Tommy Burns w20 Marvin Hart - Heavyweight Boxing's First controversial title fight ??

Always been interested in this fight.........Hart (Boxing's most forgotten Heavy champ) defending against Burns (Boxing's smallest heavy champ)..

As history tells us................Burns taped his hands apparently too much before the fight of which Hart apparently said "Take it off it's cheating ".........Burns apparently replied "I thought a big guy like you Hart wouldn't mind a small man like me taping my hands a bit more"...........

..at which point Hart supposedly got incensed and threw a shot at Burns ..The fracas being split up by James Jeffries the referee.......

After that as the story tells us Hart fought in a rage, got silly and found himself outboxed and out smarted !! Losing his belt on points by wide decision....

However whilst Burns holds this version as the standard...........Hart wrote later that Jeffries wasn't the referee...that he never threw a punch before the fight.....and the only reason he lost the fight was that Burns was basically a dirty little toerag that fouled him all night....

Hart V Burns .........A much overlooked...Interesting Heavyweight title fight..

Nice little article, Truss.

Burns was definitely a cheeky bloke who liked to start the psychological battle before the fight by all accounts. He tried to rile Johnson up before their title showdown in Sydney, too, claiming at the weigh in that "all African-Americans (albeit he used a different term!) are yellow."

I think Burns' lack of height lulled in a few opponents, who were generally a bit shocked at his punching power when they got in the ring against him. He was short, but barrel-chested, long-armed (his reach was pretty freakish for a man who was only 5'7") and very strong and rough inside, hence Hart's complaints about being fouled and man-handled. Hart himself was really nothing much more than a Light-Heavy himself, as was Root who he beat for the title, so not a massive shock that Burns was too much for him.

Good work.

Good thing Burns won as he was a proud champion willing to fight anyone which he proved when he accepted the challenge of Jack Johnson and history was made.

Another fact about Burns is that after his boxing career he moved to England for a short time and opened a pub in Newcastle's pink lane.

Hart weighed 195 Chris I believe.......That's Heavyweight standard before Cruiser was pushed to 200.......

But thanks for the opinion..........and extra points you added..

Interesting case for Burns to be a top 50 p4per ...what with 11 defences at heavy and a Pacific-American title weighing in at 154 I believe.......

Maybe we overlook Burns a tad.........A great achievement in itself his title reign..

Did a Howard Cosell and turned his back on boxing unfortunately though..

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Good thing Burns won as he was a proud champion willing to fight anyone which he proved when he accepted the challenge of Jack Johnson and history was made.

Another fact about Burns is that after his boxing career he moved to England for a short time and opened a pub in Newcastle's pink lane.

Whilst 30,000 smackeroons may have added to his willingness.....Good point !!.....................as was the pub in Newcastle I didn't know that !!

Cheers.........

Hart is a guy I feel a bit for, at the time he really struggled for acceptance as a legitimate champion. As Jeffries was the first heavy to retire as champion, nobody really knew what to do, some said they would continue to acknowledge Jeffries because he had not been beaten (!) others said they considered Fitz the champion, as he was the last one before Jeff, although having a 40 year old fighter showing clear signs of regression was obviously not ideal.

Burns claim to the title was a little tenuous, a promoter was just quick off the mark in matching him and Root for the title, he got Jeffries to referee it, which was a master stroke as the symbolism of Jeffries raising the winners hand was seen as legitimizing his reign. Plenty did not accept it though, guess what he really needed was a run of good title defences to underline his credentials, not to dump it in his first defence.

Am going to hit the books this evening to see what light I can shed about the Burns fight. Burns is a guy though who perhaps unfairly controversy seems to follow around, his fights with O’Brien were pretty controversial, with O’Brien making his usual noises about fixes and dives. My own view is Burns was just a bit better than Hart, Hart was fortunate to get the nod over Johnson when they fought and as mentioned above he was probably a little fortunate to even be called world champion.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Good thing Burns won as he was a proud champion willing to fight anyone which he proved when he accepted the challenge of Jack Johnson and history was made.

Another fact about Burns is that after his boxing career he moved to England for a short time and opened a pub in Newcastle's pink lane.

Whilst 30,000 smackeroons may have added to his willingness.....Good point !!.....................as was the pub in Newcastle I didn't know that !!

Cheers.........

Maybe but as he was the only champion in that time to accept the fight you have to say he was a real World champion. I think his career ended when he lost to Johnson, no coming back from that.

Wall street cash aside which hurt many smart types...........He was a really shrewd guy and businessman.........

Cheers guys..Good input...

* Note ...............There are a few Burns fights on youtube........for those who don't know him....Worth watching for some heavy-history...

Great right hand...

Had he not fought Jack Johnson could have been on a direct line to Stan Ketchel.......

Heavy v middle champ and only about 7 pounds a part on the night.. Wow what a fight !!!

Tommy Burns landlord

Here is what Adam Pollack's biography of Burns had to say of the bandaging controversy.

Tommy Ryan (Hart's trainer) objected to Burns' bandages. Tommy had several layers of black adhesive tape over his knuckles and wrist. "Tommy evidently in a very ugly mood sent back a warm reply" Referee Charlie Eyton ordered Burns to remove part of the bandages but Tommy refused. He simply sat in his corner. After a long tiresome wait, Hart gave in and the gloves were put on.

According to Pollack when this was resolved Tommy then went on to disagree with the referee about whether the fight should be strict Queensbury rules and over the rules on fighting on the break, before being eventually told to shut up and get on with it by the ref. The inference would have to be that Tommy was perhaps a little nervous or edgy and sounds like these incidents were manifestations of this rather than gamesmanship on his part.

Having a skim through the round by round report does not seem to be much in Hart's assertion Burns was a diry fighter, the fight does not seem any dirtier than was the norm for the time. Does mention Burns threw him a couple of times in clinches, but when clinching and grappling was part and parcel of fights was not unusual for a fighter to seek to show his edge in strength in such a fashion. As I said earlier just think Burns was a better fighter than Hart.

Excellent stuff and to think it's over a 100 years ago..