Six degrees of separation is a theory that everyone in the world is separated by no more than six social connections.
In other words, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Queen Elizabeth. Or so the concept goes.
We’re borrowing the six degrees concept — well, sort of loosely — to connect fighters from the past to their more contemporary counterparts in our new occasional feature, “Degrees of Separation.”
Example: Let’s connect Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Super easy; we did it in two steps. Senior fought Grover Wiley, who fought Junior.
To kick off the new Boxing Junkie feature, we were more ambitious than that. We connected the first modern heavyweight champion – John L. Sullivan – with the current No. 1 big man in the sport – Deontay Wilder. And we did it in 15 steps.
Check it out:
John L. Sullivan fought …
James J. Corbett, who fought …
James J. Jeffries, who fought …
Jack Johnson, who fought …
Jess Willard, who fought …
Jack Dempsey, who fought …
Jack Sharkey, who fought …
Joe Louis, who fought …
Rocky Marciano, who fought …
Archie Moore, who fought …
Muhammad Ali, who fought …
Larry Holmes, who fought …
Evander Holyfield, who fought …
Nikolai Valuev, who fought …
Sergei Liakhovich, who fought …
Deontay Wilder
Whew! That took a while. But, in our defense, we bridged more than a century. Sullivan last fought in 1892 and Wilder, of course, is still active.
Could you do it in fewer steps? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook. Or you can contact me on Twitter. And please follow us!