Cyber Boxing Zone lists Jem Mace as beating Tom Allen in 1876 in Virginia City, Nevada. Wikipedia also lists the bout on Jem Mace's page, as happening on 29th July 1876. Mace would have been 45 at the time, and Allen 37. I can't find any reports of this fight happening in newspapers of the time, and it would be surprising given that Allen went on to fight Goss for the title in September 1876 and was still recognised as champion at that time. Can anyone provide a source for this fight?
The Last and First of the Champions Kennerville, Louisiana. 1870 Just outside New Orleans city limits, Mace, the last Champion of England, faces Tom Allen, Champion of America. Using his switchblade left jab, blocking, feinting, changing pace and feet, Mace throws unprecedented combination punches. Cutting off the ring like a fistic jailer, he outclasses Allen and is hailed as the first World Champion. He will stand at the head of the lineage which will later include Jeffries, Dempsey, Louis, Ali and Tyson.
Hi, I know they fought in 1870, and there are lots of sources for that fight. I’m interested in whether they fought again in 1876.
1876-10-14 New York Clipper (New York, NY) (page 226) Jim Mace and Steve Taylor have separated. Steve arrived in the city last week, and says that the trouble between them was in regard to money matters, he considering it expedient to garnishee Jim's last week's salary at the Adelphi Theatre, Chicago, Ill. Mace and Tom Allen spar nightly this week at the Theatre Comique, Detroit, Mich. On Dec 16, 1876, Mace outpointed Bill Davis at National Guard Hall, Virginia City, NV, blackened gloves, 4-minute rounds, 9 rounds, "face-hits alone to count", 52 to 33 in favor of Mace. No mention of Mace meeting Allen while he was in that city. Jul 29, 1876 date is impossible, as Mace was sparring with Steve Taylor in Buffalo the previous week and said in an interview to Buffalo News that he came to USA to fight Tom Allen. Meanwhile Allen was training somewhere in Ohio at the time, I think (Joe Goss was training near Cincinnati).
The following is from the New York Herald the following year, on 14th March 1877: Goss then spoke in an indignant way of the treatment he had received at the hands of some American sporting men who had assumed to be his friends only for the purpose of defrauding him; but he was most bitter when he spoke of Jem Mace, who had induced him lo come to this country. "I was living quietly at home," said he, "and had given up all thoughts of fighting any more, when Mace comes to me and he says, 'Goss, you're losing yourself here; you're wanted in America.' He then tells me of the chances there Is of making money in this country, and says that there's no law against fighting here. I didn't care to come, but he forced me to. You see, he wanted me to fight Allen, for I believe he was afraid to meet him himself. Well, I come here with him, and he brought me round sparring at exhibitions and then left for Australia with what he had made on it. I got little or nothing" This would indicate that Mace didn't fight Allen in 1876.
Mace left for Australia on Feb 3, 1877, with his wife, onboard "Zealandia", after an exhibition with Bill Davis in San Francisco, on Jan 26.
