1889 Heavyweight Rankings

[Simon Lock]

These were the heavyweight rankings per the Police Gazette on 14th December 1889. I believe this is one of the earliest published rankings, before the Ring started doing annual rankings in 1925.

"The following Is the standing of the twenty prominent heavy-weight pugilists now in the swim for the title of champion, which John L. Sullivan holds:

No. 1—John L. Sullivan, champion of the world and holder of the "Police Gazette" champion belt.
No. 2—Jake Kilrain of Baltimore, ex-champion of the world.
No. 3 —Peter Jackson, the colored heavy-weight champion of Australia.
No. 4—Frank P. Slavln of Melbourne, champjon of New South Wales.
No. 5—Jem Smith, champion of England.
No. 6—Charley Mitchell, boxing champion of England.
No. 7—Joe McAuliffe of San Francisco, Cal, champion of the Pacific Coast.
No. 8— Mike C. Conley, the Ithaca Giant, of Ashland, Wis.
No. 9—George Godfrey of Boston, Mass, the colored champion of America
No. 10—Joe Lannon of Boston, Mass.
No. 11—Jack Ashton of Providence, R I.
No. 12—Patsy Cardiff of Minneapolis, Minn.
No. 13—Dominick McCaffrey of New York.
No. 14—Jack Fallon of Brooklyn. K. Y.
No. 15—Pat Killlen of St. Paul, the Duluth Slasher.
No. 16—Jack Wannop of London, England.
No. 17—Woolf Bendoff of London, England.
No. 18—Frank Glover of Chicago.
No. 19—Paddy Ryan of San Francisco.
No. 20—Tom Lees of Australia"

[goose 5]

Great Post ! very interesting.

[Ambling Alp II]

That is pretty cool. Often guys who just outside of the very top get forgotton over the years. Will be interesting to look up some of these guys.

[pound per pound]

These were the heavyweight rankings per the Police Gazette on 14th December 1889. I believe this is one of the earliest published rankings, before the Ring started doing annual rankings in 1925.

"The following Is the standing of the twenty prominent heavy-weight pugilists now in the swim for the title of champion, which John L. Sullivan holds:

No. 1—John L. Sullivan, champion of the world and holder of the "Police Gazette" champion belt.
No. 2—Jake Kilrain of Baltimore, ex-champion of the world.
No. 3 —Peter Jackson, the colored heavy-weight champion of Australia.
No. 4—Frank P. Slavln of Melbourne, champjon of New South Wales.
No. 5—Jem Smith, champion of England.
No. 6—Charley Mitchell, boxing champion of England.
No. 7—Joe McAuliffe of San Francisco, Cal, champion of the Pacific Coast.
No. 8— Mike C. Conley, the Ithaca Giant, of Ashland, Wis.
No. 9—George Godfrey of Boston, Mass, the colored champion of America
No. 10—Joe Lannon of Boston, Mass.
No. 11—Jack Ashton of Providence, R I.
No. 12—Patsy Cardiff of Minneapolis, Minn.
No. 13—Dominick McCaffrey of New York.
No. 14—Jack Fallon of Brooklyn. K. Y.
No. 15—Pat Killlen of St. Paul, the Duluth Slasher.
No. 16—Jack Wannop of London, England.
No. 17—Woolf Bendoff of London, England.
No. 18—Frank Glover of Chicago.
No. 19—Paddy Ryan of San Francisco.
No. 20—Tom Lees of Australia"

Comments.

Sullivan did not fight Jackson, Slaivin who Ko'd Kilrian in 9 round, and he famously avoided ( it took Sullivan a while over 70 rounds) Jem Smith, Godfrey or Killen who's record looks great on paper and unlike Sullivan opponents he wasn't a blown sup middle to light heavyweight. He was for real at 6'1 200+ pounds. Before then he did not meet Mace. The top talent of the times. He did fight MaAuflffe in a very short fight that went the distance and Cardiff in a fight where he should have lost according to the local papers of the times. Yes, you read that right. Form 1884-1899 Sullivan the puncher lacks Ko's period and more often than not had 4-7 round fights that went the distance possibly because he wasn't in shape to go more. His resume if wins is thin by champions standards. To me he's over rated in a ring sense, but not of historical importance.

Nice List. Do you have 1890, 1891 , and 1892?

[HomicideHenry]

Sullivan by 1889 was largely an alcoholic who nearly died. It took a monumental effort to not only sober him up but to get him into championship shape to be able to take on Kilrain --- and largely the reason why the fight lasted as long as it did was because it was under London Prize Ring rules. Kilrain intentionally kept throwing himself down to the ground to end rounds to avoid getting hit by Sullivan. Had it been Marquis of Queensbury undoubtedly the fight would have ended much sooner.

