When did John L Sullivans reign begin?

I mean Ryan was over 200pounds, had been boxing for years, and was pretty well respected, and still struggled with an old as dirt Goss.

 

Fair enough.

I kind of want to do a deep dive into this era some day, to learn more about the talent pool and figure out how exactly the fighters who the powers-that-be eventually decided were the best in the world actually found their way to the sport and rose to the top.

 

I found an old article that stated that the Goss fight was the very first time Ryan actually stepped into the ring and fought a real prize fight. Another article from a year earlier quoted Ryan as stating that he had never even seen a prize fight before. So what exactly did he do to achieve his international standing before he stepped into the ring with Goss? What kind of fights did he have prior to meeting Goss? Were they professional?

 

Just read that Ryan and Goss fought 86 rounds in 87 minutes, and the first round took up 11 of those minutes (which leaves about an average of 54 seconds per round for all of the remaining rounds). Any idea whether the 87 minute total includes any rest periods, and how long those rest periods would have been?

 

Yeah it was his first LPR contest. He had a number of various gloved contests and exhibitions before.

Dwyer and Ryan were negotating to fight for the championship of America in 1878. I've not looked into him enough to have a real idea of his record and how he built his reputation though.

 

rest periods were supposed to be thirty seconds if I recall correctly. There were a bunch of boxers engaged in gloved exhibitions, some decision fights, even blackened gloves. Goss, Miller, Dwyer, Elliott, Ryan, Flood, Taylor, Harrington were some of the main exponents. Sullivan rated Goss highly and acknowledged that he was past his best at that time.