Who you got? There's a story that Hart-Burns only came off because Ryan didn't fancy the job with Burns in 1906, after a lot of inactivity - "maybe this Burns isn't much, but he's young, tough and durable, and i'm getting too old to be playing around with that sort. If you're in such an infernal hurry [Marvin Hart], why don't you fight him?" You got to imagine Ryan was right, and he would have been beaten up badly at that time in his career. But what if they met in 04? Ryan got the better of Jack O'Brien in a NC over 6 that year, Burns lost over the same distance. Over 10, how would it pan out?
This is a great, great fight. I think that Tommy Burns probably takes the win, with too much power, but i will think about this further before coming to a final conclusion.
I think that Ryan was ready to be taken at that point, and that Burns might have been the man to do it if he could have made weight and performed at that weight. Then the spectre of Burns as a three division champion sudenly emerges. The only thing seperating him from the lhw title is the fact that he did not claim it.
