BoxRec

‘The Great’ John Lawrence Sullivan

-Won the American Heavyweight title in 1882 with a 9th round kayo of Paddy Ryan

-Defended the title against Tug Wilson at Madison Square Garden, dropping Wilson with virtually every punch he landed

-Gained recognition as being the best Heavyweight in the world with a third round stoppage over British Middleweight champion Charlie Mitchell, who was considered the best ‘test’ for Sullivan

-Sullivan then knocks out Herbet A. Slade, a New Zealand Heavyweight who was appointed the next best opponent for Sullivan to face. Sullivan stopped Slade in the third round. The ‘Police Gazette’ [the 1880’s version of Ring magazine] and its publisher Richard K. Fox was the man responsible for the Mitchell and Slade fights.

-Sullivan from September of 1883 to May of 1884 held his ‘Knock out Tour’, where he would pay $1,000 for any man who could last four rounds with him. Sullivan fought an unthinkable 154 men, knocking them all out. On average that would be 17 fights per month. For comparison, Max Baer once fought 24 men in a period of four months.

-Scheduled to face Charlie Mitchell for the second time, but was too ill to fight. To make up for this, he later fought John Lafflin and Al Greenfield, both were kayo wins. He then fought Paddy Ryan again, this time winning by a 1st round kayo and winning decisions over Jack Burke and Dominick McCaffery, the latter fight was for the American Heavyweight title under the newly created Marquis of Queensbury rules.

-Sullivan knocks out Frankie Herald in the 2nd round. Defeats Paddy Ryan again with a 3rd round kayo. Two draws against Duncan McDonald and Patsy Cardiff.

-Richard K. Fox of the ‘Police Gazette’ presents the ‘Police Gazette Heavyweight’ title to Jake Kilrain. Not only was Sullivan infuriated by this, but the entire city of Boston and the majority of America as well. The city of Boston presents its own title to Sullivan and a match between Sullivan and Kilrain was set.

-Sullivan goes over to England in the attempts to get a fight with either Jem Mace, the English Heavyweight champion, or another fight with Charlie Mitchell. He fights several exhibitions for the Prince of Wales and in 1888 fought Charlie Mitchell in France. This fight in and of its self would prove once and for all that Sullivan was the true king of the Heavyweights as Mitchell now wore the crown of the English title at that weight.

-The match with Mitchell was quite one sided as Sullivan dropped Mitchell an amazing 38 times, but both men had gotten so tired [was under London Prize Ring rules] that after 59 hard rounds the bout was declared a draw. Sullivan was furious over the ruling.

-Under London Prize Ring Rules, this would be the last Heavyweight championship match under these rules in America. Sullivan trained with legendary wrestler William Muldoon to get into shape. The fight went into the 75th round with Sullivan clearly winning and seriously hurting Kilrain, though he himself was cut behind the ear and his hands swollen twice their size. Kilrain’s corner threw in the towel at the beginning of the 76th round to save their man from a possible slaughter.

-Goes to Australia to get matches with Frank Slavin and Joe Goddard. This of course was 1890 and outside of boxing Sullivan was doing Vaudeville shows as well that he would continue to perform until the end of 1891.

-Sullivan defends his ‘Heavyweight Championship of The World’ against ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett. Sullivan didn’t take Corbett seriously and didn’t train with the vigor that he should have, instead opting for drinking and smoking cigar more than hitting the road work and the bag. He paid the price. Though he managed to drop Corbett in the 17th round of a scheduled 45, it wasn’t enough. Sullivan’s title reign ended in 1892 with a kayo in the 21st round.

-Scheduled to face off against reigning Heavyweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons, but the bout was prohibited by police. He later spars with James J. Jeffries, after the exhibition, Jeffries was quoted as saying that Sullivan was the ‘champion of champions’, though he himself was the Heavyweight champion.

-At age 46 comes out of retirement and faces Jim McCormick, a heavyweight who was now the talk to the nation with his 1st round kayo over the legendary ‘Kid’ McCoy. The fight was heavily contested as both men were trading tremendous blows, until Sullivan got the upper hand in a powerful right hand that landed smack on McCormick’s jaw and knocked him out in the 1st round.

