What type of an athlete was John L Sullivan?

I seem to remember that choyinski thought Sullivan as superior to even jeffries ?

 

Sullivan fought Jake Killrain on 08 July, and started training camp on May 04, weighing 230 lbs. He said that he smoked his last cigar on that day, before he started training in Ernest.

According to the Sun on May 10, he was taking a twelve mile daily run, chopping trees, and working the plough. He now weighed 225 lbs.

His training also included wrestling with Muldoon, sparring, hitting the bag, shadow boxing with 4 lb weights, jumping rope, throwing a 10 lb ball, swimming, running, and taking walks of 1-3 hours.

 

Sullivan was interviewed about his routine by the Salt Lake Herald on May 28, by which time he weighed 218lbs. He gave the following schedule:

Wake at 6.00, get rubbed down, then run/walk 2-3 miles.

Take a shower then get rubbed down with a mixture of ammonia, camphor, and alcohol.

Ate oatmeal for breakfast.

In the morning, ran or walked 10-12 miles, doing it in two hours.

Rubbed down again.

Meat and bread for dinner (I assume he meant lunch).

In the afternoon, punched the bag, hit a rugby ball suspended from the ceiling, threw a football, swung Indian clubs and dumbbells, and worked with a chest expander attached to the wall (some kind of weight machine presumably.

For supper had cold meat and stale bread.

Hardened his face and hands with a mixture of rock salt, white wine, vinegar and other ingredients.

 

Where is this from (what’s the source)?

 

The interview was with a female reporter named Nellie Bly.

She was writing for the Salt Lake Herald, and the article was published May 28 1889.

I understand that it is corroborated by other sources.

 

There is some primary information about Sullivan's preparations for the Mitchell fight.

For both the Mitchell and Killrain bare knuckle fights, he seems to have started training camp north of 230 lbs, and got down to something like 205 in a couple of months.

 

John L. Sullivan was an athlete in an era when most adult men were 5'8" tall, only lived to their 50s, when everything was cooked in lard, when drinking water could poison you, so chugging beer when you were thirsty morning, noon and night was safer and preferred. And he looked it. He was dead by age 59.

So, in terms of modern athletes, he wasn't much of an athlete at all.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/John_L._Sullivan_1898.jpg

 

Was that sparring? (LOL) Sullivan may have had faster hands, because Jeffries didn't throw one punch at him in that footage. Jeffries looks awful there (in terms of throwing punches). Did in the fight, too.

 

Yes, he was a product of his time but regardless contemporary accounts attest to him being a great athlete, even a good baseballer. That is all we have to go on. It is not as though humans have changed much genetically. He had the stuff to fight and enjoyed it frightfully.

That picture you post is not from his prime run. This one is... Note beyond the physicality, the look in his eyes.. This is a dude who enjoys hitting and getting hit... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Sullivan#/media/File:John_L_Sullivan.png

 

Sounds like it's all backwards. Walk three hours. Run a mile. EAT a ton. Lay down and sleep. Get up. Walk two hours. EAT A TON. Punch a ball for two hours, Eat a ton, go back to sleep.

 

I know who that is. I said, Sullivan may have had faster hands, because Jeffries didn't throw anything at Joe in that "sparring" footage.

Here's Sullivan at the same camp. At the age of only 51. Not exactly Tyson hitting the pads at 53. And Tyson's had a hard life, too.

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What’s backwards about it? And why wouldn’t a heavyweight eat a lot — he was eating mostly protein and didn’t have to cut weight.