Sullivan-Kilrain Fight

The longest bare-knuckle prizefight in history took place between John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain in an obscure location in south Mississippi. The fight took place on 8 July 1889 and lasted seventy-five sweaty, blood-soaked rounds. Because of the brutal nature of bare-knuckle boxing, it was illegal, and therefore the fight’s location was kept secret. Furthermore, in 1889 prizefighting was also illegal in all of the country’s thirty-eight states.

The fight took place 104 miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana, in a field owned by Colonel Charles Rich of Richburg, in Lamar County, Mississippi. Rich offered to host the fight on his property, which consisted of approximately ten thousand acres and a sawmill. From New Orleans alone, more than two thousand spectators and newspapermen boarded special trains to take them to the fight’s location. Railroad tickets did not include the exact location; they simply read, “From New Orleans to Destination.”

Mississippi governor Robert Lowry opposed the fight and had state troopers guarding the Mississippi-Louisiana border. If the location of the fight were discovered, it seemed likely that spectators and all other involved parties would be arrested, but once the fighters and the spectators arrived in Richburg, there was little authorities could do to stop it. Although local Richburg sheriff W. J. Cowart formally protested the fight, he allowed it to occur and even watched the fight himself.

The day of the fight the weather topped off at a brutal 104 degrees, which Kilrain planned to use to his advantage. Sullivan’s strategy was to use his brute strength against Kilrain, while Kilrain planned to exhaust Sullivan. Kilrain did not go punch for punch with Sullivan. Instead, he punched Sullivan and then cornered him and wrestled him to the ground. It was Kilrain, however, who showed signs of weakening in rounds twenty and forty. The rules of prizefighting had not yet established that rounds lasted three minutes, so the referees called the end of the round when one of the fighters knocked the other down. The shortest round of the fight lasted three seconds, and the longest lasted fifteen minutes and ten seconds.

In the forty-fifth round, Kilrain caught a break. Sullivan’s big breakfast that morning and his enormous lunch the day before caused him to become sick to his stomach. The brandy and iced tea concoction Sullivan was drinking during the rounds of the fight probably contributed to his nausea. He reportedly also consumed more than a quart of whiskey during the fight. Kilrain, instead of going in and trying to finish Sullivan, proposed a draw. The idea of a draw was just the ammunition Sullivan needed to regain his focus and motivation.

Reports differed in their assessment of the round in which Kilrain was truly spent. Many said it was the sixty-eighth round when Sullivan sent Kilrain flying through the air with a right uppercut to the jaw. A doctor at the fight told Mike Donovan, one of Kilrain’s trainers, that Kilrain would die if they continued to let him fight. Nevertheless, Kilrain took his position to begin the seventy-sixth round but could not answer the call because he was bloodied, exhausted, and barely conscious. Sullivan was also smeared with blood, but it was mostly Kilrain’s. Donovan threw in the sponge, signaling that the fight was over. The fight between John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain lasted seventy-five rounds, two hours and sixteen minutes.

After the fight both men were arrested. Sullivan, arrested in Nashville, was tried on August 16 in Purvis, Mississippi, by a jury of six, and Kilrain was arrested in Baltimore before being returned to Mississippi. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to one year of hard labor. This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court because the indictment had not successfully charged Sullivan with prizefighting. As a result, the decision was remanded back to the lower court. Sullivan was found guilty of prizefighting and Kilrain was found guilty of assault and battery. Both men appealed their convictions. Sullivan’s one-year jail sentence was eventually reduced, and he forfeited only $500 of his $26,000 winnings. Kilrain was jailed for two months and fined $200. He lost his appeal, and in an interesting twist, Colonel Charles Rich bought his sentence, which meant Kilrain would work for Rich to complete his sentence.

The Sullivan-Kilrain fight was the last-known fight in the United States to use the London Prize Ring bare-knuckle fighting rules, which allowed the opponents to wrestle each other to the ground. As a result of the fight, Sullivan became one of the first American sports heroes to achieve national celebrity.