In April 1881, the National Police Gazette and its publisher Richard K. Fox offered to facilitate a bare knuckle bout and sanction an American Championship for John L. Sullivan vs Paddy Ryan. The Gazette offered a Championship Belt and, for the first time ever in America, the winner of the belt would have to defend the trophy. All matches for the belt were to be made at the Police Gazette offices, and Richard K. Fox would be final stakeholder. Importantly, all championship bouts were to be fought bare knuckle, according to London Prize Ring rules.
With this announcement, the Police Gazette became the original boxing sanctioning organization in America and the only bare knuckle boxing sanctioning organization in the world. In 1894, the Police Gazette suspended bare-knuckle sanctioning after competitive gloved boxing was legalized and would become the dominant form of professional boxing for over a century to come. No other national organization officially sanctioned bare knuckle boxing until 2016, when the Police Gazette resumed its activities and awarded Bobby Gunn the Police Gazette World Heavyweight Championship, the first bare knuckle world championship to be held since Police Gazette Lightweight Champion Jack McAuliffe retired in 1894.
From 1881 to 1894, the Police Gazette was the WBC of bare knuckle boxing, arranging and sanctioning championship matches in the four major weight classes of the time–heavyweight, middleweight, lightweight, and featherweight. Since 2016, under the Police Gazette Boxing Corporation, current Police Gazette World Championships include six men’s weight classes and two women’s. Regional Champions include four British weight classes. And the number continues to grow.
Today’s fighters recognize the Police Gazette Championship as the oldest and most prestigious bare knuckle championship in the world, tracing its lineal history to John L. Sullivan and the greats of the 19th century. No other boxing sanctioning organization anywhere can say that, in gloved or bare knuckle. In 1893, the Police Gazette stated “no pugilist can win the championship of America or England fighting with gloves.” So it can be said a Police Gazette Championship is not just the oldest but the truest in all of boxing.