-February 2nd, 1918 Sullivan dies of a massive heart attack. Jake Kilrain was one of his pall bearers, and even Charlie Mitchell, Sullivan’s greatest rival, said he was honestly sad to see ‘The Great’ John L. Sullivan go.

-Over all in a career that spanned for three decades, Sullivan faced every great fighter on the planet worth fighting, with the exception of three greats: Jem Mace, George Godfrey and Peter Jackson; he was actually scheduled to fight George Godfrey but after hearing that the stipulation was to be a ‘fight to the finish’ Sullivan refused.

-Was estimated that if Sullivan’s record was complete, since many of his fights have been lost forever throughout the ages, he would have had well over 200 kayos to his credit, 55 more than Archie Moore’s record!

-1967 NCR-315 tournament picked Sullivan to ‘win’ 15 round decision over James Braddock, only to ‘lose’ to Jack Dempsey by 7th round kayo.



Btw, anyone read the new book that was written about him? Havent had the chance to pick it up, is it any good?

Sullivan was the best fighter of his era (1880s), but most of the 200 guys he knocked out were crap. On his tours the majority of fights were against local tough guys and much smaller fighters. I'm not knocking John L, because he was the primary force for raising the popularity of the sport, just the vast majority of his opponents were low quality

A legend to be sure,and top man of his time ,not fair to compare to modern day boxers though .

dr_devious wrote:Sullivan was the best fighter of his era (1880s), but most of the 200 guys he knocked out were crap. On his tours the majority of fights were against local tough guys and much smaller fighters. I'm not knocking John L, because he was the primary force for raising the popularity of the sport, just the vast majority of his opponents were low quality

True enough. However, he also beat many very good fighters as well, and was rightfully regarded as the best fighter in the world for a decade.

BTW, many of the opponents of "modern" fighters are nothing but crap as well.

The Great John L wrote:BTW, many of the opponents of "modern" fighters are nothing but crap as well.

Yes, but at least they are all pro boxers fighting each other. You dont see Vlad Klitscko going to fight Kimbo Slice for the championship nowadays, which is what some of John L's fights were like, or Vlad vs Kassim Ouma. Its much fairer nowadays, with defined weight divisions and sanctioning of pro boxers.
Even some of John Ls better opposition were over-matched because of the size differential e.g. Charlie Mitchell, Jack Burke

dr_devious wrote:

The Great John L wrote:BTW, many of the opponents of "modern" fighters are nothing but crap as well.

Yes, but at least they are all pro boxers fighting each other. You dont see Vlad Klitscko going to fight Kimbo Slice for the championship nowadays, which is what some of John L's fights were like, or Vlad vs Kassim Ouma. Its much fairer nowadays, with defined weight divisions and sanctioning of pro boxers.
Even some of John Ls better opposition were over-matched because of the size differential e.g. Charlie Mitchell, Jack Burke

The size difference between Mitchell and Sullivan wasn’t really much different than the size differences we see in many “modern” HW “title” fights. The Vlad-Ouma example is not relevant as you are talking a roughly 100 lb difference. Of course, just several years after Sullivan’s reign, Fitz stopped Ed Dunkhorst when he was outweighed by some 120+ lbs.

Decagon wrote:

The Great John L wrote:The size difference between Mitchell and Sullivan wasn’t really much different than the size differences we see in many “modern” HW “title” fights. The Vlad-Ouma example is not relevant as you are talking a roughly 100 lb difference. Of course, just several years after Sullivan’s reign, Fitz stopped Ed Dunkhorst when he was outweighed by some 120+ lbs.

Mitchell was basically a welterweight, while Sullivan was a modern cruiserweight/modern heavyweight. But lets talk about what made Sullivan really great; it wasn't against whom he fought, but the way he fought. He was as deadly in the first five rounds against the men he faced as Tyson was against the competition he faced. He started every fight with a terrorizing bull rush in the vein of Tyson, but unlike Tyson, he had a little more staying power.

