BoxRec

Anyone got any information on Prizefighter Joe "Tug" Wilson who fought the great John L Sullivan in 1882?

1882 July 17th Joe "Tug" Wilson -- New York, NY -- Sullivan W 4
-Wilson went to the floor 24 times during the bout
to avoid being knocked out-

Apparently Wilson was from my home town of Leicester.

Cheers fight fans.

I dont know about Tug Wilson, Kojoe. It surprised me when I looked into Sullivans record that quite a few of the guys he fought were Brits or Irish, like Wilson, Charlie Mitchell and Jack Burke. I put a post up asking about Charlie Mitchell who is a bit more famous than Tug Wilson and no-one seemed to know much about him either

Kojoe you are right - Tug Wilson was indeed born in Leicester in 1847.
His real name was Joe Collins.
He was 5' 8".
The database lists him as a featherweight, but he certainly was not - he weighed 180lbs for at least one of his contests.
His fight record is nowhere near complete, but so far I have:
W2 L2 D4 NC2.
Hope that helps :-)

dr_devious wrote:I put a post up asking about Charlie Mitchell who is a bit more famous than Tug Wilson and no-one seemed to know much about him either

Mitchell I have read was in someways the James Toney of his day in the sense that he was a former Middleweight who fought many bigger guys and loved to trash talk to his opponents to try and wind them up and get a mental 'edge'.

This tactic backfired when he fought Sullivan as he took a real beating, after the fight in which Mitchell had spouted a constant stream of insults against Sullivan he was heard to say something like "I think I got him a little too mad"

Bump.

hi mate , just emailed you 3 articles on this and one about Ryan.one is a fight by rounds which is not bad

Cheers Rob, your a true gent.