Did Darcy Beat Up Fulton In Sparring?

let me be of some assistance if i may

http://i.imgur.com/4y8FvHr.jpg

 

above image from raymond swanwicks book....the following is from ruth parks 'home before dark'....i have checked the ballad of les darcy book and it makes no reference to fulton.

http://i.imgur.com/kTxenUM.jpg

 

posted same time as your reply....2 posts back.

 

There isnt a single contemporary first hand account verifying this story. It originated after Darcys death with Mick King who spent the rest of his life trying to grow the Darcy legend.

 

Good question.

 

Things stranger than fiction have happened in sparring.

 

Definitely stranger than fact!

 

Not contemporary first hand, but there is first hand.

I am not sure you are correct about Mick King being the Originator of the story.

Thre is no doubt that the two sparred, and from what i could work out they sparred more than once. IMO, on at least one of those occassions there was nothing special about the sparring session. The fact that these sessions took place was reported on locally. I think they occurred over a 1 or 2 week period. So it is assumed that if teh spar took place, it happened then.

There was at least one letter to the editor about Darcy, by a local unnamed source who talked about Darcy handling Fulton easily, though I cant remember whether he said that Darcy knocked him out or the fight was stopped. I am not sure whether or not this letter was before or after Mick King's story.

The actual sparring session from what i can work out (and assuming it happened) was a private session which was put on for the press and other boxing people, to showcase Fulton and Darcy. It has actually been reported as private all in fight, but i think that is probably unlikely.

I think it was Senya who found the only contemporary reports of the sparring sessions and he searched the local reports pretty thoroughly so it is unlikely that news stories will uncover anything further.

I think it was Mexican Joe Rivers who confirmed the story. Klompton was quite cleverly quick to point out that he was a fighter from the mid west and therefore it had to be a lie. Good evidence on the face, but astonishingly, it was discovered that His manager had gone to New York at the time of the alleged training session and Joe Rivers was reported as being in New York a couple of days after the alleged session.

Another big promoter of the story was Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey confirmed that the session happened adn that Darcy knocked him out. However, Jack himself did not witness the session, but rather some of his previous handlers did. Klompton was quick to point out that the idea that these guys were trying to match Dempsey with Darcy was ridiculous as Dempsey was a heayweight who fought in a completely different area. Again, quite reasonable assumption on the face. Interestingly though, is the fact that this occurred around the time that Jim Flynn KOd Dempsey. When Darcy was forced to withdraw from one of his fights in New York it was actually Jim Flynn who replaced him. It seems to me that it is not unreasonable to think that Dempseys handlers were on the scene at around about this time. Dempsey was also reported to have claimed a version of the light heavyweight title at this time so matching him with Darcy isnt as out of the ordinary as you would think at first glance.

There were a couple of other second hand sources of the story to go witht eh two first hand sources adn the current news article of teh sparring. Fred Fulton has never commented one way or the otehr on the rumours, though you wouldnt expect him to as they were not really a big deal or controversial until the internet was invented.

Realistically, i think it almost certain that it happened, though the story may or may not have been embellished a bit.

 

Thanks for both of these excerpts which i have hear about but never actually read before Of the two, i think that Ray's seems the most likely in that Fulton retired after the second round.

 

this states he was training with fulton the following day...

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9802E5DC143AE433A25752C2A9659C946696D6CF