He was from Australia and who’s career spanned from roughly 1884 to 1901. Fought Bob Fitzsimmons when Bob was a young lad. Met Peter Jackson in the ring on a good number of occasions too. Partook in quite a few scheduled 20 rounders. He retired with a modest record but I’m guessing was a fairly tough guy.
I'm Researching Dooley now. One of the both difficult guy's to research. I'm not sure how they put together his Boxrec page as almost 75% of his early ring career has zero mention. Sometimes the data doesn't match up with Boxrec such as a loss to Tom Lees in 86 zero mention he lost the bout. Also his start date is way off as 1882 against Mick Nathan was his first mentioned bout. I'm guessing at least half his bouts are "sparring" or stage exhibition's. Not real fights. As he doesn't do anything competitive for all of 1899. I'm going through month by month. ton's of advertised bouts with zero follow up on results. It's incredible difficult to piece together. I will do a video newspaper reading on one of his big matches as the details are a bit too juicy to not share. Mick Dooley was very good friend with Jackson & I don't other than March 1886 bout with Jackson before they were buds was the only real fight I found so far.. with Jackson vs Dooley. Jackson just steam rolls him down 3x in 3 rounds. After that non are real matches in the 80's anyway with Jackson. That's why when you see Dooley vs Jackson after Jan 1888 they are all done as "promos" Both Dooley & Jackson were seconds for Foley vs Burke in Jan 1888. After that point they worked together non stop while Jackson was in Australia. So all the 4 Rounds after that point are Dooley testing out pupils for Foley/jackson. Not so much real fight's. He has too go into training for each real match as he isn't boxing real matches for the most part. They appear to be sparring. But his skill level seem's very high. Basically any match over 4 rounds appears a legit fight. I have no idea how they pieced his record together with majority of these fight in 80's not even mentioned in BOATLOADS of various newspapers. That's really unusual.. as the papers weren't that bad usually. Something is odd about it as "sparring" are getting credited in boxrec. What's strange is most of the sparring are private matches NOT reported the newspaper of course makes no mention of a private bout but yet somehow they have data of what happened in boxrec. Which is bizarre. He has a most unusual career path. He seems a bit like William Miller mostly a teacher sometimes a boxer. I will post some more on him in future here. This content is protected He certainly belongs to the great mustache's of history club.
He and Goddard hooked up more than a few times, also, once for a 25 rounders, other times for a more exhibition sounding 3 rounder.
I’ve noticed on boxrec with other fighters of the same or close period where the numbers at the top of the page will say something like 8 losses or 10 losses and then when you count them up it’s actually a lot more sometimes. Always wondered if those were real fights or if some were exhibitions.
Its the NWS's. They don't count towards the primary total but however you see the real record at the time if you click on the little bell icon. They were real fights some were even title fights boxrec shows them but doesn't count them towards their totals.
This is a rather superhuman effort by Mick Dooley as we do this reading. It's exactly what makes this era the most entertaining as this is a "can't be fouled out" Finish fight with a back & fourth butt kicking. 27 year old Dooley vs 32 year old Goddard. The Newspaper headlight the very next day states "the greatest match ever seen here in Sydney since Peter Jackson vs Tom Lee's" As the audience goes crazy during this rough house affair. Classic stuff. This content is protected Try to get some stuff on Youtube about Dooley. This is an excellent start.
