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It was only 9 rounds before the DQ in a scheduled 45 round fight, which took place in July in the desert.
People at ringside felt Johnson was slowing down at the time of the DQ and Flynn was not. That is a fact. The question is not who was more skilled, that's Johnson easily, rather if they went 30 rounds or more, who wilts first?
Some testimonials:
W.W. Naughton
That Johnson had scored the most punches and had brought the most blood was something that could not be denied, but to say he looked a winner at the time of the interference is a different matter. It was the opinion of the majority of the spectators that if Flynn could have kept his temper and fought cleanly he could have worn Johnson down.
Sandy Griswold
Jack Johnson is a great fighter, but luckier than he is great. After being battered in the fiercest and most merciless style for nine rounds this afternoon, he was awarded a victory over Jim Flynn simply because Referee Ed Smith lacked the per****uity to distinguish between the manner and mode of fouling both men adopted early in the blood fray. He considered the offending of the awful white demon from Pueblo the most flagrant, and for this reason gave the fight to the black, but not on account of his fouling, but because the men had agreed that he should give the man whom he thought had the better of it on the occasion of any interference by the officers of the law or otherwise.
This occurred after one minute and ten seconds in the ninth round, when both men were swathed in gore and fighting like raging beasts in an inferno.
Yet one was as guilty as the other, and as far as the breaking of the Queensberry code was concerned, both were equally culpable. The trouble was Flynn's offense was both the most palpable and the most damaging, as he had been shaded in a majority of the rounds and had shed the most of life's red fluid. Mr. Smith considered his course justifiable in awarding the verdict to Johnson when Captain Fornoff of the mounted rangers, with several of his wild and wooly men, with hands on their big guns, leaped up over the press chairs and into the arena and called a halt.
My! Oh, my! What a glorious intervention that was to Jack Johnson. What a marvelous dispensation of providence in the very nick of time! With his massive black jaw golterous and awry from the terrific overhand left crashes Flynn had landed on it, with his mouth exuding clots of thick and agglutinative blood and his stomach hammered back flat against his vertebrae, Edward Smith failed to see that he was a rumbling shell of his former manhood and in a few more rounds would have been beaten stiff. But Flynn, with his split and fractured nose, his face a mask of smeary gore and his whole torso and upper limbs swathed as in a scarlet sweater, his eyes, wild, fierce and terrible, with the ravages of hatred, vindictiveness and victory but his form upright, rigorous and replete with savage life and earnestness, was the beaten man and according to the compact entered into before the fight, was entitled to all the glory of being denominated as the victorious winner.
While it was undoubtedly a mistake of Smith's it was certainly as he and many others saw it, but a greater mistake of Flynn's. With absolute victory within his grasp, he, in his hatred and passion, tossed it away. There was no call for his repeated butting the negro under the chin, he was winning with most astounding rapidity as it was, and he could well afford to have withstood the short-sightedness of the referee, until, in a round or two more, he would have had Jack Johnson, the black champion of the world, either unconscious or groveling at his feet.
T.S. Andrews
These yells had no effect on Johnson. The black even pushed out his stomach at times for Flynn to hit at, just to show the white what little chance he had when Johnson wanted to block him. Yet Flynn did hurt Johnson at times and in a long fight would have had a splendid chance.
Flynn made the same mistake that Tommy Burns did in Australia. He tried to carry the fight to Johnson and rough it--just what the colored man wanted. Flynn had one chance and that was to act on the defensive and carry the fight along fifteen or twenty rounds to learn whether Jack could stand the pace.
It was a case of the matador toying with the bull, for Johnson certainly toyed with Flynn. There is no denying that Flynn was as strong as a young bull and full of fight, but that is all the more reason why he should have reserved his strength and played to wear down the big fellow.
Otto Floto
There is just a slight chance that destiny knocked at the door of Jim Flynn yesterday afternoon and received a cruel blow that swept away all the chances Jim Flynn will ever have of becoming the world's heavyweight champion. Flynn's foul tactics and over officiousness on the part of Captain Fornoff spoiled what probably would have given the white man an excellent opportunity to wear the crown of supremacy in the realm of fistiana.
