Most Rounds in
a Fight: 276
Before the good old Marquis of
Queensbury came along with his 3 minute rounds (actually, he didn’t write the
rules, just put his name to them) boxing matches were much more brutal affairs and
instead of a fighter getting regular intervals to catch his breath the round
ended whenever there was a knockdown.
The decked boxer would then have 30 seconds to make it to his feet and
back to the line in the middle of the ring known as ‘the scratch’, hence the term being ‘up to scratch’ meaning to
meet a required standard. Also bouts
would usually be fights to the finish and as you can imagine this led to some quite
lengthy scraps, so when Patsy Tunney squared up with Jack Jones in Cheshire,
England some time in 1825 I doubt either of them bargained on being there four
and a half hours and 276 rounds later.
There isn’t any record of who won but I’d imagine even the victor was
glad to be done after that marathon.
Longest Fight
with Gloves:
7 hours 19 minutes
On April 6th
1893 two talented lightweight fighters met at the Olympic Club in New
Orleans. Andy Bowen was a stocky slugger
who would stand his ground and sometimes take three or four punches in order to
dish just one back out. He’d fought a 43
round draw against Charley Johnson in 1890 so was no stranger to having long
matches. Jack Burke was lightweight
champion of Texas but somewhat less experienced than Bowen. In the early hours of the next morning the
referee Professor John Duffy called the fight a ‘No Contest’ as neither fighter
was in a fit state to continue and the $2,500 purse was split. They’d been at it for 110 rounds and over 7
hours – an incredible feat by any standard.
Burke had broken every single bone in both of his hands during the fight
and almost retired afterwards but did carry on for a short while. He lived until 1942.
Bowen was less lucky and during a bout against ‘Kid’ Lavigne the year after he fought Burke, he hit his head on the wooden ring surface after a knockdown and was killed at the age of 27.
Bowen was less lucky and during a bout against ‘Kid’ Lavigne the year after he fought Burke, he hit his head on the wooden ring surface after a knockdown and was killed at the age of 27.
Most Rounds in a Title Fight: 136
Arthur Chambers was a naval man from Salford,
England who began fighting after his retirement from the seas, emigrating to
America in 1871 and winning the American lightweight title the following
year. A native of Galway, Ireland, John
Clarke had previously been a dancer but decided on making a living with his fists
rather than his feet. The two men met
for the first time on March 27th, Chambers beating Clarke in 136
rounds to defend his title. They then
had a rematch just 4 days later but the police stopped proceedings (probably
mercifully) after just 2 rounds and it was called a ‘No Decision’.
Most
Rounds in a Title Fight under Queensbury Rules: 45
Jack
Dempsey successfully defended his middleweight title in 45 rounds against
Johnny Reagan in 1887 in just over an hour.
The fight took place after a heavy downpour and was fought in deep mud
before having to be moved to a second ring midway through the bout.
2
years later in 1889 Paddy Duffy beat Tom Meadows in San Francisco for his world
welterweight title over the same distance.
Most
Rounds in a Fight under Queensbury Rules: 77
According to boxing folklore, when Harry Sharp fought Frank Crosby on February 2nd 1892 in Nameoki, Illinois the conditions were so harsh that even the referee didn’t last the distance. After swigging from a flask of liquor, allegedly to stave off a cold, the man who was supposed to be officiating collapsed and the two combatants carried on regardless. In the 76th round both men struck simultaneous blows which led to a double knockdown, but Crosby hit his head and was finished off by Sharp soon after.
According to boxing folklore, when Harry Sharp fought Frank Crosby on February 2nd 1892 in Nameoki, Illinois the conditions were so harsh that even the referee didn’t last the distance. After swigging from a flask of liquor, allegedly to stave off a cold, the man who was supposed to be officiating collapsed and the two combatants carried on regardless. In the 76th round both men struck simultaneous blows which led to a double knockdown, but Crosby hit his head and was finished off by Sharp soon after.
Most Rounds in
a 20th Century Fight: 49
In April 1909 in Paris, Sam McVea took on Joe Jeanette. McVea collapsed and was unable to continue the fight at the start of the 49th round having been knocked down 27 times, although not before managing to knock over Jeanette 19 times himself.
Last Scheduled 45 Round (World Heavyweight Title) Fight: Jack Johnson v
Jess Willard (05/04/1915)
Since 1908,
when he’d beaten Tommy Burns for the world heavyweight title, Jack Johnson had
been a stone in the shoe of the establishment in America. They simply weren’t ready for a black world
champion and did everything they could to make life difficult for him,
eventually putting a warrant out for his arrest for violating The Mann Act
which prohibited interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes” (the
female in question being his wife!)
So Johnson went on the run
fighting twice in France and once in Argentina before he was persuaded to take
on Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba, in the April of 1915. In the ferocious heat, an out of shape
Johnson took control of the early rounds before being knocked out by the giant
Kansas cowboy in the 23rd round.
Rumours came about that he had thrown the fight (he looks to be
shielding his eyes from the sun whilst listening to the count in footage of the
fight) but it’s unlikely this was the case.
As Willard said afterwards, “If he was going to throw the fight, I wish
he’d done it sooner. It was hotter than
hell out there.”
