My grandfather died a couple years ago, and my mom and dad were just recently going through some of his stuff. He was born in 1928, and he was actually in possession of some items from his grandfather, who I believe was born around 1871 or 1872. One of those items was a journal from when my great-great grandfather was a kid / teenager. My parents know I am a big fan of boxing history, so they made sure to tell me about a journal entry they found about my great-great grandfather going to watch some boxing matches in Nashville. It turns out the journal entry talks about him going to see "Jon Sullivan from Bostin". He writes on that he and his friends went home that day and practiced boxing each other because they wanted to become boxers after seeing Sullivan fight. But one of his friends got a black eye, and their moms wouldn't let them box anymore. I'm assuming this has to be John L Sullivan right? Does anyone know if he ever fought anyone in the Nashville area? This would have probably been sometime around the early to mid 1880s I'm thinking.
yes! 1884, vs a man named enos phillips in nashville. and you say john sullivan from boston, well they do call him the boston strong boy so yh, it is the great john l sullivan your grandfathers grandfather speaks of in his journal
Sullivan only had one fight in Tennesse and that was in Memphis according to boxrec, pretty cool story i have to say.
well, i just quickly checked sullivans boxrec, and found one fight in nashville, at the time enos phillips was making his pro debut.
I just checked cyber boxing zone, and it shows Sullivan fighting 3 exhibitions on May 2, 1884 in Nashville. They were against Enos Phillips, Mike Donovan, and Steve Taylor. So that has to be it. The journal entry doesn't specifically mention the fights they watched being in Nashville but that is where my great-great grandfather lived, and I highly doubt he could afford to travel to another city as a kid to watch a fight. Plus he uses the words "fights" in the plural form, which now makes sense since Sullivan apparently fought 3 exhibitions that day.