Both Johnson and Flynn violated the rules on the Queensberry code. Flynn probably to a greater extent than Johnson. To have disqualified one would have been an injustice unless the other also received the same deal. Johnson continually held and hit his opponent. Flynn made use of his "bean" in a fashion that left no doubt of his intentions.
When the battle was stopped both men were strong and able to continue for some rounds further. Neither had been punished to any great extent. The cut on Flynn's nose bled profusely, but outside of that he was absolutely uninjured.
Probably the inexperience of Captain Fornoff in such matters was responsible for his actions. The blood may have frightened him to a degree quite unnecessary to call for the stopping of the battle. Mind, I don't want to be understood as saying that Flynn would have beaten Johnson, but his chances to score brackets were of the best at the time the fight was stopped. Johnson is still a great champion. He is cunning and shrewd and manages to cover up his transgressions of the rules in a manner that is surprising. But he is not the Jack Johnson of two years ago. He is not the formidable fighting machine that set the world wondering at Reno.
John I. Day
For his three months of training, all Jim Flynn has to show is a badly battered face surrounding a broken nose. He did not even make a friend by the showing he gave today. Still, there were some, and among them such a good judge of fights and fighters as Spider Kelly, who declared that had the fight been allowed to go along to a more natural ending instead of being murdered so early, the "white hope" might finally have worn the worried negro to the canvas.
It is true that Johnson showed signs of punishment and long before the wind-up the smile had been abandoned. Though battered, cut and bloody, the white man was at all times willing, and undoubtedly he did land some telling blows in the midriffs of the champion. Never before has Johnson been known to complain to the referee that he was getting the worst of the milling. Yet in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds he had complaints to make.
Some comments on the above^^^
By those attending the Fight, Johnson was not in the condition to got 25 rounds in the heat, forget about 45 rounds. Flynn if he kept it clean, might have turned the tides later. On film Flynn is much shorter and pretty much lacking boxing skill. However vs. a tried man he would eventually land.
Johnson on film was well in the lead, but he wasn't as sharp as he use to be. His opponent wasn't great either.
Johnson only made $21,000 for this fight ( Paper offers said 30k, but he fought for less ) , which was lightly attended. He sure as heck could have made more money vs Langford, Jeannette, McVey, or Gun Boat Smith in 1912.
People at ringside felt Johnson was slowing down at the time of the DQ and Flynn was not. That is a fact. The question is not who was more skilled, that's Johnson easily, rather if they went 30 rounds or more, who wilts first?
Some testimonials:
W.W. Naughton
That Johnson had scored the most punches and had brought the most blood was something that could not be denied, but to say he looked a winner at the time of the interference is a different matter. It was the opinion of the majority of the spectators that if Flynn could have kept his temper and fought cleanly he could have worn Johnson down.
Sandy Griswold
Jack Johnson is a great fighter, but luckier than he is great. After being battered in the fiercest and most merciless style for nine rounds this afternoon, he was awarded a victory over Jim Flynn simply because Referee Ed Smith lacked the per****uity to distinguish between the manner and mode of fouling both men adopted early in the blood fray. He considered the offending of the awful white demon from Pueblo the most flagrant, and for this reason gave the fight to the black, but not on account of his fouling, but because the men had agreed that he should give the man whom he thought had the better of it on the occasion of any interference by the officers of the law or otherwise.
This occurred after one minute and ten seconds in the ninth round, when both men were swathed in gore and fighting like raging beasts in an inferno.
Yet one was as guilty as the other, and as far as the breaking of the Queensberry code was concerned, both were equally culpable. The trouble was Flynn's offense was both the most palpable and the most damaging, as he had been shaded in a majority of the rounds and had shed the most of life's red fluid. Mr. Smith considered his course justifiable in awarding the verdict to Johnson when Captain Fornoff of the mounted rangers, with several of his wild and wooly men, with hands on their big guns, leaped up over the press chairs and into the arena and called a halt.
My! Oh, my! What a glorious intervention that was to Jack Johnson. What a marvelous dispensation of providence in the very nick of time! With his massive black jaw golterous and awry from the terrific overhand left crashes Flynn had landed on it, with his mouth exuding clots of thick and agglutinative blood and his stomach hammered back flat against his vertebrae, Edward Smith failed to see that he was a rumbling shell of his former manhood and in a few more rounds would have been beaten stiff. But Flynn, with his split and fractured nose, his face a mask of smeary gore and his whole torso and upper limbs swathed as in a scarlet sweater, his eyes, wild, fierce and terrible, with the ravages of hatred, vindictiveness and victory but his form upright, rigorous and replete with savage life and earnestness, was the beaten man and according to the compact entered into before the fight, was entitled to all the glory of being denominated as the victorious winner.
