page_title: Paddy Ryan
section_title: Meeting fewer boxing opponents, 1883-1886
hierarchical_section_title: Paddy Ryan / Losing American heavyweight title, 1882 / Meeting fewer boxing opponents, 1883-1886
caption_attribution_description: English: Robert Emmet Odlum jumping from Brooklyn Bridge on May 19, 1885.
context_page_description: Patrick "Paddy" Ryan was an Irish American boxer, and became the bare-knuckle American heavyweight champion on May 30, 1880, after he won the title from Joe Goss. He retained the title until losing it to the exceptional John L. Sullivan on February 7, 1882.
  Ryan fought only ten major bouts, but as many as twenty-five exhibitions including many Sullivan in his late career. Exhibitions brought him income, but with fewer rounds and less risk.
context_section_description: Ryan was less active in boxing in 1883 when he knocked out Montana champion Jack Waite in a three-round exhibition on October 21. The results of several fights he scheduled that year failed to appear in the press. He continued to meet few opponents in 1884-1885, though on January 19, 1885, Ryan fought a no contest bout with Sullivan at New York's Madison Square Garden. Some sources report Ryan lost, but in any event, police intervened in the first round and stopped the fight.
  Ryan was one of a party of gentlemen entertained by Robert Emmet Odlum, brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, on the morning of May 19, 1885, the day he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and was killed, though his intention was merely to prove that the jump could be made safely. Ryan assisted in unsuccessful resuscitation efforts.
  Ryan fought a two-round draw with Frank Glover on September 13, 1886 in Chicago. Ryan fought at 210, above his normal fighting weight and was described as too "fleshy" by a Wisconsin paper. The referees split on a decision, so a draw was called, when a dozen police officers intervened and stopped the fight in the second round. The bout was fought on a boat in the rain using the London Prize Rules and close to 1,500 spectators had huddled nearby to see the match.
  The new Queensbury rules banned all forms of wrestling, which may have hurt Ryan in his next fight against the superior scientific boxer, Jack McCaulliffe. Queensbury's fixed three minute rounds and longer one minute rest interval helped boxers regain their strength and sustain more energy, and a fixed ten second count allowed an injured boxer some time to recover as well. A prohibition on hitting an opponent in the back of the head or in their back added a modicum of safety to the more lax and dangerous London Prize Ring Rules.
caption: Odlum jumps from the bridge
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