Posts about heavyweight fights in bare-knuckle prizefighting and professional boxing.
An age old question in combat sports is “Who will win between a boxer and a wrestler?” The speculation around this question led to several boxer versus wrestler matches through out history, most notably the disaster between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. The matches are mostly no-win affairs except at the box office, which is why both promoters […]
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On October 29, 1868, “Irish Giant” Ned O’Baldwin and English prizefighter Joe Wormald met in a bare knuckle prize-fight outside of Boston in Lynnville, Massachusetts. O’Baldwin stood 6’06” tall and weighed around 220 pounds. Possessed of a violent disposition, O’Baldwin had the perfect attitude for the ring but poor social skills outside of it. Fans of both men arrived in […]
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After Jack Johnson became champion, a lack of strong contenders caused public pressure to mount on James J. Jeffires, the retired former heavyweight champion, to end his retirement and fight Johnson. Jeffries was considered the first and most credible of the “White Hope” contenders. In his prime, Jeffries probably couldn’t beat Johnson. At 35 years of age and nearly 300 […]
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On April 17, 1909, African-American heavyweight boxer Joe Jeanette met World Colored Heavyweight Boxing Champion Sam McVey for the title in a fight to the finish. Before the classic bout was complete, the men would box for 49 rounds over 3 hours and 30 minutes. From February 5, 1903, when he beat “Denver” Ed Martin to December 26, 1908, when […]
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On Tuesday, November 18, 1884, World Heavyweight Bare-Knuckle Prizefighting Champion John L. Sullivan fought Al Greenfield at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Sullivan needed to overcome more than just his opponent in this bout. The men originally agreed to fight on Monday, November 17, 1884, but New York City authorities threatened the men with arrest. The wrangling with […]
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On November 30, 1910, reports came from England that former World Heavyweight Prizefighting Champion Jem Mace had died at 79 years of age. Mace was world champion from 1860 to 1862 and again from 1866 to 1876. After reportedly earning a million dollars in a career that spanned 1857 to 1909, Jem Mace died penniless. He was laid to rest […]
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Sam McVey tired of the lack of opportunity for black fighters in the United States during the early Twentieth Century. McVey decided to leave for Europe in 1907, where he fought until 1911. McVey fought in Australia for three more years before returning to the United States. This brief highlight film from France in 1911 with “Battling” Jim Johnson shows […]
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John Morrissey claimed the World Bare Knuckle Prizefighting Championship in a controversial bout with Yankee Sullivan in October 1853. After beating a murder charge for his participation in the murder of Bill “The Butcher” Poole, Morrissey decided to defend his title against John C. Heenan, “the Benicia Boy”. “Old Smoke” Morrissey defeated Heenan in the October 1858 bout held in […]
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For the October 5, 1861 edition of the Cincinnati Daily Press, editors pulled a story off the wire service from the Spirit of the Times. The wire story reported on a fight between former English prizefighting champion Tom Sayers and current English champion Jem Mace. Both Sayers and Mace were touring with English circuses, when they stopped in at a […]
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Tom Hyer won the American Bare Knuckle Prizefighting Championship in 1841. Like most prizefighting champions of the Nineteenth Century, he did not fight very often. Hyer normally paid his bills as an enforcer for political parties in New York. Originally, Hyer employed his talents for the Whigs but would switch allegiances to the “Know Nothing Party” with his friend William […]
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