John Sullivan was born in 1858 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Growing up, young John became a fighter. He was arrested many times as a youth for fighting.
In 1879, he became a prize-fighter. He even traveled cross-country fighting "any man who would agree to fight" (In almost all of these fights the boxers wore boxing gloves, but there were three instances where Sullivan was involved in bare-knuckled fighting.) Sullivan defeated Paddy Ryan in 1882 thus being declared the "Bare-Knuckled World Champion". In the mid-1880s, bare-knuckled fighting began to fall out of vogue and scheduling fights for the champ became difficult. In 1889, Sullivan was scheduled to fight Jake Kilrain in New Orleans. The fight was set up because writer R.K. Fox was a sportswriter who was held a grudge against Sullivan after being blown off for an interview. Fox sought to get even by finding a fighter to dethrone Sullivan from his perch. Fox saw Kilrain fight and declared him the "World Champion" angering Sully. Other writers took the exploits of Kilrain and ran with them, hyping his skill. The wheels were set in motion and Sullivan wanted to fight Kilrain. Because bare-knuckled fighting had become illegal in all 38 states (at that time), so a fight was set to take place "some 200 miles near New Orleans."
Louisiana governor, Francis Nicholls, vowed that the illegal bout would not be held in his state, and activated the state militia to back his decision. Governor Robert Lowry of Mississippi was equally opposed to the fight occurring in his state, and took steps to prevent it. At that point, fight promoter, Bud Reneau, (a New Orleans sportsman) conspired with Colonel Charles W. Rich, to hold the fight on Rich's land. Rich owned a sawmill and 10,000 acres of pine timberland in Richburg (the community was named for Rich,). The New Orleans and Northeast Railroad, located at the bottom of the hill, south of here, would be used to transport spectators to the fight.
Rich agreed to erect the stands, quarter the fighters before the fight, and guarantee no police interference. The ring consisted of eight posts driven into the ground, with two ropes strung between them, and was between sixteen and twenty-four feet square. The hastily constructed bleachers were of rough-hewn pine lumber, which oozed resin, as the south Mississippi temperature soared to 106 degrees. Pine trees were stripped of their branches, up to one hundred feet from the ground, to prevent their being used as free vantage points.
The precise plot of earth on which Sullivan and Kilrain battled is a perennial source of dispute. Most historians say it was held here, at the fork of Richburg, Sandy Run, and Sullivan-Kilrain Roads. This would place the fight where the water tower and pump building are located. Other sources say it was held in one of the area's "natural amphitheaters" on the opposite side of the road.
The two fighters and their entourages arrived in Richburg at about 6:00 P. M. on the evening of Sunday, July 7. Kilrain spent the night in Col. Rich's home, and Sullivan stayed in the home of Rich's foreman, J. W. Smith.
At 8:00 A. M. on Monday, July 8, two trainloads of spectators arrived at Richburg, from New Orleans, and by 9:00 A. M., a crowd about 3000 strong had assembled. It was at about that time that Marion County, Sheriff, W. J. Cowart, who had been ordered by Governor Lowry to stop the fight, stepped into the ring. His attempts to read the governor's proclamation forbidding the fight were met with boos and jeers, so Cowart smiled, said he had more important business elsewhere, and left the arena.
At 9:55, Jake Kilrain tossed a light straw hat into the ring, followed one minute later by John L. Sullivan's famous white felt hat, signifying that the fight was about to begin.
Sullivan's cornermen were William Muldoon and Jimmy Wakely. Kilrain's seconds were Charlie Mitchell and Mike Donovan. The referee was John Fitzpatrick, who later became mayor of New Orleans, and the timekeeper was William Barclay "Bat" Masterson, best known as the gunslinger who cleaned out Dodge City, Kansas.
Finally, at 10:10 A. M., the fight got under way, and within a few seconds of the first round, Kilrain landed a left to Sullivan's jaw and threw him to the turf. In the seventh round, Kilrain drew first blood, when he landed a left hook on Sullivan's ear. John L. retaliated in the eighth round. Battering Kilrain with a flurry of rights and lefts to the neck and jaw, he scored the first knockdown. Sullivan refused to sit between rounds, saying it was pointless: "... I got to get right up again, ain't I?"
Kilrain's fight plan began to take shape in the early rounds -- avoid Sullivan's rushes by sidestepping or backing away; wear his man down with constant jabbing; then use wrestling, at which he excelled, to defeat him. However, it was Kilrain's endurance that failed first, and he adopted the strategy of deliberately falling to end a round. In all, twenty-seven rounds ended that way.
By the thirty-fourth round, Kilrain's nose was broken, his lips were split, and one eye was swollen shut. Sullivan had a black eye, his ear was bleeding, and both hands were swollen to twice their normal size. Both fighters were drenched in blood and sweat.
Some accounts say Kilrain drank whiskey between rounds, eventually consuming over a quart.
Jake's head began to roll loosely on his shoulders, as if his neck were broken, and during the seventy-fifth round, a physician told his cornerman, Mike Donovan, "If you keep sending your man out there, he'll die." So when Kilrain came to scratch (a line drawn in the center of the ring) for the seventy-sixth round, Donovan threw in the sponge, thus ending the last bare-knuckle fight in America. Poor Jake wept like a child, but the victorious Sullivan was carried away on the shoulders of the exultant crowd.
The fight had lasted two hours, sixteen minutes, and twenty-three seconds, and the spectators, realizing they had witnessed something momentous, scrounged for souvenirs. Ring posts were splintered and sold at $5.00 per piece; ropes were cut and the pieces sold; and small pieces of turf were sold as mementos. Sullivan's hat went for $50.00, and ice water buckets sold for $25.00 each. It was reported that someone took Sullivan's water can, and later refused an offer of $1000 for it.
Both fighters were later arrested for participating in the illegal event (Sullivan in Nashville - Kilrain in Baltimore) and returned to Mississippi for trial. A Purvis, Mississippi jury found Sullivan guilty of prizefighting, and in the end, he paid a $500 fine and left the state. Kilrain, found guilty of assault and battery was fined $500 and sentenced to six months in jail. Colonel Rich paid the fine and bought the sentence (a common practice in Mississippi at that time), and Kilrain served out his time in Rich's home.
After the fight, Sullivan and Kilrain became really good friends. When Sullivan died in 1918, Kilrain served as an usher at his funeral. N 31° 15.355
Sources: Wikipedia and the University of Southern Mississippi's McCain Library and Archives
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