slaughtered more convincingly by Johnson than Burns was.

Burns is terribly under rated, with several others being decorated in fanciful glories, hardly worthy to them.

 

Hey, it is what it is....... Burns was technically sound---for a middle / light-heavy..... But as a true heavyweight, he was too small to be there..... However, since heavies back in them days were nowhere near the size of the post 1960s dudes, I suppose Ol' Burns was able to hang in there against some of the bigger guys, but not with a guy like Jack Johnson.... Marvin Hart was no Johnson........

However, as much as I can respect a guy like Tommy Burns, I gotta say I've never gone outta my way to find his life story on paperback.... Here in 2010, I just don't see that as a top seller on the rack....... Either you are interested or you are not....... Simple.......

I also do NOT see history being kind to Tommy Burns by claiming he was a great champion; he was not a great champion..... A good / great overall pound-4-pound fighter is more like it and believable.....
hat

MR.BILL

 

Fair enough.. each to their own. :good

For a M/W to LH/W lil' Tommy travelled pretty well in the H/W ranks. Each title defence ending in KO's, other than those which saw Phila Jack run to the hills for 20 rounds.

Constantly giving away lbs, and always fighting larger men, lil' Tommy proved himself a serious fighter/puncher.
Is there a book released on his career?? I'd definately like to read whats available. Perhaps not everyone's cup o' tea, regardless the story would be very colourful.

 

I gotta admit, I am much more intrigued by Jim Jeffries and his story compared to the tale of Tommy Burns......... No real reason why, its just that I am.... I find Jeffries to be this big man of great strength and coordination at over 6' tall and a solid 220 to 227 pounds for the time / era of 1900--circa.........

Great dream fights to me are: "Jeffries versus Dempsey or Marciano." I'll pay the piper in the after life to witness them matches in either heaven or hell....... I'm willing to travel and vacation in both places to see those fights........... Damn straight.........

MR.BILL