I'm reading In the Ring With Tommy Burns by Adam Pollack and Burns then Brusso had a near fatal fight with O Grady in 1904 which caused a public outcry. I know boxing wasn't always legal in certain states. How did boxing gain legitimacy as a sport and navigate these efforts to Ban it Also it is discussed how fatal fights could find the other boxer legally liable and the police had authority to stop fights. When did this practice end
One account I've read claimed boxing was mainly the wild west states sport prior to the first world war. Fights had to be held as "exhibitions" to avoid police attention and the likes. Stories of American soldiers handing it to Germans in close combat trenches fight using their fists helped glamorize and civilize the sport. Adam Park argues on it in “Fighting Spirit”: World War I and the YMCA's Allied Boxing Program.
It seems out of place for those days that they were so against Boxing of all things... Another thing that we almost don´t talk here is the fact that the parents looked at their sons as low lives if they took boxing (or sports in general) as a way of living, it was very much frowned upon, you did not want your kid to do that.
True, most people don't know Larry Fine took up boxing he was a lightweight until his father found out and his career was promptly ended, it was a good thing for him as he later found success in some act called the Three Stooges.
I had a greatgrandparent that was very good at sports and his dad told him that iif he took that as a career he better never show up again in his sight because he did not raise a son to be a bum (we are talking about being a pro, he could have been somebody).
