John Lawrence Sullivan (October 15, 1858 - February 2, 1918), also known as "Boston Strong Boy ", is an Irish-American boxer who is recognized as the first heavyweight boxing champion gloved, holding titles from February 7, 1882, to 1892. He is also generally recognized as the last heavyweight boxing champion of boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules.
Video John L. Sullivan
Biography
Early life
John Lawrence Sullivan was born in 1858 in the Boston South End neighborhood to Irish immigrant parents, Michael Sullivan of Abbeydorney, County Kerry and former Catherine Kelly of Athlone, County Roscommon.
He attended public school in his native Boston, attended the Dwight Grammar School, which performed well academically.
Sullivan's parents want their son to enter the priesthood as a Roman Catholic priest. For this purpose Sullivan was enrolled at Boston College sometime around 1875 but after only a few months he switched to playing baseball professionally, earning large sums of $ 30 to $ 40 a week for his efforts. As Sullivan remembered in 1883:
"... I threw my book aside and handed myself to it.This is how I got into the basic soccer profession and I left school forever and all.From a basic ball-business I drifted into boxing and pugilism."
Beginning boxing career
As a professional Sullivan fighter dubbed The Boston Strongboy . As a young man he was arrested several times for participating in a fight where the sport was banned. He went on an exhibition tour offering money to people to fight him. Sullivan won more than 450 fights in his career.
There is some controversy among boxing historians about whether Sullivan has argued with James Young's black boxer at Schieffelin Hall in Tombstone, Arizona in 1882. This is important because Sullivan insists that he has never fought a black boxer. If that happens, Sullivan might have a brief debate session with the residents of Tombstone, and not take it seriously as a fight.
In 1883-84 Sullivan went on a beach-to-coast tour with a train along with five other boxers. They are scheduled to hold 195 fights in 136 different cities and towns for 238 days. To help promote the tour, Sullivan announced that he would punch anyone anytime during the tour under the $ 250 Queensberry Rules. He dropped 11 men during the tour.
In the Sullivan era, there is no official boxing title. He became champion after defeating Paddy Ryan in Mississippi City, near Gulfport, Mississippi on February 7, 1882. The modern authorities retroactively labeled Ryan the "Heavyweight Champion of America", but any claim to Ryan who became "world champion" would be dubious ; he never competed internationally as Sullivan did.
Depending on modern authority, Sullivan was first considered a heavyweight world champion in 1888 when he fought Charley Mitchell in France, or in 1889 when he defeated Jake Kilrain in round 75 of a scheduled 80 lap round. The first world heavyweight champion was Jem Mace, who beat Tom Allen in 1870 in Kenner, Louisiana, but the strong anti-British sentiment in the Irish-American boxing community at that time chose to ignore it.
When the modern authorities wrote about the "world heavyweight championship," they probably referred to the championship belt presented to Sullivan in Boston on August 8, 1887. The belt inscribed Presented for Champions of Champions, John L Sullivan, by United States Citizens . The center features flags of the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Mitchell came from Birmingham, England and fought Sullivan in 1883, dropping him in the first round. Their third meeting took place in 1888 on the basis of a chateau in Chantilly, France, with a struggle held in riding a rain. It lasted for more than two hours, in the end the two men were unrecognizable and suffered a lot of blood loss; could not lift his arm to hit and the contest was considered a draw.
At this point, the local gendarmerie arrives and catches Mitchell. He was locked up in jail for several days and then fined by a local magistrate, since boxing-boxing was illegal in France at that time. Flooded with bandages, Sullivan is helped to evade the law and take over the English Channel to spend the next few weeks in Liverpool.
The battle of Kilrain
The battle for Kilrain is considered a turning point in boxing history as it is the last world title fight to be fought under the London Prize Ring Rules, and therefore the last nonsense heavyweight title fight. It was one of the first sporting events in the United States to receive national press coverage.
For the first time, the newspaper carried extensive pre-battle coverage, reported on the training of fighters and speculated about where the fight would take place. The traditional center of bare-book fights is New Orleans, but the governor of Louisiana has banned the fight in the state. Sullivan has been training for months in Belfast, New York under coach William Muldoon, whose biggest problem is holding Sullivan off liquor. A report on Sullivan's training regimen in Belfast was written by renowned reporter Nellie Bly and published in New York World.
