Talk:John L. Sullivan
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I'm getting lots of conflicting information. John L. Sullivan won a bout in Cincinnati under the Queensbury rules in 1885, being the first prize fight under those rules. Can someone clarify? JoeHenzi 08:44, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Most sources are not credible. The book "John L. Sullivan and His America" by Michale T. Isenberg should be used above most other authorities.
In particular, the Corbett fight was neither his first under the MQ rules nor was it the first fight with gloves. Boxers fought under different rules negotiated for each fight. I didn't go try to look up which title fight was the first under MQ rules or the first with gloves.
As far as championships, most of the titles in modern sources for this era are made-up. There were titles in that era like the police gazette belt, but there were not formal titles like heavyweight champion of the world. Sullivan became the de-facto heavyweight champion of the world by winning the championship from Paddy Ryan and then beating everyone else.