While it was undoubtedly a mistake of Smith's it was certainly as he and many others saw it, but a greater mistake of Flynn's. With absolute victory within his grasp, he, in his hatred and passion, tossed it away. There was no call for his repeated butting the negro under the chin, he was winning with most astounding rapidity as it was, and he could well afford to have withstood the short-sightedness of the referee, until, in a round or two more, he would have had Jack Johnson, the black champion of the world, either unconscious or groveling at his feet.
T.S. Andrews
These yells had no effect on Johnson. The black even pushed out his stomach at times for Flynn to hit at, just to show the white what little chance he had when Johnson wanted to block him. Yet Flynn did hurt Johnson at times and in a long fight would have had a splendid chance.
Flynn made the same mistake that Tommy Burns did in Australia. He tried to carry the fight to Johnson and rough it--just what the colored man wanted. Flynn had one chance and that was to act on the defensive and carry the fight along fifteen or twenty rounds to learn whether Jack could stand the pace.
It was a case of the matador toying with the bull, for Johnson certainly toyed with Flynn. There is no denying that Flynn was as strong as a young bull and full of fight, but that is all the more reason why he should have reserved his strength and played to wear down the big fellow.
Otto Floto
There is just a slight chance that destiny knocked at the door of Jim Flynn yesterday afternoon and received a cruel blow that swept away all the chances Jim Flynn will ever have of becoming the world's heavyweight champion. Flynn's foul tactics and over officiousness on the part of Captain Fornoff spoiled what probably would have given the white man an excellent opportunity to wear the crown of supremacy in the realm of fistiana.
Both Johnson and Flynn violated the rules on the Queensberry code. Flynn probably to a greater extent than Johnson. To have disqualified one would have been an injustice unless the other also received the same deal. Johnson continually held and hit his opponent. Flynn made use of his "bean" in a fashion that left no doubt of his intentions.
When the battle was stopped both men were strong and able to continue for some rounds further. Neither had been punished to any great extent. The cut on Flynn's nose bled profusely, but outside of that he was absolutely uninjured.
Probably the inexperience of Captain Fornoff in such matters was responsible for his actions. The blood may have frightened him to a degree quite unnecessary to call for the stopping of the battle. Mind, I don't want to be understood as saying that Flynn would have beaten Johnson, but his chances to score brackets were of the best at the time the fight was stopped. Johnson is still a great champion. He is cunning and shrewd and manages to cover up his transgressions of the rules in a manner that is surprising. But he is not the Jack Johnson of two years ago. He is not the formidable fighting machine that set the world wondering at Reno.
John I. Day
For his three months of training, all Jim Flynn has to show is a badly battered face surrounding a broken nose. He did not even make a friend by the showing he gave today. Still, there were some, and among them such a good judge of fights and fighters as Spider Kelly, who declared that had the fight been allowed to go along to a more natural ending instead of being murdered so early, the "white hope" might finally have worn the worried negro to the canvas.
It is true that Johnson showed signs of punishment and long before the wind-up the smile had been abandoned. Though battered, cut and bloody, the white man was at all times willing, and undoubtedly he did land some telling blows in the midriffs of the champion. Never before has Johnson been known to complain to the referee that he was getting the worst of the milling. Yet in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds he had complaints to make.
Some comments on the above^^^
By those attending the Fight, Johnson was not in the condition to got 25 rounds in the heat, forget about 45 rounds. Flynn if he kept it clean, might have turned the tides later. On film Flynn is much shorter and pretty much lacking boxing skill. However vs. a tried man he would eventually land.
Johnson on film was well in the lead, but he wasn't as sharp as he use to be. His opponent wasn't great either.
Johnson only made $21,000 for this fight ( Paper offers said 30k, but he fought for less ) , which was lightly attended. He sure as heck could have made more money vs Langford, Jeannette, McVey, or Gun Boat Smith in 1912.
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