1906 - Tommy Burns Becomes The First Canadian Heavyweight Boxing Champion Of The World

On February 23, 1906 Noah Brusso became Canada's first and only Canadian born heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Although born with this name as the twelfth of thirteen children in a poor German-Canadian family near Hanover, Ontario, he is best known as Tommy Burns. So, Tommy Burns was a very big deal in 1906. He was relatively short and light for a heavyweight; he was five foot, seven inches tall (about 1.70 m) and weighed only 175 pounds (about 70 kg). 

Source of image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Tommy_Burns_sparring.jpg

Tommy Burns is famous for being the first boxer to travel the world to defend his title, which he did 13 times. He is also famous for being the first boxer to break the colour barrier, and had no problem fighting Native Americans, African-Americans, Jewish-Americans, etc. In fact, the greatest fighter in the world in 1908 was an African-American, Jack Johnson (see link), who stated that if it weren't for Tommy Burns being willing to fight him, he would not be the champion that he became.