Canadian Tommy Burns stands 5"7 and weight about 180lbs, the shortest of Heavyweight champions who reign from 1906-1908, he defend his title longer, 11 times, only Louis and Holmes defend it more, he has this record of KO streaks in title defenses, but where does he rate, among boxing fans, he's nowhere near the Top 15, I would rate him above Patterson but in a mythical match up, could you imagine Burns taking on 250lbs monsters of today.
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Originally posted by Emon723 View Post
nope.
He fought and beat men bigger than him in his day, but still most of these guys were below 200 lbs and often under 6ft. He was good for his time but I can't see him lasting in the division beyond the 1930's. -
Burns was one badass little guy but I dunno how competitive he'd be against someone like Vitali Klitschko or Lennox Lewis at only 5'7". That's an entire foot of height difference, and Vitali and Lennox were no lumbering groundsloths.
Still, I don't think he gets his dues these days. Not one of the greatest heavyweights ever, but certainly a fighter who deserves more attention historically.Comment
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There is some quality footage that exists of Burns which presents an accurate depiction of his style and abilities.
Pound for pound he was an explosive puncher in his day, but he had an outdated old fashioned style and would be destroyed by guys like Joe Louis, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis.
Last edited by SABBATH; 02-14-2007, 10:41 AM.Comment
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Sabbath,
Thanks for the You-Tube link....that was a neat video clip. When I saw Burns standing right beside the guy on the ground while the ref counted, I wondered if those old time fighters ever "put the bad mouthin'" on their fallen foe? I can imagine if you're that close, some funny stuff could be said.
As for Tommy Burns, if he were active today, his hands have to come way up. He's not an Ali type super reflex guy who can afford to stand in front of guys who can whack. Of course, he would be a lightheavy / cruiserweight. NO SHOT at anybody in the top 25-30 heavyweights today, weak as the division is.
I always felt that he and Marvin Hart were the 2 most overlooked historical heavyweight champs.Comment
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marvin hart is without doudt the least known linear heavyweight champion of the gloved era.Originally posted by Terry A View Post
but this is in part due to the way he gained the title fighting jack root for james j. jeffries vacated title at jeffries choosing. (i believe jeffries chose root and hart as easy options if he wanted to regain the title at some later stage)
alot of good fighters were overlooked and after losing the title in his second defence to burns 7 months later hart did not prove he was a champion to a public who still classed jeffries as champ.
tommy burns did however gain some recognition as champion during his very active short lived time as champion.
and he also deserves some historical credit as a white boxer willing to put his title on the line against the great jack johnson at a time when all other white boxers used the race card to avoid such fighters.
but against todays heavy's only the really special old-time smaller heavyweight fighters would stand a chance and burns altough a very good champion was just not that special.Comment
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AJ53, I agree with you 100%.Comment
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To this day there's still some doubt & conflicting reports as to if Jeffries even gave his blessings to the Hart/Root fight as being for his vacated world championship, and you can find quotes from around the time stating that Jeffries did not give the honour of heavyweight champion to the winner of that fight...Those quotes/articles are especially prevailant in the couple years leading up to the Johnson fight, and here's one such example;Originally posted by AJ53 View Post
"The recent statement by James J. Jeffries that he never gave the title away, but took it into retirement with him, has caused no end of discussion among followers of pugilism. Those who were present at the Hart/Root fight, when Jeffries is said to have handed over the title to Hart, still insist that Jeffries stated positively after the fight that he was still heavyweight champion of the world." - Washington Post, Jan 17th, 1909
There's also an AP report published in a few papers from Jan 5th of that year (1909), which states in it that "Jeffries still claims championship" and "says he never gave his title to Marvin Hart when the latter defeated Jack Root."Comment
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Tommy still shares the record with Larry Holmes for consecutive KO's by a heavyweight champion with eight in a row.
I would have liked to have seen Burns fight Stanley Ketchell or Sam Langford as a better indication of his abilities. He was simply overmatched by Jack Johnson who was a true heavyweight while Burns was really a middleweight/light-heavyweight.Comment
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