Boxer known as the “Boston Strong Boy.” Fighting on turf and with bare knuckles, Sullivan became the heavyweight champion of the world under the London Prize Ring rules by defeating Paddy Ryan on February 7, 1882. Ten years later, on September 7, 1892, he lost the championship to James J. Corbett under the new Queensberry rules. ALS, one page, lightly-lined, 8 x 10, December 24, 1902. Letter to H. P. Krause granting permission to be quoted. In full: “I received your message and am more than pleased to comply with your desire. I would be more than thankful to be quoted in your paper as a character of some prominence. Our country today is respected by all other nations and why because we are the right kind of material. Trusting this little matter will meet with your approval.” Intersecting folds, two through single letters of signature, and a small erasure in lower left corner, otherwise fine condition.
The famed pugilist was justified in seeing himself as a “character of some prominence” and as an American made of “the right kind of material,” considering his place in sports history—the last bare-knuckle boxing champ and the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing. The public, however, may have had a somewhat more jaded view considering the spectacle he made of himself earlier that year. During a matinee of a monologue he was performing, the boxing legend drunkenly staggered around the stage and had to be forcibly removed. Returned to his hotel, Sullivan later embarked on another drinking binge that landed him in jail. Correspondence from the champ is seldom seen, even by Sullivan’s own admission; he once confessed in a 1912 New York Times article, “Scrape the country over and you probably wouldn’t round up more than a hundred letters written and signed by John L. Sullivan.” Pre-certified Steve Grad/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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