John L. Sullivan
Picture Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division 3c20819t

Figg is thought by most to be the first heavyweight champion. The truth is that boxing started about 40 years before this but not much is known about that time. Figg was an English bare knuckle fighter born in 1695. He died in 1734. The sport of bare knuckle fighting spread to the U.S. and in 1878 we had one of the greatest bare knuckle champions that ever plied his trade on the canvas floor.

John Lawrence Sullivan was born in 1858 of Irish parents in Roxbury which was a district of Boston. Although his father was quite a scrapper, he was only about 5'3'' tall while John was 5'10" and weighed about 190 pounds. Some reports state he was 5'10.5 " and his weight went as high as 229 pounds. As in many an Irish family, his mother hoped that John would become a priest and to this end sent him to Boston College, he didn't stay there long. Sullivan was quite the athlete and the Cincinnati Red Stockings offered him a contract to play baseball but he turned it down. Sullivan was always the fighter. He used to challenge all comers in bars and engage in weight lifting contests. It is said that he could lift and throw a keg of beer.

There are many stories of Sullivan's early fighting and one famous one was said to take place when he was learning the plumbing trade and he and his boss differed on the size of pipe to use. The result was that Sullivan broke the jaw of his boss and was promptly let go. Sullivan didn't take fighting that seriously until he became 18 years old. That is when he began fighting in amateur bouts. The event that gave Sullivan his first notoriety was when he came up from the audience at the Dudley Street Opera House in Boston. The year was 1877 and a fighter named Tom Scannel used to offer fights to anyone. His big mistake was punching Sullivan instead of shaking hands at the beginning of the fight. Sullivan then proceeded to knock him out of the ring.

In the early days of boxing, bouts were not always welcomed by the authorities who quickly stopped them if they found out about them. An example of this was on Oct 5, 1895 when Mayor McKisson, of Cleveland cancelled a bout between Sullivan and Paddy Ryan even though it was only an exhibition bout. Incidentally Sullivan had won the American Championship from Ryan in 1882 and in this era of extremely long bouts, did it in only 8 rounds. In 1883 Sullivan battled with Charlie Mitchell who was the British Empire Champ. The fight didn't finish, however, because the police stepped in to prevent damage to Mitchell who was clearly losing. The two men battled years later to a 39 round draw.

Handbill
Picture Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division 3c20851t

In 1893 he fought his last professional fight, except for exhibitions. He fought Gentlemen Jim Corbett and suffered his first defeat. This fight was fought for the first time under the Marques of Queensberry rules and was the first title fight to be held using boxing gloves. Times had changed and the bare knuckle fights of the past, along with their champion were no more. Sullivan went on to fight exhibition fights for the next 12 years. Sullivan's record was impressive , he fought 45 times, he won 41 fights, he drew 3 fights and only lost 1. He had 33 knock outs.

One of the greatest fights Sullivan ever had was against John Joseph Killian, also known as Jake Kilrain. The fight was a battle of will power and the fighters were using whiskey instead of water in their corners. The story goes that the local sheriff climbed into the right to stop the fight but after receiving $200 he let it continue. Both men hit each other with hard lefts and rights. A round would end after a fighter hit the ground. Apparently a red mark appeared on Killian's chest and Sullivan kept hitting it, but Killian didn't take that without retaliation. He landed many hard blows himself including a hard smash to Sullivan's nose. Fight experts think that in the 6th round Killian went down on purpose to save himself, but he came out in the 7th round as vicious as ever. Sullivan was hit so hard in the stomach in the 44th round, yes I said 44th round, that he vomited. At this point it is said Sullivan was offered a draw and became enraged. The fight had deteriorated into a hate match for Sullivan who kicked Killian when he was down. By now the amount of whiskey consumed by both fighters was monumental No matter how many times Killian was knocked down he got up again. Finally in the 76th round, Killian's corner threw in the towel.

Sullivan died on 2 February, 1918.

Sullivan is considered to be one of the best heavy weight fighters in the sport of boxing and was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.