The Myth of Hawkins – Flaherty

[El Intocable]

This knockout on the undercard of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight has always been considered as one of the quickest in history. After the Dempsey-Fulton bout the Washington Post compiled a list of the shortest fights in history and they noted that it took Dal Hawkins 4 seconds to knock out Martin Flaherty. According to Nat Fleischer, it took Hawkins 10 seconds to stop Flaherty. BoxRec has it at 4 ½ seconds:

http://www.boxrec.com/date_search.php?y ... m=03&dd=17

It appears, however, that the official timekeeper knocked off a minute “in his excitement.” Here are several fight reports published the next day:

Davenport Daily Leader:



San Antonio Daily Light:



The Fresno Morning Republican:



This report from The Syracuse Standard has the time of knockout at 0:40; very quick but nowhere close to 10 seconds, let alone 4:

[iceman21287]

Very interesting.

[El Intocable]

Need dates on those newspapers.

March 18, 1897. These are the fight reports published the day after the bout, as usual. I said just that in my original post.

[barry]

Martin Flaherty was a very solid fighter, his record in the database is very incomplete, which makes the feat a bit more remarkable, though Dal Hawkins was the first lefty to really gain national prominence and a following and he was also p4p one of the heaviest-hitting fighters of his era.

[El Intocable]

Martin was actually the betting favorite. Corbett wrote that “everyone thought that it would be a cinch for Flaherty.”

Hawkins’ left hook was p4p one of the best ever, and in the twenties it was considered the best ever, period. Gans said that he’s never seen a more dangerous punch anywhere. Corbett called Hawkins the hardest hitting lightweight ever. Joe Jeannette said that Hawkins was the greatest left-handed hitter that ever lived. The guy did not make the Ring’s list of punchers, though. :)

[El Intocable]

He threw the left hook from the southpaw stance?

Orthodox.

This here is from a 1922 article on the best left hands in the business. They mentioned Corbett, Kid McCoy, Bill Dacey (he taught Hawkins the left hook), Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Charlie White, and Jack Britton.

[barry]

I was thinking that I had read that Hawkins was one of the first recognized southpaws, prior to Knockout Brown, but I see it was instead that Hawkins was one fo the first fighters to be recognized for having one of the best left hook's...like Charley White!

[Chuck1052]

I found one Dalzell Hawkins in both the 1880 U.S. Census
and the California Death Records.

- Chuck Johnston

[Senya13]

He dropped Gans with the very first punch of the fight in their second meeting, left hook to the chin. Gans only rose up at the count of nine.

In the 3rd fight, third round started with a rush, Hawkins again catching Gans with a sharp left to the jaw, but this time Gans cornered him and for a minute they slugged it out, not moving a step away from each other, and it looked as though Gans was the first to go, "Hawkins' blows seemed to carry the most steam", but a sharp right hook to the jaw put Hawkins out, where he couldn't recover for several minutes after it was all over, but Gans himself was barely able to stand after that.

[El Intocable]

He dropped Gans with the very first punch of the fight in their second meeting, left hook to the chin. Gans only rose up at the count of nine.

Joe Gans wrote in 1907:

"I knew all about this one punch of Dal’s, and I looked for it. In the very first round we were punching away when all of a sudden I found myself lying on the floor and heard the referee say “six.” I half realized what was going on and managed to get to my feet before the count of 10. Hawkins rushed in to finish me. I didn’t know where I was, but somehow I instinctively hooked my right over and caught him on the jaw. Then as my head cleared I found myself standing there looking at Hawkins, who was flat on his back. He took the count and rose in time. We were both too woozy to land a knockout. In the second I put the right over again and Dal took the long count.

"After the fight I happened to meet Dal, and we talked it over. Dal said that he didn’t expect to slip that left hook in so early in the fight. He just tried it softly when he saw a small opening in my guard, and to his surprise it went through and caught me on the chin. I’m satisfied that he told the truth. If he had put full force behind that blow, he would have knocked me cold."


Robert Edgren, 1923:

"The only six-inch knockdown I ever saw in the ring was a blow Dal Hawkins once landed on Frank Erne. Hawkins slowly reached over Erne’s guard and struck with a downward twist of the wrist–a blow that no other fighter ever mastered."