Why is Tommy Burns not talked about more ?

Because of the jack Johnson fight, that whole saga is what he is remembered for.

 

He was 13-1-1 in HW title fights, but take a look at most of those defences. Most weren't genuine contenders.

My personal view = underrated at HW? No; underrated in terms of how good he likely was relative to his size = probably a touch.

 

That’s probably true but what people might forget is that Tommy Burns still holds (jointly) the record for the highest number of consecutive knockouts/stoppages in heavyweight title defences, set some 115 years ago now. Since then only Larry Holmes, when he stopped the first 8 challengers of his title reign during the late 1970s/1980, has managed to equal Burns long standing record.

 

Particularly for its time, the first round KO of Bill Squires is probably one of the more entertaining and emphatic victories you'll see on film from that era.

With Big Jeff as the man in the middle, it looks like he's refereeing a fight between a MW and a very feisty WW with a nice right-hand wallop - though Boshter Bill's chin was a bit questionable.

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Nice footage.

I appreciate this observation is somewhat an obvious one, but look at how much bigger Jeffries is than the 2 competitors in a HW WT fight.

Ranking Burns is tricky. His HW resume is underwhelming, but then you see him next to Jeffries and you realise how small he was for a HW, even in those days.

 

The nick Tiny Tommy, relative to his competing at HW, was very apt. P4P he rates that much better. At least in terms of height and reach, Burns was the Caucasian equivalent to Sam Langford.

Interesting to note that Burns weighed 181 lbs for the Squires fight but only 168 1/2 lbs for Johnson a bit over 1 year later.

Prior to fighting Johnson, it was claimed that Burns was suffering from the effects of jaundice or influenza - his lower weight for the Johnson fight might lend some credence to those claims.

Burns certainly didn't appear as chunky/solid for Johnson as he did for Squires. However he is rated, Burns was a tough little rooster.

 

Coincidentially, just read a book on Burns, makes me rate him higher than I used too. He hammered Hart, beat up O'Brien and Jim Flynn, drew with Schreck, so his resumee while thin is ok at the top end. He was a very fit, clever, scientific boxer with a good punch, would be a very good super middle, IMO. He kooks better than a lot of his contempories on film.

 

Because he hasn't really done anything to deserve being talked about. He defended his title against some of the worst opposition I've ever seen (I saw Mendoza make a good post exposing it) and was pretty mediocre on film. Not terrible, but nothing too terrific either.

 

Announcers even had their catch phrase back then, The ring announcer here was the then famous Billy Jordan whose catchphrase was - "let 'er go!"

 

Right on. The Buffer of his day or Buffer the Jordan of his day.

 

I assume most if not all have already seen Burns rating the HW Champs through to Tunney. But since we’re talking Tommy…

I like Tommy’s sign off

“As to myself, you may rate me where you like.”

Tommy’s way of saying he didn’t give two f’s as to what anyone else thought of him?

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Burns looks pretty good on film.

 

Which book did you read, if may I ask Matt and would you recommend it?

I have the book Boxing Day: The Fight That Changed The World by Jeff Wells - the focus being on the Johnson vs Burns match of course - held 26 Dec in 1908, at Rushcutter’s Bay, Sydney, Australia.

The specially built open air stadium later became the roofed Sydney Stadium “The Old Tin Shed” which hosted many fights in the years going forward - it was ultimately demolished in 1970.

That book Boxing Day is a good, informative read. Apparently, somewhat like Jeffries, Burns became quite irritable (stressed?) as the bout with Johnson drew closer.

As plucky and confident as Tommy was, it would seem that he knew that fight was going to be the end of the line for him.

But he was courageous to the end - the fight only stopped due to police intervention.

Apparently the orig. filmed doco on the fight (including pre fight training clips of both Burns and Johnson) was a very generous two hours in duration.

It’s too bad that it seems the greater part of the footage has been lost to time - but we can always hope for any further discoveries. Until

Suffice to say, until the doco Unforgivable Blackness, I had never seen footage of Johnson dropping Burns.

 

Free on line, some exaggerations and inaccuracies but early stuff fascinating! enjoy!!


Tommy Burns Canada's Unknown World Heavyweight [Dan McCaffery](2000)