‘The Fighting Kentuckian’ was a very skilled fighter and is unfortunately seldom brought up in boxing trivia or in most discussions pertaining to the official lineage of Heavyweight champions. I find it rather insulting in ways that people can dismiss Hart who won the vacated title that Jeffries held, yet have no problem at all accepting Vitali Klitschko as the ‘true’ champion when he himself never won it from Lennox Lewis.
I guess whatever argument you can come up with suits your own case.
One thing is for certain though, after Jeffries retired as champion there were many contenders and champions at lighter weights making claim as the ‘true’ and rightful Heavyweight champion of the world. I think the greatest irony is that Jeffries once remarked that ‘I never gave the title to anyone, I’m the true champion’; as if boxing’s greatest division was just going to end with the ‘Boilermaker’.
Hart at that time was a highly regarded talent in the division holding wins over such men as Dick O’Brien, Dan Creedon, Kid Carter, Jack Bonner, Jack O’Brien, Joe Choynski, George Gardner, Gus Ruhlin, Sandy Ferguson and an up and coming Jack Johnson.
Clearly with his wins over two of the best black fighters on the planet, combined with wins over perennial white contenders, this man was clearly the best of the white fighters and in my personal opinion the truest man to lay claim to the number one contendership of the Heavyweight belt.
In 1905, just four months after beating Jack Johnson, he won the World Heavyweight title over Jack Root, a great Middleweight fighter who laid claim as being the ‘true’ Heavyweight champion. Though there were several others who made this claim there are none that I can think of who faced as many black men, let alone top black men, as Hart did.
By default Hart was the ‘true’ Heavyweight champion. The next year he lost the title to Canadian Tommy Burns who was a top contender for the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight crowns who also dabbled at Heavyweight on occasion. Hart would go on a down hill spiral going a mediocre 5-3-1 (2) with 1 no decision by the time he retired in 1907.
No it’s clear that overall Hart had a disappointing career but from his debut to 1905 this man beat a great amount of worthy contenders and fighters the majority of the world ducked. Clearly, Hart was the best white man on the planet wearing a pair of boxing gloves until his loss to Burns and truly the best candidate to be recognized as the Heavyweight champion of the world.