Rochester reporter Arch Merrill commented that once in a while Sullivan would "run away" from his guard. In the village of Belfast, the shouting sounded, "John L. loose again. Send it to Muldoon!" Muldoon will grab the champ away from the bar and bring it back to their training camp.
On July 8, 1889, an estimated 3,000 spectators boarded a special train for a secret location, which turned out to be Richburg, a town in southern Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The fight starts at 10.30, and it looks like Sullivan will lose, especially after he vomited during the 44th round. But the champion got a second wind after that, and manager Kilrain finally gave up after the 75th round.
Later career
Unbeaten at the time, Sullivan did not defend his title for the next four years. During this period, he was a friend and supporter of Irish boxer Ike Weir, who became the first American featherweight boxing champion in 1889. Both Weir and Sullivan were native to Boston, and Sullivan occasionally appeared in Weir's battle.
Sullivan agreed to defend his title in 1892, against challenger "Gentleman Jim" Corbett. The game was on September 7th in New Orleans. It started at 9 pm on an electrically illuminated Olympic Club in the Nine Ward neighborhood now known as the Bywater section. The venue is filled for a capacity of 10,000 people even though the ticket price is fairly ranging from $ 5 to $ 15 (about $ 117 to $ 353 in 2009 dollars). The heavyweight contest took place under the Marquess of Queensberry Rule, but it was not the first title race under that rule, nor was the first title fight using boxing gloves. Corbett is younger and faster, and his fist technique allows him to avoid Sullivan's bending and hasty style. In the 21st round, Corbett landed a hard blow to the left "sounding all over the house" that left Sullivan disappointed. Sullivan counted and Corbett announced a new champion. When Sullivan was able to get back on his feet, he announced to the crowd, "if I were to be licked, I'm glad I was licked by Americans."
Sullivan is considered the last champion to be naked because there is no champion after he fights naked. However, Sullivan had fought with gloves under the Marquess of Queensberry Rule in early 1880 and he only fought naked bare three times throughout his career (Ryan 1882, Mitchell 1888, and Kilrain 1889). The naked image was created because his two rare fights since 1888 until Corbett's fight in 1892 was a blow-blank.
Sullivan retired to Abington, Massachusetts but appeared in several exhibitions over the next 12 years, including a three-rounder against Tom Sharkey and the last two rounders against Jim McCormick in 1905 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He continued his various out-of-box activities such as stage actors, speakers, celebrity baseball referees, sports reporters, and bar owners. In his later years, Sullivan also gave up his lifelong addiction to alcohol and became a prohibition lecturer.
Death and inheritance
Overweight and unhealthy from the longevity of consuming excessive food and drink, and from the effects of prizefighting, Sullivan died at the age of 59 at his home in Abington, Massachusetts, apparently due to heart disease. He is buried at the Old Calvary Cemetery in Roslindale, a neighborhood in Boston. He died with almost 10 dollars in his pocket (which is the equivalent of almost $ 180 in 2018). According to the county where John L Sullivan died, he had a $ 3675 worth of pretty little money back then, for a former boxer.
Sullivan was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, as a member of the original classroom hall. He has a record of 40 wins, 1 defeat and 2 draws, with 34 wins by knockout, though many sources disagree on his exact record.
The warehouse where Sullivan trained still stands in the small town of Belfast, New York and is now the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame.
Maps John L. Sullivan
Professional boxing record
Footnote
Further reading
- Isenberg, Michael T. John L. Sullivan and His America (University of Illinois Press, 1994.)
- Pollack, Adam J. John L. Sullivan: First Heavy Gloved Weight Class Champion (McFarland, 2015)
- Reel, Guy. "Richard Fox, John L. Sullivan, and the rise of the modern American prize battles." Historical Journalism 27.2 (2001): 73
- Sullivan, John L. The article on The Washington Post , July 30, 1905. "'Your hands are too big, you will never make a boxer,' was one of the few desperations passed for me when I began to attract attention as a puncher. It was a popular idea at the time, because Sayers, Heenan, Yankee Sullivan, and some other good people who had made their tally and passed it had little hands. "
External links
- Professional boxing record for John L. Sullivan from BoxRec
- The Boston Strongboy
- Yesterday's News A newspaper account in 1883 about the Sullivan exhibit at St. Paul, Minn.
- John L. Sullivan on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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