Essentially the last of the bare-knuckle heavyweight champions, John L. Sullivan was instrumental in the acceptance of gloved fighting. His charisma and popular appeal during this transitional period contributed greatly to making boxing a nationally popular, “legitimate” sport. Sullivan became boxing’s first superstar and arguably the first of any sport. From his first match in the late 1870s through his final championship fight in 1892, this biography contains a thoroughly researched, detailed accounting of John L. Sullivan’s boxing career. With special attention to the 1880s, the decade during which Sullivan came to prominence, it follows Sullivan’s skill development and discusses his opponents and fights in detail, providing various viewpoints of a single event. Beginning with a discussion of early boxing practices, the sport itself is placed within sociological, legal and historical contexts including anti–prize fighting laws and the so-called “color line.” A complete record of Sullivan’s career is also included.
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“A detailed look” --Press-Citizen (Iowa City)
About the Author
Adam J. Pollack is a staff writer for Cyberboxingzone.com (CBZ), is vice chair of USA Boxing’s National Board of Review, and a member of the Women’s Subcommittee. He is also a boxing coach and attorney living in Iowa City, Iowa.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Adam Pollack's, John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion,
This review is from: John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion (Paperback)
Unlike most boxing biographies, Adam Pollack's John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion is not a chronicle of his life and times, but rather an extensively documented history of his boxing career. Readers who are interested in stories of Sullivan's drinking habits and later conversion to evangelism will have to look elsewhere--but those interested in "The Boston Strongboy's" performance in the ring will find a wealth of information likely unobtainable outside of library microfilm machines. What Pollack has done is to reconstruct the details of Sullivan's career using almost exclusively primary sources that describe the various fights Sullivan participated in immediately after they occurred, rather than relying on secondary sources published decades later. This gives the book an historical authenticity that is usually absent from most boxing biographies.
He begins by describing the context of Sullivan's career by explaining the state of the sport in the 1870s when Sullivan began his career, providing insight into the rules under which Sullivan fought, in both bare-knuckle and gloved bouts. Particularly interesting is the fact that Sullivan, from the start of his career fought with gloves, under the Marquis of Queensberry rules--as well as under the earlier bare-knuckle London Prize Ring rules. In fact, it appears that the majority of his bouts, particularly if one includes the many "exhibitions" he fought--many of which appear to have been actual fights disguised under this label--were gloved contests. At this time, there was a distinction between prizefights, which were fought bare-knuckle under the London rules, and exhibitions, which were fought with gloves under the Queensberry rules. Sullivan, from the beginning, preferred the latter, and only periodically engaged in bare-knuckle fights. This is quite in contrast to the standard portrayal of him as largely a bare-knuckle fighter. Pollack recounts the details of all of the various exhibitions and prize-fights in which Sullivan participated, and one of the things that becomes clear in this review is that the line between the two was often blurred, and intentionally so as to get around the fact that while prizefighting was illegal in most jurisdictions, "exhibitions of skill" were not. Thus, in some cases, gloved contests advertised as exhibitions were broken up by law enforcement officials when it became clear they were fighting "for real." This happened more than once throughout Sullivan's career. Another thing that emerges from Pollack's detailed review of the primary sources for Sullivan's major fights is that there are often inconsistencies in the reports concerning what actually happened in each fight, when fights ended, what particular punches were landed when, and other details. Given that there is no film of Sullivan's fights for contemporary analysts to review, it is impossible to fully reconcile these varying accounts, but Pollack does an excellent job in attempting to do so. Thankfully, in most cases, the discrepancies are confined primarily to minor details. One case where the issue is not so minor concerns the length and reasons for termination of his fight with Dominick McCaffrey in 1885. Primary source accounts place the ending at either the 6th or 7th round, and some differ as to whether a decision was even rendered by the referee. Pollack does an excellent job of explaining all the confusion and offers his novel analysis and conclusions using both national and local newspapers. The ambiguity of Sullivan's drawing of the color line is well-dealt with throughout the book. Pollack recounts an incident where Sullivan agreed to box black fighter George Godfrey in 1888, and reports that that he had been matched to box Godfrey back in 1880 or 1881, although this was apparently prevented by police. Sullivan's apparent vacillations on whether he was willing to meet top contender Peter Jackson are also recounted in detail, and some solid details on Jackson's career are provided from primary sources. In fact, a unique feature of this book throughout is the attention it pays to providing details on Sullivan's opponents--who they were, who they fought, what their general status in the sport of boxing was at the time. This helps give the reader a clear idea of the significance of various fights, which ones were against solid contenders who were legitimate threats, and which fights were of lesser significance. This provision of "perspective" is often absent in standard works on boxers--if they cover their fights in any detail at all, it is often only the major ones, leaving the reader wondering what the rest of the fighter's career was like. Pollack spares no detail when recounting Sullivan's boxing career during his prime years. Some will object to the relatively sparse coverage Pollack gives to the Corbett fight in 1892, an omission he justifies on the grounds that it will be covered in his next book on Corbett's career. This is perhaps understandable from a researcher's perspective, but the relatively brief coverage of such a significant fight does leave the reader wishing for more detail, particularly given the wealth of information this book provides on other fights. On the other hand, it certainly does wet the appetite among dedicated boxing fans and historians for more, which is perhaps the intention. Overall, then, this book is a superb--and, in many ways, unique--contribution to the boxing literature. It is not an easy book to read, given its attention to detail and quasi-academic style--but it is most definitely worth the effort for those boxing fans who really want to know the details of Sullivan's career through the eyes of those who actually saw him fight. As none of Sullivan's fights were filmed, this is as close as boxing fans of today can get to actually seeing him--which speaks volumes about the quality and detail of the research Pollack has undertaken.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book,
By
This review is from: John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion (Paperback)
John L. Sullivan had become a mythical figure long before he decided to quit the ring. Mythical in both his status as quite possibly the greatest athlete there was in the 19th century, and in the number of stories or legends about him, which were not always true. One of the biggest examples of the latter was that he was primarily a bareknuckle fighter.
