As a professional fighter Sullivan was nicknamed the "Boston Strong Boy". As a youth he was arrested several times for participating in bouts where the sport was outlawed. He went on exhibition tours offering people money to fight him. Sullivan won more than 450 fights in his career. Sullivan may have sparred with black boxer
James Young at
Schieffelin Hall in
Tombstone, Arizona, in 1882, though Sullivan later insisted that he never fought a black boxer. If this match did occur, it may have been just a brief sparring session that Sullivan did not regard seriously as a bout. In 1883–84 Sullivan went on a coast-to-coast tour by train with five other boxers. They were scheduled to hold 195 fights in 136 different cities and towns over 238 days. To help promote the tour, Sullivan announced that he would box anyone at any time during the tour under the
Queensberry Rules for $250. He
knocked out eleven men during the tour. In Sullivan's era, no formal boxing titles existed. He became a champion after defeating
Paddy Ryan in
Mississippi City, near
Gulfport, Mississippi, on February 7, 1882. Modern authorities have retroactively labelled Ryan the "Heavyweight Champion of America", but any claim to Ryan's being a "world champion" would have been dubious; he had never contended internationally as Sullivan had. Depending on the modern authority, Sullivan was first considered world heavyweight champion either in 1885 when he defeated
Dominick McCaffrey in
Ohio, in 1888 when he fought
Charley Mitchell in France, or in 1889 when he knocked out
Jake Kilrain in round 75 of a scheduled 80-round bout. When the modern authorities refer to the "heavyweight championship of the world," they are likely referring to the championship belt presented to Sullivan in
Boston on August 8, 1887. The belt was inscribed
Presented to the Champion of Champions, John L. Sullivan, by the Citizens of the United States. Its centerpiece featured the flags of the US, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Charley Mitchell fight In March of 1888, Sullivan fought Charley Mitchell, an English prize-fighter, for 39 rounds in defense of his world title. Mitchell was from
Birmingham, England and had fought Sullivan in 1883, knocking him down in the first round before the police halted the contest in the third. Their second meeting took place on March 10, 1888 on the grounds of a chateau at
Chantilly, France, with the fight held in driving rain. It went on for more than two hours, and by the end of the bout, both men were unrecognizable and had suffered so much damage that neither could lift his arms up to punch. Both men couldn't continue, and the contest was considered a draw. At this point, the local
gendarmerie arrived and arrested Mitchell. He was confined to jail for a few days and later fined by the local magistrate, because bare-knuckled boxing was illegal in France at the time. Swathed in bandages, Sullivan was helped to evade the law and taken across the
English Channel to spend the next few weeks convalescing in
Liverpool.
The Kilrain fight The Kilrain fight is considered to be a turning point in boxing history because it was the last world title bout fought under the
London Prize Ring Rules, and therefore was the last-ever
bare-knuckle heavyweight title bout. It was also one of the first sporting events in the United States to receive national press coverage. Newspapers carried extensive pre-fight coverage which included reporting on the fighters' training and speculating on where the bout would take place. The traditional center of bare-knuckle fighting was
New Orleans, but the governor of
Louisiana had forbidden the fight in that state. Sullivan had trained for months in
Belfast, New York, under trainer
William Muldoon, whose biggest problem had been keeping Sullivan from liquor. A report on Sullivan's training regimen in Belfast was written by famed reporter
Nellie Bly and published in the
New York World. Rochester reporter
Arch Merrill commented that occasionally Sullivan would "escape" from his guard. In Belfast village, the cry was heard, "John L. is loose again! Send for Muldoon!" Muldoon would snatch the champ away from the bar and take him back to their training camp. On July 4, 1889, one Kentucky newspaper stated: "The Sullivan-Kilrain prize fight which is to take place in Louisiana on next Monday is now the most talked-about event in sporting circles." The stakes were $20,000 and a diamond world championship belt. On July 8, 1889, an estimated 3,000 spectators boarded special trains for the secret location, which turned out to be Richburg, a town just south of
Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The fight began at 10:30, and at first it looked like Sullivan was going to lose. "The first fall and first blood were awarded to Kilrain, but the first knock-down was accomplished by Sullivan," reported one newspaper. "Kilrain failed to knock Sullivan down at all." Sullivan vomited during the 44th round. However, the champion got his
second wind and was able to turn things around for himself. After a grueling beatdown, Kilrain's manager finally threw in the towel after the 75th round. The Governor of Mississippi offered a $1,000 reward for each fighter. Today, a historical marker is located at the site of the fight, just off
Interstate 59, and the fight is immortalized by the Sullivan-Kilrain Road which runs through the site of the event, at the corner of Richburg Road.
Later career Sullivan did not defend his title for the next three years. During this period, he was a friend and supporter of Irish boxer
Ike Weir, who became America's first Featherweight boxing champion in 1889. Both Weir and Sullivan were Boston natives, and Sullivan occasionally appeared at Weir's bouts. Sullivan agreed to defend his title in 1892 against challenger
"Gentleman Jim" Corbett. The match was on September 7 in
New Orleans. It began at 9 p.m. in the electrically illuminated
Olympic Club in the upper Ninth Ward neighborhood now known as
Bywater section. The venue filled to its 10,000-person capacity despite hefty ticket prices ranging from $5 to $15 (approximately $142 to $426 in 2020). The heavyweight contest occurred under the
Marquess of Queensberry Rules, but it was neither the first title fight under those rules nor was it the first title fight using boxing gloves. Corbett was younger and faster, and his boxing technique enabled him to dodge Sullivan's crouch and rush style. In the 21st round, Corbett landed a smashing left "audible throughout the house" that put Sullivan down for good. Sullivan was counted out, and Corbett was then declared the new champion. When Sullivan was able to get back to his feet, he announced to the crowd the following: "If I had to get licked, I'm glad I was licked by an American". In 1895, Sullivan and
Paddy Ryan joined the touring company of the musical
The Wicklow Postman, and presented exhibition boxing matches before performances of the play. Sullivan is considered the last bare-knuckle champion because no champion after him fought bare-knuckled. However, Sullivan had fought with gloves under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules as early as 1880, and he only fought bare-knuckled three times in his entire career (Ryan 1882, Mitchell 1888, and Kilrain 1889). His bare-knuckle image was created because his infrequent fights from 1888 up to the Corbett fight in 1892 had been bare-knucklers. Sullivan retired to
Abington,
Massachusetts, but appeared in several exhibitions over the next 12 years, including a three-rounder against
Tom Sharkey and a final two-rounder against
Jim McCormick in 1905 in
Grand Rapids,
Michigan. He continued his various careers outside boxing, such as being a stage actor, speaker, celebrity baseball umpire, sports reporter, and bar owner. In his later years, Sullivan also gave up his lifelong addiction to alcohol and became a prohibition lecturer. ==Death==