The knock on Tyson has always been that if you can withstand his initial onslaught, you could win a lot of the later rounds and maybe stop him. With Sullivan, this was also true, but he could score a knockout four hours into a bout. He must have had incredibly strong hands to be able to knock people out with bare knuckles the way he did. After six rounds of heavy fighting, his knuckles must have been raw. Tyson was protected by gloves, while Sullivan had to score the deadly knockout with his fists.

The question is whether or not Sullivan actually was the World Heavyweight Champion. Some would argue that there was no World Heavyweight Champion until both American branches and the English branch of the Heavyweight Championship were unified. Jem Mace unified the weaker branch of the American Heavyweight Championship with the English Heavyweight Championship, some say making him the first World Heavyweight Champion. Although most people say that the lineage of this championship died with Mace, when he was 57, he fought against Charley Mitchell, and lost the Lineal Weak American/English Heayweight Championship in a bout consisting of four two-minute rounds.

Many would argue that the first World Heavyweight Champion was Jim Corbett, who unified all three titles by first beating Sullivan for the Strong American Heavyweight Championship, and then beating Mitchell for the Lineal Weak American/English Heavyweight Championship. Further, there are two other Championships at hand! Jack Kilrain was named the World Heavyweight Champion by the Police Gazette in 1887 following a 106-round draw with Jack Smith. Sullivan earned this title when he knocked Kilrain out in 75 rounds two years later. The fifth Championship was the Billy Madden Heavyweight Championship won by Charley Mitchell, either just before his KO loss to Sullivan. Mitchell won the Billy Madden Heavyweight Championship by beating three men in a single day.

Nice post Dec!

Sullivan defends his ‘Heavyweight Championship of The World’ against ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett. Sullivan didn’t take Corbett seriously and didn’t train with the vigor that he should have, instead opting for drinking and smoking cigar more than hitting the road work and the bag. He paid the price. Though he managed to drop Corbett in the 17th round of a scheduled 45, it wasn’t enough. Sullivan’s title reign ended in 1892 with a kayo in the 21st round.

This is news to me. Sullivan had Corbett down? Where did you hear this?

pound per pound wrote:

Sullivan defends his ‘Heavyweight Championship of The World’ against ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett. Sullivan didn’t take Corbett seriously and didn’t train with the vigor that he should have, instead opting for drinking and smoking cigar more than hitting the road work and the bag. He paid the price. Though he managed to drop Corbett in the 17th round of a scheduled 45, it wasn’t enough. Sullivan’s title reign ended in 1892 with a kayo in the 21st round.

This is news to me. Sullivan had Corbett down? Where did you hear this?

I think this has been discussed several times in this forum, and no one has produced a credible source. I’ve read several reports on the fight and have seen no mention of Corbett being knocked down, although I think Sullivan did attempt a rally sometime around the 17th round – kind of a last ditch effort. For those who have never read any reports of this fight, it’s makes for pretty interesting reading.

Decagon wrote:Here's a drawing of the knockdown that appeared in the National Police Gazette in 1892, reprinted 40-something years later:

http://www.tias.com/6298/PictPage/1922777671.html

Are you sure you got the right link Dec? It's just a drawing of JLS landing a left.

Here is a description of the bout from an article I have, though the name of the guy who wrote it escapes me at the moment:

'The bout was fought under the Marquis of Queensbury rules and took place in New Orleans where prize fights were legal under the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Even without Muldoon, Sullivan was able to get into good, if not, perfect shape. In the opening rounds Corbett danced away and eluded everything Sullivan threw at him and he occassionally came back with hard rights and lefts and earned respect for himself by both the champion and the crowd.

In the eigth round the champion connected with his first hard punch of the fight, a right hand. Corbett took it well. In the 17th, Sullivan dropped Corbett with a hard right to the ear but by the end of the round, Sullivan was showing extreme fatigue. In the 21st, Corbett finally put an end to the long and legendary reign of John L. Sullivan. A combination of rights and lefts put Sullivan down for the ten count.'