page_title: Patrick McGuigan
section_title: Professional career
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick McGuigan / Professional career
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of George Dixon
context_page_description: Patrick McGuigan, commonly known as "Paddy" McGuigan, was an American boxer, promoter, entertainer, business man, and sports figure in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, he is considered one of the best fighters of the era and was a beloved figure among sports fans in the region, considered by many to be "The Pride of New Jersey." He became the New Jersey Lightweight Champion in 1890 and the Interstate New York & New Jersey Lightweight Champion in 1892. Fighting in both the bare-knuckle and gloved eras, he met virtually all of the world's top boxers in his class. At the peak of his career he traveled the country with William Muldoon's athletic carnival, "meeting all comers" in each city they visited. Once he retired from boxing professionally, he became a promoter and opened a fight club and a saloon in Harrison, NJ. He has been credited as one of the men responsible for boxing's rise to affluence in New Jersey after it was legalized in 1918 under the Hurley Law, being the first individual in the state to secure a license to legally host boxing matches.
context_section_description: Paddy is regarded as one of the toughest fighters of his time, having fought many top boxers, including George Dixon, Joe Walcott, Jack McAuliffe, Johnny Banks, and Kid Lavigne. He fought out of Newark, Hoboken, and Harrison, NJ. In the period in which he fought, often referred to as the Jim Corbett era, records were scarcely kept and official decisions were often not made due to the illegality of prizefighting in most places. Consequently, some of McGuigan's bouts were held in meadows, barns, or barges in the Newark Bay in order to stall law enforcement and confound local officials with questions of jurisdiction. For a period of time at the height of his career, McGuigan was part of a boxing stable managed by William Muldoon and Tom O'Rourke and traveled the United States with Muldoon's athletic carnival, "meeting all comers" wherever they stopped.
caption: World Bantamweight Champion George Dixon.
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