Sulllivan vs Corbett was not the first Gloved match for the world's heavyweight champ

I have to disagree.

Mace was seen to have retired, and Allen/Goss was seen as a fight for the vacant title.

The editor of the Police Gazette (Fox), hated Sullivan, and was always looking for ways to undermine his title claim. He would promote any alternative claimant, however peripheral!

 

during the period of sullivans' rise, he challenged everyone, and no one in the press held any illusions that jem mace was still world champion. it's a nice theory, but failing to fight a top contender for 18 years and ignoring the man calling out everyone during the early 1880's disqualifies your championship claims.

only jack broughton held a inactive claim for close to a decade, and only because of poor record keeping he may have fought during that period. mace was no longer champion by 1880.

 

Richard Fox of the Police Gazette wanted Slavin vs. Sullivan. Sullivan did not, and threw out his belt, correct?

 

Jem Mace actually challenged Sullivan. He thought it would be an absolutely huge money spinner. The problem is that Jem was too old, by the time Sullivan came around, and he wanted to fix the outcome, which sullivan wanted no part of. From memory, this was around about the Herbert Slade period.

Also, dont forget that in 1883, Mace lost to Lord Charles Beresford by stoppage, so his claim as world champion, if he had any would have disintegrated. Despite his age and probably lack of condition, this fight has always troubled me about Mace, Beresford was untrained and if the fight and result was a real one, as the papers reportedl, then either Mace was (i) Not as good as we are lead to believe, (ii) Completely shot and not even close to a World class fighter by this time or (iii) took a dive for the money. I must admit, i think that III is probably the most likely.

 

When Slavin wanted to fight Sullivan, Sullivan had retired and was on a theatrical tour. When Sullivan eventually came out of retirement, Sullivan narrowed his potential challengers down to three. Corbett, Slavin and (from memory only) Jackson. Corbett got in first, and it probably didnt hurt that Sullivan probably knew he was going to lose soon and preferred to lose to an American, although obviously luck played its part as did having his finances and backing in order. This is all in the Slavin biography series of articles i posted a few months back.

 

We can't rewrite history. John l is regarded as the first heavyweight champion of the world and he was regarded as such during his career. Nothing will ever change this.

None the less it is interesting to hear about boxers from that time.

 

There wasn't such thing as generally recognized champion back then. Same for many other fights of 18th century which are considered bareknuckle championship bouts now.

 

In a February 1890 bout promoted as being for the heavyweight championship of England, Mitchell defeated the ancient and inactive but famous bareknuckle ex-champion Jem Mace in a 4 two-minute round gloved bout, dropping him a couple of times early until it was stopped by the police in the 4th round. The fight was meaningless, as Mace was over 60 years old.

Sullivan was the gloved champion. It is all explained in John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion.

 

Essentially, Mace stopped fighting in the early 1870s. He had one fight in 1876 and one in 1877. Thereafter, he only engaged in friendly exhibitions, and was a boxing professor. He was retired. Bareknuckle fighting was basically dead when Sullivan came around. In the interim, Mace had been acting as a trainer/manger for Herbert Slade and eventually backed Slade's early 80s challenge to Sullivan. So fast forward to 1890 for the Mitchell bout and you have a guy who hadn't had a formal fight for over ten years, or at least 8 years if you count the 1882 Belcher bout. You don't retire from boxing for that length of time and still maintain your championship. If that is so, then Gene Tunney was heavyweight champion until he died, and so was Rocky Marciano. The whole world knew Sullivan was champion and to argue that Mace was still champ is a bit of a stretch. Actually, the Mitchell-Mace bout wasn't even advertised as the world championship, but the English championship, and Mitchell was the English champ, not Mace.

 

And Sullivan-McCaffrey was the first heavyweight championship fight under Queensberry rules, yes? Correct me if I'm mistaken on that. But your book seemed to indicate that it was.