The 21st century problems of John L Sullivan

In John L Sullivan's day, prize fights often had to be sold as exhibitions of boxing skill, in order to circumvent the law.

In pandemic Britain we recently had the opposite problem.

Fights were permitted, but sparring was not.

This resulted in a lot of people organizing fights with sparring partners, so that they could keep their skills sharp.

If the police raided the venue, you would have pleaded that you were taking part in a prize fight!

 

That claim I would frankly doubt.

 

I don't dispute that it was alleged at some point, I just question the likelihood of it.