In the 1860s a major crackdown on prize fighting took place in an increasingly puritanical Britain forcing most of the top British fighters to emigrate to America. There followed a 20 year period in which the American title was held by British born fighters who had emigrated to America. In total eight English and Irish born fighters held the title untill John L Sullivan brought an end to this period by defeating Paddy Ryan. Following the retirement of John C Heenan the American title was held by the following British born fighters: Joe Coburn Jimmy Elliot Mike McCool Tom Allen Jem Mace Tom Allen Joe Goss Paddy Ryan Jem Mace became the first recognised world champion when he unified the British and American titles by coming to America and adding the American title to the British title which he already held. The irony is that Mace as British champion fought another British born fighter (Tom Allen) for the American title. A previous atempt by mace to unify by taking the American title off Coburn fell through when they failed to agree terms. The fact that Joh L Sullivan ended two decades of British rule probably contributed to his status as Americas first sporting megastar. Since then British heavyweight champions have been few and far between with the result that this ocupation has been largley forgotten. With British ring magazine champions in four weight classes at present we might just have seen another mini invasion.
I like that thread Well, right now we have only Joe C. at lhw and Hatton at slw as British ring champions. That´s not exaclty an invasion.
British boxing as a whole has never been stronger (in the Queensberry Rules era). Two fighters (Hatton and Calzaghe) who are the generally considered World Champions of their weight (three if you still include Haye). World top 20 fighters in virtually all weight divisions. More boxing on TV than ever before. Olympic Champions Do not believe what your old man spins, we have never had it so good!
Well, it´s similar with Germany. While German boxing itsself is at a a low point, there are plenty of successful adopted fighters fighting out of Germany and we have a televised fightcard nearly every week with 5 (6) TV stations covering boxing - ARD, ZDF, RTL, DSF, ProSieben (EuroSport). And that´s all on free TV. Additionally we have all the big fights - like PBF-DLH - either on at free TV (RTL) or at least on PpV (Premiere). Our top mws like Abraham, Sturm and Sylvester make 4-6 millions watchers at 10 or 11 pm at saturday. The Klitschkos get about 20 million watchers. Sorry, for straggling a little bit
Britain was basicaly the Mecca of boxing untill 1865 or thereabouts. The crackdown on prizefighting forced the best British fighters to cross the pond and while they ran riot there for 20 years, there was no new genaration to replace then in Britain. In short British prizefighting withered on the vine while the exiled British fighters only strengthened the base of boxing in American and Australia. Directly or indirectly they helped to produce the era of great American champions starting with John L Sullivan, Nonpareil Jack and Jack McAuliffe. Maybe we are now seeing the end of the American era of dominance and the begining of something else. Not sure what.
Well, I think it will become are more spread sport. The US will still be one of centers of the sport but just one next to others, especially Britain, Germany and Russia I think. Also fighters won´t fight anymore in the countries they are from but where the money is even more so than already, very similar to how it is in Germany already. Boxing becomes a true world sport. Before that it was an Anglo-American sport with some exceptions.
Janitor, your evaluation of the time is interesting and probably correct so forgive me for pointing out that Ireland is not Britain. Might seem nit picking but not to the Irish. Nonpareil and McAuliffe were also Irish born not American. I also agree that British boxing has never had it so good and this just after Lewis etc. Good times.then and now.
I am working on the asumption that we can class Ireland as part of the United Kingdom before the Republic was established. If you have a problem with this then you can accept my general point that fighters from England and Ireland held the American title for most of the second half of the 19th century. The fascinating thing about this period is that it did not result in an American reaction to find an American hope to get the title back. The battle lines were drawn between the Irish born boxers suported by Irish Americans and the English born boxers who the non Irish American republic suported to keep the title out of Irish hands.
No problem Janitor, the British saw it as a united kingdom of Britain and Ireland, the majority of the Irish did not. Also interesting is the 1890> period and the sudden emergence of the Australian/ New Zealand produced fighters, a la Fitz, Griffo, Slavin, Creedon, Hall, Goddard, Jackson, Goddard, O'Donnell and a host more.
