A Brief History of the Holy Grail That All Bare Knucklers Aspire to Possess
The sky seems to be the limit now for the sport of bare knuckle boxing—which had lain dormant for over a century—as bigger and bigger names sign on with each passing week. Less than a year after the first state-sanctioned event, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, Paul Malignaggi, Artem Lobov, and Chris Leben have joined Bec Rawlings, Antonio Tarver, Bobby Gunn, and the rest at Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) as fighters or in the back office. And as of this writing, swirling rumors that Conor McGregor may be contemplating a move to bare knuckle become more credible every day. What will they be fighting for, other than money? Only the most authentic trophy in bare knuckle boxing, if not all of boxing: The Police Gazette Championship Belt. Here is its origin story:
In June 1880, Paddy Ryan defeated Joe Goss in West Virginia in a bare knuckle fight and claimed the championship of America. But, prize fighting being illegal, there was no respected organization that could officially sanction his claim. Uncertainty about who was the American champion remained. John L. Sullivan then challenged Ryan, but Ryan did not immediately accept. He said West Virginia authorities were hunting him for participating in a prize fight and, besides, Sullivan had yet to post a forfeit. Enter Richard K. Fox and the National Police Gazette.
Fox offered to sanction and facilitate a match between Ryan and Sullivan. The April 16, 1881, issue of the Police Gazette explains: “To settle this matter, Richard K. Fox, proprietor of the POLICE GAZETTE, offers to match Sullivan, the Boston giant, to fight Paddy Ryan at catchweight, according to the new rules of the London prize ring, for $1,000 a side and the heavy-weight championship of America. He will also offer a champion belt—fac simile of the belt Heenan and Sayers fought for—to the winner. The trophy is to represent the championship of America, and the winner of the belt will have to defend the trophy, according to the rules that governed the champion belt of England. All matches for the belt to be made at the POLICE GAZETTE office, and Richard K. Fox is to be final stakeholder in all matches and to select a referee…. Richard K. Fox means business, and is eager and anxious to find out who is the champion pugilist of America.” With this notice, the Police Gazette established itself as America’s first professional boxing sanctioning organization.
The fight took place in February 1882 on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, still illegal. John L. Sullivan won and the Police Gazette declared him American champion of all boxing. This moment launched the Gazette as not just a sports magazine, but the premier boxing, i.e., bare-knuckle boxing, sanctioning organization in America, later the world. The belt Fox produced was made from 12.5 pounds of solid silver and gold with eight diamonds, including two in the eyes of a fox head.
Fox had the power, resources, and determination to foster the nascent pro sport—which was all illegal, even gloved—and withstand the legal ramifications in the process. It was the Police Gazette that created rules, arranged matches, and bestowed championship belts to the winners. Before 1881, American champions had been decided by a sort of consensus among the sporting fraternity that immersed itself in the illicit doings of prize fighting. But there was never any overarching authority that could smooth the logistics—especially since they were illegal—of mediating contracts, selecting venues, providing honest stakeholders, etc. And there was no authority that could say “so-and-so is the champion and here is his belt” and have the sporting fraternity respect that, until the National Police Gazette.
The Gazette did not invent the concept of a championship belt for boxing. But the others were one-offs, created for specific events and not expected to be carried lineally from champion to champion. There had not been, a Gazette article describes, a championship governed “according to a code of rules until the ‘Police Gazette’ champion belt.” And the most important rule was that the holder of the belt was expected to defend it against all legitimate challengers. The Gazette also insisted for 12 years, even against the tide of change favoring gloved boxing, that championships should be decided under bare knuckle rules only.
When American champion Jake Kilrain defeated English champion Jem Smith by decision in a field in France in December 1887, “the ‘Police Gazette’ champion belt became the recognized championship emblem of the prize ring” all over the world. John L. Sullivan, seeing the Police Gazette belt was now bigger than he—regardless of how many “Boston” belts local fans made for him—finally decided he had to face Kilrain.
