Tom Allen Fights Bill Davis
In de 19th century, most states banned bare-knuckled prizefighting and professional gloved boxing. Police often arrested fighter, managers, and promoters to stop prizefighting. A unique aspect of geography turned St. Louis into an ideal fight venue to get around the authorities’s activity to stop professional prizefighting.
In the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois, the river’s current created a handful of islands outside the jurisdiction of both Missouri and Illinois authorities. In the 1860s and 1870s, prizefighters fought a dozen or so bouts on the islands.
Picture of Tom Allen During His Prizefighting Days from the Public Domain
Tom Allen made his professional debut in a fight on Chouteau Island during the afternoon of Tuesday, Januari 12, 1869. Born in Birmingham, England on April 23, 1839, the twenty-nine-year-old Allen was matched with Bill Davis.
Bill Davis was born in Belfast, Ireland during 1839. Davis was about 37 jaar oud, but the newspaper reporter said Davis looked older than that.
Davis had the height advantage as he stood six feet tall to Allen’s five feet, ten inches frame. Both men weighed 170 pond.
The steamer Henry Adkins took fighters, seconden, and fans across to Chouteau Island for the princely sum of $5.00 a passenger. Spectators, who tried to board the steamship without paying the fare, were stopped by the crew members. Crew members threw the spectators into the freezing cold Mississippi River near the shore.
After arriving at the Island, the seconds for both fighters erected a ring for the bout. As referee William Collins prepared to start the bout, Allen walked over and said to Davis, “How are you, Bill?” Both men shook hands and prepared for the battle. Allen looked out of shape but only had nine days to prepare for the hastily arranged battle.
The men started the first-round sparring cautiously with Allen eventually landing a right, left combination to Davis’s nose. Allen drew first blood. After another few minutes of sparring, Allen ended the first round with a left hook to the nose. The blow knocked Davis to his knees giving Allen the first knockdown. Time of the round, four minutes.
Davis ended the second-round by throwing Allen heavily to the turf. In bare-knuckle prizefighting, a fighter ended the round by knocking his opponent down, throwing the opponent, or the opponent taking a knee to concede a knockdown. Time of the round, one minute.
An older Tom Allen around 1897 in St. Louis (Public Domain)
In the third round, Allen made Davis’s nosebleed worse with a combination to the nose. The blows stunned Davis, who Allen easily threw to end the third round. Time of the round, one minute.
Allen started to dominate the fight in the fourth round. Davis started voluntarily taking a knee to end the rounds as Allen peppered Davis’s face with left and rights. In the eighth round, Allen threw Davis heavily. Allen complained during other rounds that Davis was dropping from the lightest contact.
During the fifteenth-round, Davis scored one of his only offensive moves when Davis threw Allen to the turf and fell on top of him. Allen’s corner yelled foul arguing that Davis fell on Allen deliberately. Allen waived his corner men off and continued dominating the bout.
Davis threw Allen again in the sixteenth round. Gamblers in the audience tried to make bets with Davis’s supporters but no one placed bets on Davis. The Davis supporters were wise because Davis was just about done.
Allen pummeled Davis for the remainder of the fight. Davis ended round after round by taking a knee. Finally in the forty-third round, Davis staggered out of his corner only to be knocked down with a straight right to the left eye. Allen just stared at Davis’s corner. Eindelijk, future Allen foe Mike McCoole, and Davis’s chief second, threw the sponge into the ring. “I give up the fight,” McCoole told referee Bill Collins.
Davis’s seconds had to help Davis from the ring while Allen looked unscathed. Both Mike McCoole and Bill Gallagher, Davis’s seconds, challenged Allen to a fight. Allen told Gallagher, “I’ll fight you now for $500. You are a cur!” The two camps kept Allen and Gallagher separated.
For Tom Allen, het the first of a handful of fights on an island in the Mississippi River. Allen must have hoped they all went as well as this fight.
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Source: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri), Januari 13, 1869, p. 4
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