Posts about martial arts concepts and history.
On Sunday, November 9, 1913, African American boxer Sam McVea, or McVey, battled Professor Stevenson, a Jujitsu practitioner, in a mixed styles bout in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. McVea and Stevenson fought ten, five-minute rounds, with three-minute intermission between rounds. McVea and Stevenson fought for $100 a side. In grappler vs. boxer matches, the grappler usually won, but McVea […]
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When the great Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, the boxing establishment started searching for a “white hope” to defeat Johnson. In desperation to find someone to defeat Johnson, promoters and sports writers started lobbying former World Heavyweight Champion James J. Jeffries to end his retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries retired undefeated in 1905. After […]
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On Saturday, December 30, 1916, Taro Miyake fought Ben de Mello, a professional boxer, in a mixed styles six round challenge bout. 1,000 spectators filed into the Hilo Armory to watch a rare legitimate contest between a boxer and jiu jitsu expert. Referee H.S. Prager started the bout between the 35-year-old Miyake and the younger boxer. Miyake warily circled de […]
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On Friday, March 11, 1932, wrestlers George Tragos and Rudy Dusek faced boxers, Stanley McRae and Tom Pivac in wrestler versus boxer bouts. It took the fans longer to get to their seats than it took the combatants to complete the bouts. The men fought the pair of bouts in Memphis, Tennessee at the Auditorium. Fans know George Tragos, a […]
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In mixed style bouts between wrestlers and strikers, the adage is once the wrestler gets his hands on the striker, the fight is over. In most mixed style bouts between wrestlers or grapplers and boxers, the grappler normally wins after dragging the striker to the ground. Ray Steele defeated Battling Levinsky. “Judo” Gene LeBell smashed Milo Savage. In modern […]
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On Tuesday, June 3, 1924, up-and-coming wrestler Jim Browning challenged Taro Miyake in a mixed styles match in Nashville, Tennessee. Browning, a wrestler from Verona, Missouri recently left the Missouri-Kansas area to wrestle in Tennessee and Kentucky. The 21-year-old Browning was developing a reputation for solid wrestling. Browning impressed promoters so much in the 1920s that the promoters put the […]
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Taro Miyake originally came to prominence as a jiu jitsu expert fighting legitimate mixed styles contests with professional boxers and wrestlers. Miyake used the legitimate contests, most of which he won, to generate interest in jiu jitsu. Like many judo and jiu jitsu instructors, Miyake discovered how hard it was to make a sustainable income from martial arts instruction. Taro […]
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In March 1893, newspapers across the country carried the story of a proposed match between current world light heavyweight boxing champion Jack McAuliffe and Saint Louis boxing instructor Mike Mooney. Although the match would seem odd because Mooney was such a lightly regarded challenger, the lure of $2500 a side is probably what brought the champion to the table. Adjusted […]
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On Friday, November 27, 1891, former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Joe Acton wrestled future World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Bob Fitzsimmons in San Francisco, California. The men wrestled for a reported $1,000.00 purse. Acton usually gave up size to his opponent but Acton outweighed the 148-pound Fitzsimmons by seven pounds. The men wrestled a two-out-of-three falls match according to catch-as-catch-can wrestling […]
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On Monday, March 26, 1888, Joe Acton, who specialized in catch wrestling, wrestled Professor William Miller, an Australian wrestler, and bare-knuckle prizefighter, in a two-out-of-three-falls Greco-Roman wrestling match. Both men’s camps believed wrestling the match in this style ensured the fairest contest between them. The men wrestled for $500.00 a side. 1,500 fans, a large crowd for the era, turned […]
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