A lot was written about Sullivan, some books focusing on him exclusively, some dedicating a chapter to his role in the history of heavyweight boxing. But too often they focused primarily on his biggest fights and on his personality, and offered little about his lesser-known fights and opponents. There wasn't one book that stood out as the consensus best about him. Some preferred his autobiography, some thought Isenberg's 'John L. Sullivan and His America' was best and most thoroughly researched, while some chose Chidsey's 'John the Great' for his writing style. And while the question about the best description of his personality and his life remains unanswered, it seems to be consensus opinion now that the best book on him as a fighter is the one written by Adam J. Pollack. It's hard to disagree with that. The author of 'John L. Sullivan - The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion' reveals his goals from the very beginning: - present facts and analysis that is based mostly on primary sources; - provide multiple views where there's a discrepancy between different sources and let the reader decide which of them seems to be closer to truth; - discuss his opponents, to provide insight into significance of each fight; - describe the way Sullivan developed as a fighter, his skills and abilities, providing opinions of both his critics and his followers and fans; - describe the epoch when he fought, and his influence on the course of history in general, and the history of boxing in particular. The book fulfills these tasks nearly perfectly. The efforts Adam J. Pollack has put into his research is visible from the start, the number of sources and the quality of them is immense, and the way he treats them as a true historian, with excellent objectivity and neutrality, that are not at all clouded by his affection to the object of his research. The fighting record of Sullivan not only grows in size and rids of multiple errors as compared to any other version that has been compiled before, but it stops being just a list of names on paper too. The author carefully paints images of many of them, who they were and how significant was their role on the boxing scene. And even though Adam J. Pollack has decided to concentrate only on that part of Sullivan's life that is relevant to his fighting career, the personality of this great pugilist becomes much clearer after reading this book than can be achieved from reading of any other books on him. Dislike of bareknuckle rules; lack of passion for boxing later in his career, drawing the color line and the indecision about his position on it - all these points are discussed in detail. It can be only criticized the way the book ends at the Corbett fight, without much discussion on it and on what happened to Sullivan afterwards, but this is easily excused by the fact that the author is going to continue and finish the story of Sullivan in his later books, [...] In all, the book is a must-have for any follower of the 'sweet science', and fully deserves a place on the shelf with the best books ever written on boxing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Force of Nature,
By
This review is from: John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion (Paperback)
John L Sullivan was arguably the first sports superstar in America. In reading Adam J Pollack's chronicle of his boxing career, it becomes apparent that he may have been one of the most dominant athletes in the annals of our professional sporting history.
This is not a biography inasmuch as it is a chronicle of his boxing career. Adam J Pollack is a fine boxing historian, and he brings the fights to life as much as he can, given many of them happened 120-130 years ago at this writing. He has written similar histories on James Corbett and Robert Fitzsimmons, as well. John L Sullivan was a man so far ahead of his field, so dominant, and so skilled, that it was difficult to find a fighter who could even be competitive with him for a short stretch of fight, much less beat him. Beyond this, his persona as an athlete and as a celebrity was gigantic. He was a household name, and his wealth and fame came as a result of his celebrity, as much as from the ring. Although massive in ego, his weaknesses were outsized as well. His thirst for alcohol was as prevalent as his will to dominate in the ring. This part, however, is glossed over in this book. Too bad, because this part of his story is as interesting as his in the ring battles. This book portrays an America and an athlete of a very different sports era. John L Sullivan was a seminal sports character. There is an argument to be made that he may have been the best fighter of all-time. Not that he could have or would have stood up to Mike Tyson in his prime, or walked down Muhammad Ali, but that his dominance over his field of peers was the most complete for the longest period of time. I wished Mr. Pollack would have written about the Corbett fight, as this is now part of our common mythology, and I would have liked to have read about John L Sullivan living out his years as a former champion. But his is an important story, and I am glad Mr. Pollack turned his considerable talents to this subject.
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