The Alaska daily empire., 1918-04-08

The rise or JOnn l.. oulllNdH Wds meteoric after he appeared in the exhibition bout of 1880 with Mike | Donovan. The youngster, wildly anx- ious to fight anyone in the world was accommodated by some of the topnotchers of that era. And each and everyone acted merely as steps in John Ls climb etc the crest of pugilism,
 Joe Goss, who had lost the heavy weight championship to Paddy Ky an, thought he saw a little soft money" in taking on John l.. in an exhibition match on April 6, 1880 in Boston His reward was to be sent down and out by the Boston High land Strong Boy" after three min utes of fighting. Goss was a good man, fast and heavy hitter But he could not hurl back the bull-like rushes of his Irish foe nor could he stand up under the fusillade of right hand smashes. Two months afterward George Rocks, conspicuous among the really great battlers of 40 years ago, faced John Land went down beaten in the second round. short while af terward John l.. met Prof. Donaldson in a four-round exhibition match. Sullivan out-pointed his clever foe. It piqued Donaldson and he challeng ed John L. to fight him in Cincin- nati John accepted and knocked out Donaldson in ten rounds. Returning to Boston, John l.. decid- ed that he needed some one to han dle the business end of his new found profession. So he teamed up with Billy Madden, then prominent lightweight boxer. Madden became known as Sullivan's manager and John L. gained the distinction of be- ing the first fighter to become 'so tony that he cant make his own matches"
 On March 31, 1881 a testimonial was given to John l.. by New York sportsmen. The Bostonian offered $50 to anyone who could stand up for four rounds with him that night. Steve Taylor, fairly good heavy weight of that period, accepted the challenge And Sullivan, to the de- light of the partisan audience, knock ed out Taylor in the second round.
 On May 16, 1881 John L. fought John Flood on barge anchored in the Hudson river, opposite Yonkers, N., Y. It was for an $500 purse which was considered fabulous sum in the those days for a noncham- pionship fight. John l.. was returned the victor after eight rounds of fast battling.
 On July II, 1881 Sullivan went to Philadelphia and knocked out Fred | Crossley in one round. Shortly af- terward he went to Chicago, took on James Dalton and Jack Burns, and put both of them to sleep in jig time. And then began the popular clam or for a meeting between the new i phenom and Paddy Ryan, the cham pion John L. had whipped-decise. ively--every man who had ranked | he heir apparents to Ryan's throne and the fight fans were wildly anx 1 ious to get the two Irishmen to | gether.
 Madden challenged Ryan on behalf of Sullivan and Ryan accepted with this priviso:
 "Pll fight Sullivan but it must be
 for side bet of 5000. and with London Prize Ring rules governing | the contest"
 Then began the hunt for a finan cial packer for the Boston Highland | Strong Boy" John L. didn't have S5,O00 nor one tenth of that sum
 Finally the Crib Club of Boston de
 clared it would back John L. Al the last moment, however, it backed
 out probably because it had some
 misgivings as to Sullivan's chances
 with Ryan.
 While Madden and Sullivan were
 hustling around trying to get al
 anger for John L.. sportsman
 named James Keenan announced tha'
 he would put up s2.50O of the s5.o0t that Sullivan needed No one els:
 volunteered to put up the other s2.
 500 so rather than have the matcl
 fall through, Ryan agreed to a s2.50'
 side bet and the agreement wa.
 made to put on the fight "somewhers
 in the South in the vicinity of New Orleans.