While Burns, who grew up in poverty and turned into a shrewd businessman as a boxer, did duck Johnson for the better part of three years, it was clearly done to maximize his earning potential before facing a man who Burns admitted to a friend in confidence that he didn’t think he could beat. Burns even refused to give a rematch to Mike Schreck, a white man from Cincinnati who had defeated him in 1904, before he became champion. And in the intervening years, the Canadian did manage to rack up some high-profile wins, picking off the Australian heavyweight champion, who came into the bout as a +143 favourite, and the British heavyweight champion on his home turf in London.