N.B. Notice
the words ‘World Heavyweight Title’ in brackets as it was the last scheduled 45
round match of any kind, it just happened to be for the world heavyweight
title.
Last 20 Round
Title Fight: Mike McTigue v Battling Siki (17/03/1923)
A Dublin
cinema plum in the middle of the Irish Civil War when gunfire could be heard in
the streets outside doesn’t sound like an ideal venue to stage a world title
bout, but that’s what happened on St Patrick’s Day 1923. The bout was, by most accounts, a fairly dull
encounter with McTigue winning on points.
Last Fight to the Finish: Sam Langford v Jim Savage (31/03/1923)
The squat, barrel chested and rangy Langford is often
said to be one of the greatest fighters never to claim a world title. In 1923 the 40 year old whose sight was
hugely diminished still took the Mexican heavyweight title in 3 rounds.
Last 10 Round
Title Fight: Gene Tunney v Jack Dempsey (22/09/1927)
When the defending champion Dempsey
had faced Tunney for the first time in 1926, the New York Boxing Licence
Committee refused to give Dempsey a licence to box in the state unless he
fought Harry Wills, the mandatory challenger first. So it was decided to move the fight to
Philadelphia where, due to the fragmented nature of the sport at the time,
boxing matches were limited to 10 rounds.
Tunney outthought and outfought
Dempsey and took the title on points leaving the door open to a return match
the following year. Better remembered as
‘The Long Count Fight’, for years it
was argued that Dempsey had Tunney on the canvas in the seventh for way over 10
seconds after he put together an eight punch combination that floored Tunney
for the first time in his career. But
due to new rules stating a boxer must move to a neutral corner if they knock
their opponent down, the referee had delayed his count until Dempsey had done
as he was told.
But I digress. This was the last 10 round world title fight
in boxing history and they would get a lot longer before they’d get shorter.
Last
20 Round Fight: Max Baer v King Levinsky (04/07/1932)
The
clown prince of the heavyweights, Max Baer beat King Levinsky in Reno, Nevada
on July 4th 1932.
Independence Day boxing matches were quite a big tradition in the first
half of the 20th century but it seems to have gone by the wayside in recent
times.
Last Scheduled 20 Round Heavyweight Title Fight: Joe
Louis v Abe Simon (21/03/1941)
Supposedly Abe Simon’s trainer brought in Jack
Johnson to impart some of his ring wisdom during training for his first of two
bouts with Joe Louis who was into the fourth year of his championship tenure. It seems that it all came to nothing though
as The Brown Bomber knocked Simon out in the 13 round.
Last Scheduled 25 Round Fight: Bill Poland v Eddie
Blunt (27/08/1941)
This is one fight I didn’t know about until very
recently when I laid my hands on a copy of Nat Fleischer’s Ring Record Book
from 1967. Poland, a protégé of Jack
Dempsey’s former manager Jack Kearns, got off the canvas to beat Blunt in the 4th
round.
Last 17 Round Fight: Bobby Ruffin v Bobby McIntyre
(17/03/1943)
This New Orleans featherweight contest
was scheduled for 20 rounds but Ruffin finished it in the 17th. It remains the last fight to ever go past 15
rounds.
Last
Scheduled 20 Round Fight: Brian Kelly v Alonzo Harris (01/06/1971)
Promoter Pat O’Grady was able to schedule this bout for 20 rounds in Oklahoma which made for an excellent sales gimmick. It made it to the halfway point with the referee stepping in to save Harris in the 10th.
Promoter Pat O’Grady was able to schedule this bout for 20 rounds in Oklahoma which made for an excellent sales gimmick. It made it to the halfway point with the referee stepping in to save Harris in the 10th.
Last
15 Round Heavyweight Title Fight: Larry Holmes v Michael Spinks (19/04/1986)
Depending
on who you believe, the switch from 15 rounds to 12 rounds was either brought
about to improve the safety of the sport following the death of Duk Koo Kim
when he slipped into a coma and died after being knocked out by Ray Mancini in
the 14th round of their November 1982 match….OR it was noticed that
more money could be made if a match could be fitted into a one hour television
slot. I’ll let you make your own mind up
on that matter.
Either
way, in April 1986, history was made when a heavyweight title match went 15
rounds for the last time. Michael Spinks
had sprung a massive upset when he became the first reigning light heavyweight
champion to beat a reigning heavyweight champion, aswell as destroying Holmes’
undefeated record the previous year.
This time around Spinks was put under a lot more pressure but the
outcome was the same and he won by decision.
Last
15 Round Title Fight: Samuth Sithnaruepol v In-KyuHwang (29/08/1988)
With the IBF minimum weight title at
stake, Samuth Sithnaruepol
beat In-KyuHwang in Bangkok, Thailand by unanimous decision. It was the last time a belt for one of the
four major sanctioning bodies was contested over 15 rounds.
Last 15 Round Fight: Jose Alfredo Flores v Eric Holland (07/07/1997)
And so, on the grounds of safety, just
15 short years after the death of Duk Koo Kim, Jose Alfredo Flores defended his
World Boxing Board middleweight title against Eric Holland in New Mexico by
split decision and the door was shut on the era of the 15 round boxing
match. For good?....
