What if John L Sullivan had fallen under the wheels of a hansom cab?

So he’s just thanos snapped out of existence before the Ryan fight? Does anyone investigate this?

 

Queensbury Rules already had the momentum, Mace and Foley had sown the seeds, top fighters Dwyer, Miller, Goss, Ryan himself were embracing them. In Australia Farnan, Foley, Hicken, Miller, Newton were sparring regularly with gloves, England was moving slower to be sure and it was into the 1890's before gloves superseded bare-knuckle for title fights but the pages of the sports papers were listing hundreds of glove contest every week. The law too had closed in more. As for who would have emerged, that's a great question. Kilrain and Mitchell probably as LPR would have held sway for longer and both could transfer seamlessly to the MOQ rules, I think. Maybe Burke and Godfrey too, if he got fair play, but that is unlikely. Jackson, Slavin or Goddard would take over circa 1889 and after that Corbett would be a factor.

 

Sullivan was pivotal into making gloved boxing mainstream though, even before he beat Ryan for the title he was the biggest star in boxing. Instead of seeing dudes have a 5 hour long staring contest for 90 rounds you can see John L. knock dudes out in 2 minutes. Not to mention that boisterous charisma that carried his stardom as much as it did Ali’s in the 60s-70s, alongside the combination of an exciting, unique style that only gloved boxing could bring. Without Sullivan, boxing wouldn’t be nearly as culturally relevant as it became or is now. Maybe someone like Corbett could’ve turned the sport mainstream due to his own unique style and personality but would there have even been a Jim Corbett without John L. Sullivan? So much would change.

 

Yeah, John's a figure head not the money. John L didn't really give a ****.