Following the last bare knuckle heavyweight championship fight Sullivan ballooned up to 300 pounds, and was raking in a fortune appearing in theatrical productions around the world. Which is why after a year or so of criticism he said he would fight anybody in the world for $45,000 a side winner take all--- which was absolutely unheard of at the time and he thought no one could ever pull together the money. Corbett, of course, managed to get the investors to do so.

I do like the top 10 rankings list because Sullivan on three different occasions was supposed to fight George Godfrey, and it's a shame that he didn't because that is one he could have very easily of won--- and according to historian Adam Pollack, Sullivan would have been better served to have fought Peter Jackson instead of Jim Corbett because of the styles. Jackson was more of a boxer-puncher, which would have given Sullivan more of a chance to have won rather than Corbett who was always on his bicycle.

But make no mistake Sullivan could hit really hard. I believe it was 1905 that Sullivan said he wanted to make an official comeback to face heavyweight champion Jim Jefferies, but investors were scared and said they would not put up any money unless he could prove he could beat someone who was a top contender first. So, the massively overweight Sullivan fought popular heavyweight Jim McCormick and to the surprise of many knocked the man out in the second round for over 5 minutes.

Sullivan joked after the match that he was almost too fat to fight anymore--- and of course he never did pursue a fight with Jefferies. I think he knew that as a former athlete of the highest level that he wouldn't have been able to make a good show of it. But the point still stands that power is the last thing to go in boxing and Sullivan certainly still had it after being inactive since 1892.

[pound per pound]

Sullivan said since his day boxing has passed him by and Jeffires would have put it to him. I think he's right. Sullivan opponents aren't good. It's a poor lot of victories.

[The Balletic Bomber]

These were the heavyweight rankings per the Police Gazette on 14th December 1889. I believe this is one of the earliest published rankings, before the Ring started doing annual rankings in 1925.

"The following Is the standing of the twenty prominent heavy-weight pugilists now in the swim for the title of champion, which John L. Sullivan holds:

No. 1—John L. Sullivan, champion of the world and holder of the "Police Gazette" champion belt.
No. 2—Jake Kilrain of Baltimore, ex-champion of the world.
No. 3 —Peter Jackson, the colored heavy-weight champion of Australia.
No. 4—Frank P. Slavln of Melbourne, champjon of New South Wales.
No. 5—Jem Smith, champion of England.
No. 6—Charley Mitchell, boxing champion of England.
No. 7—Joe McAuliffe of San Francisco, Cal, champion of the Pacific Coast.
No. 8— Mike C. Conley, the Ithaca Giant, of Ashland, Wis.
No. 9—George Godfrey of Boston, Mass, the colored champion of America
No. 10—Joe Lannon of Boston, Mass.
No. 11—Jack Ashton of Providence, R I.
No. 12—Patsy Cardiff of Minneapolis, Minn.
No. 13—Dominick McCaffrey of New York.
No. 14—Jack Fallon of Brooklyn. K. Y.
No. 15—Pat Killlen of St. Paul, the Duluth Slasher.
No. 16—Jack Wannop of London, England.
No. 17—Woolf Bendoff of London, England.
No. 18—Frank Glover of Chicago.
No. 19—Paddy Ryan of San Francisco.
No. 20—Tom Lees of Australia"

Thanks for posting that.

[HomicideHenry]

Sullivan said since his day boxing has passed him by and Jeffires would have put it to him. I think he's right. Sullivan opponents aren't good. It's a poor lot of victories.

If you notice an awful lot of the champions were very modest and very courteous in those days. Jefferies said that he could have never beaten Johnson, for example, but Johnson in the later years of his life declared that Jefferies was the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.

Sullivan's era wasn't poor. The problem is that much of the fighters of his time were not as well documented as they are today, plus the fact that the vast majority of the fighters of his time were trained up in the London Prize Ring rules and by the time the Marquis of Queensbury rules came about a lot of those guys were simply too old to really make the transition over.

Many of the guys that did transition over did not transition over well, for example Alf Greenfield the champion of Britain fought Sullivan under the Marquis of Queensbury rules but repeatedly threw himself down to the canvas to escape being punched--- which was a tactic that was perfectly legal under the London Prize Ring rules, but severely frowned upon in the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

Also most of Sullivan's matches were four or six rounds and quite frankly that was all he needed for the most part--- very rarely did anyone go the distance with him. But what Sullivan achieved would be the modern day equivalent of somebody being simultaneously the heavyweight boxing and UFC heavyweight champion, because for all intents and purposes Sullivan was the champion of two different sets of rules.