The unlikely friendship between George Dixon and John L. Sullivan

This story does not start off well. In fact, it starts off with a drunken Sullivan heckling racial slurs at Dixon as he defended his featherweight title against white fighter Jack Skelly in 1892, just one day before Sullivan's loss to Gentleman Jim Corbett. Dixon ended up winning the bout decisively, as did most black fighters that evening.

However, later on Dixon would also suffered from alcoholism, which is what brings John L. Sullivan back into the picture. Sullivan became friends with Dixon after he quit alcohol and began speaking out against drinking.

However, Dixon became broke as he left the spotlight and, eventually, retired from boxing. Sullivan is even quoted as saying; “Dixon got rid of his money faster than any fighter I ever knew, except myself,”

When Dixon was long forgotten by his own community, Sullivan was there to get him back on his feet. George Dixon is quoted, in a 1907 article,

"It isn't what you used to be, it's what you are today." quoted little old George Dixon, now down, out and broke, "The men who followed me into the days of prosperity can't speak to me when I am close enough to speak to them." he continued, sorrowfully.

"John L. Sullivan is the only man in the world that never turned me down when I was in trouble."

Dixon would die just over a year later, in 1908. A newspaper remarked, when reporting his death;

"A wasted, wan figure was brought into Bellevue Hospital two days ago and ticketed into the alcoholic ward as George Dixon. To the doctor he said that he had, "fought his last fight with John Barleycorn and had been beaten." He told the physicians he had no friends except for John L. Sullivan."

Sources:

*In the Ring With James J. Corbett*, by Adam Pollack.

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