The articles of agreement signed January 1889 by Sullivan and Kilrain in Toronto specified the fight would be “for $10,000 a side [over $275,000 today] and the ‘Police Gazette’ diamond belt, which represents the championship of the world.” The place was set as “within 200 miles of New Orleans.” The final location became Richburg, Mississippi, near present-day Hattiesburg, and Sullivan won the fight in what turned out to be the last major bare knuckle world championship.
By the early 1890s, largely due to Fox’s efforts, boxing began to move into acceptance and legality. The only catch was, to be legal it had to be gloved. The handwriting was on the wall. If Fox was going to continue to have the Police Gazette be a major factor in boxing, he would have to accept the gloved version for championships. Still, he made one last-ditch plea in a November 1893 editorial. “BARE KNUCKLES, NOT GLOVES” screamed the headline. “The Prize Ring Championship Has Always Been Settled In That Way.” The article went on to explain how all the great champions of the past, in both England and America—including John L. Sullivan—had won their titles bare knuckle. But it was a lost cause. Gloves were the only way the sport could legally continue, and so Fox started allowing his belts to be won exclusively with gloves. From that point, bare-knuckle championships were no longer officially sanctioned… until now.
On August 5, 2011, the Yavapai Nation just outside Scottsdale, Arizona, sanctioned a bare knuckle bout between Bobby Gunn and Richard Stewart under the laws of the Nation. Gunn emerged the victor and claimed the bare knuckle world championship, a claim made more official when Scott R. Burt of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame (BKBHOF) presented Gunn with a championship belt in 2014. Then, in February 2016, the National Police Gazette, managed by Steven Westlake since 2007, formally recognized the BKBHOF belt given to Bobby Gunn as the Police Gazette Bare Knuckle Boxing Heavyweight Champion Belt of the World, making Bobby the first lineal heavyweight bare knuckle champion since 1892 when John L. Sullivan retired from boxing.
Then, on March 20, 2018, bare knuckle boxing became legal at the state level for the first time when it was approved by Wyoming. This is actual bare knuckle; coverings of any kind are prohibited on the knuckles. And, at their option, fighters may have no tape or wraps anywhere on their hands, wrists, or arms. If opted for, wrapping is only allowed around the wrists for support, and it must stop at least one inch from the knuckles.
In August 2018, the National Police Gazette and the BKBHOF created the Police Gazette Boxing Corporation (PGBC) as the official sanctioning body of professional bare knuckle boxing and to carry on the sanctioning activities begun in 1881 by the Police Gazette and Richard K. Fox. PGBC advisory board members include Antonio Tarver and Chris Lytle.
On August 25, 2018, Bec Rawlings, who’d been declared Police Gazette World Women’s Featherweight Champion after her showing at BKFC’s event in June 2018 in Wyoming, defended her title in a close fight with Britain Hart. Following this bout in Biloxi, Mississippi, Rawlings was presented with the belt for the first time, which made it the first time a Police Gazette belt had been presented to the victor after a bare knuckle championship bout in over 125 years. The event took place four miles from the site of the 1882 Sullivan vs Ryan match.
At BKFC’s next event on October 20, 2018, Arnold “AJ” Adams won the Police Gazette American Heavyweight Championship, also in Biloxi, Mississippi. And on February 2, 2019, Scott Burt, now president of the PGBC as well as the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame, traveled to Cancun, Mexico, to present Police Gazette medals to all the participants of BKFC 4, as well as the Police Gazette Belt to Bec Rawlings for retaining her title.
Here is a list of the original four Police Gazette weight classes, the last champions to hold the titles under bare knuckle rules, with the final year of their reign, followed by current champions and the first year they became Police Gazette champions. (We think Conor McGregor’s name would fit very nicely next to “The Nonpareil” Jack Dempsey as the lineal Police Gazette Middleweight Champion.)
The Lineal Police Gazette Bare Knuckle World Champions
| Heavyweight: | John L. Sullivan | 1892 | Bobby Gunn | 2016 |
| Middleweight: | Jack Dempsey* | 1891 | ||
| Lightweight: | Jack McAuliffe | 1894 | ||
| Featherweight: | Ike Weir | 1890 | Bec Rawlings** | 2018 |
* “The Nonpareil.”
** Women’s.
