The criticism he faced for successful and don’t get hit style predates modern debates about defensive boxing. Long before fighters like Shakur Stevenson were accused of avoiding risk, Corbett was already being accused of denying the audience what it believed a heavyweight champion owed them. Fans treated that style as avoidance moderately than intelligence.
Those feelings only hardened once he took the title from John L. Sullivan. Corbett beat a champion who was deeply beloved and who embodied brute force, endurance, and excess. He broke Sullivan down round by round, turning the fight into something colder and fewer satisfying for the gang. The result was decisive, but many fans felt that they had lost something in the method.
Corbett’s style arrived ahead of its audience, and his confidence in it left little room for compromise once the resentment set in.
Corbett never repaired that relationship during his reign. He defended the title officially just once across several years, selecting as a substitute to pursue exhibitions, stage work, and acting opportunities. To modern readers, which may resemble early crossover ambition. To contemporaries, it suggested a champion who preferred comfort and control to risk.
His public image reinforced that view. Corbett presented himself fastidiously, with a manicured appearance, a styled pompadour, and a willingness to look on stage and in early movies. He didn’t resemble the hardened heavyweights fans expected to represent the division. To critics, he looked less like a fighter shaped by hardship and more like a performer who boxed when it suited him.
That perception shaped how his reign was read. A champion who fought rarely, relied on movement, and seemed comfy outside the ring was judged less by skill than by what he selected to not risk.
Suspicion followed him contained in the ropes as well. His 1900 knockout of Kid McCoy, recorded as a five round stoppage, never sat comfortably with observers. The circumstances of the bout, McCoy’s popularity, and the abrupt ending fueled speculation that the final result had been arranged. No proof ever closed the query, however the doubts remained attached to Corbett’s record.
Essentially the most damaging query of his profession never reached a conclusion in any respect.
Peter Jackson was essentially the most dangerous heavyweight contender of the era and one Corbett couldn’t dismiss. Their 1891 meeting stretched to sixty one exhausting rounds and ended and not using a decision. Neither man was finished, and neither man was satisfied. When Corbett became champion the next 12 months, Jackson expected one other opportunity. He never received one.
Corbett offered practical explanations, pointing to limited money and a dangerous opponent as reasons to maneuver on. On paper, those reasons were logical. In practice, they left a visual absence at the middle of his reign.
Race hovered beneath every justification. The colour line in boxing was real and openly enforced by champions before Corbett. Corbett didn’t issue the identical declarations, however the result was equivalent. Jackson remained excluded, and the unanswered challenge followed Corbett long after his title reign ended.
The backlash was immediate and private. Corbett faced criticism not only from rivals and the press, but from inside his own circle. Even supporters struggled to clarify why essentially the most pressing challenge of the era had been left unresolved.
By the point his profession wound down, the arguments had hardened. Corbett had introduced a brand new strategy to fight, but he had also refused to perform the rituals many fans related to legitimacy.
He won the heavyweight title by bringing the long run into the ring. He never fully satisfied the expectations of his own time.