Jake Kilrain boxer

Jake Kilrain boxer
bouts
47
won
31
lost
5
draw
8
Status
inactive
Division
heavyweight
Debut
1879-01-01
Height
5′ 10½″/179cm
Reach
-
Age
78
Born
1859-02-09
Death
1937-12-22
Nationality
USA

John Joseph Killion (February 9, 1859 – December 22, 1937), more commonly known as Jake Kilrain, was a famous American bare-knuckle fighter and glove boxer of the 1880s. Kilrain found employment as a teenager in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a country boy from Long Island, he had to learn how to stand up to the workers in the rolling mills. By the age of 20, he had been recognized as the toughest fighter in the mill. Kilrain was also a champion rower having won the National Amateur Junior Sculling Championship in 1883. He was later stripped of that honor when it was discovered that he was a prizefighter and thus could not be considered an amateur.In 1883, Kilrain took up prizefighting as a profession and quickly established a reputation as a very tough fighter.By 1887 Kilrain already has been recognized as the U.S. National Champion, that gave him an opportunity to fight for the Championship of the World and silver belt versus the British Champion Jem Smith, scheduled to take place in December 1887, in France, at a little island on the River Seine, called St. Pierre d'Autils. The bout was attended by about a hundred of the upper class spectators and journalists, mainly from England, being covered by the major international media of the day, such as Reuters, Gaulois, etc. They fought 1-minute rounds with 30 seconds break between the rounds. At the outset the men fought evenly. After the 3rd round Kilrain scored several knockdowns, and wrestling formed the principal mode of operations for the rest of the fight. Before the 106th round had started, after two hours and a half of fighting (roughly three times the full duration of modern-day 12-round championship fights,) when darkness set in, the bout was stopped due to technical reasons, as no artificial lighting of the scene has been arranged the outcome was called a draw due to darkness.Clearly dominant throughout the fight (even the English newspapers wrote that "the Englishman was no match for the American crack",) upon his return to the United States, Kilrain was pronounced by Richard K. Fox of the National Police Gazette as Heavyweight Champion of the World for his bout with Jem Smith. The awarding of the belt to Kilrain was part of a strategy by Fox to draw Sullivan into a fight. Any remote claim he had to the title of world champion was lost in 1889 after his loss to John L. Sullivan.Kilrain is perhaps best known for challenging champion John L. Sullivan in 1889 in the last world heavyweight championship prizefight decided with bare knuckles under London Prize Ring rules in history. They fought 1-minute rounds with 50 seconds break between the rounds. In a hard-fought contest, Kilrain lost at the start of the 76th round (after 2 hours 16 minutes) when Mike Donovan, his second, threw in the sponge. Kilrain had not wanted to give up thinking that he could outlast Sullivan, but Donovan defended his actions insisting that Kilrain would have died had the fight gone on. In any case, the Kilrain-Sullivan fight can rightly be listed among the greatest fights of the pre-modern era.

Date Opponent Last Opponents' Results Place Result
1899-10-20 Steve O'Donnell WWLLWL Germania Maennerchor Hall, Baltimore LOST
Technical knockout
1896-09-14 Frank Slavin WLWLWD Eureka A.C., Baltimore LOST
KO
1895-09-30 Abe Ullman WDDDWW Baltimore NC
1895-05-06 Steve O'Donnell WDWWD Sea Side A.C., Coney Island LOST
Technical knockout
1895-03-18 Steve O'Donnell WWDWW Suffolk A.C., Boston DRAW
Points
1891-06-16 Frank Slavin WWWW Granite A.C., Hoboken LOST
Technical knockout
1891-03-13 George Godfrey LDWWWW California A.C., San Francisco WIN
KO
1890-12-04 George Maguire debut Utica WIN
KO
1890-12-03 Mike Brennan LLDW Montana WIN
Points
1890-12-01 George Harris debut New York WIN
KO
1890-08-22 Arthur Chambers debut Union Opera House, Ogden WIN
Points
1890-08-01 Jerry Slattery WWWWL New York WIN
Technical knockout
1890-06-18 Dick Mayel debut Cleveland WIN
Points
1890-06-13 Tommy McManus debut New York WIN
Points
1890-06-12 Frank Straub debut New York WIN
KO
1890-06-10 Frank Bosworth DWWWLL New York WIN
Technical knockout
1890-02-18 James J. Corbett WWWWD Southern A.C., New Orleans LOST
Points
1890-02-02 Felix Vacquelin debut New Orleans WIN
KO
1889-11-04 John Scholes L Mutual Street Rink, Toronto LOST
1887-03-08 Joe Lannon WDWWWW Watertown WIN
Technical knockout
1886-12-22 John P. Clow DWWDDW New Assembly Rooms, Baltimore WIN
Points
1886-11-19 Denny Killen WW Comique Theatre, Philadelphia WIN
Points
1886-11-17 Tommy Kelly LLLWLL Theatre Comique, Philadelphia WIN
KO
1886-11-15 Joe Godfrey LWD Theatre Comique, Philadelphia WIN
KO
1886-11-08 Frank Herald WWWWLL Herring Run WIN
Technical knockout
1886-07-31 Jack Ashton WWWWWD Ridgewood Baseball Park, Brooklyn WIN
Points
1885-05-15 George Fryer DWW Boston DRAW
Points
1885-02-12 Alf Greenfield WLWWLL WIN
Points
1885-01-05 Jerry Murphy LW Norumbega Hall, Bangor WIN
Points
1884-12-01 Jack Burke LWWWD New England Institute, Boston DRAW
Points
1884-07-03 Jem Goode DWLDLL Battery D Armory, Chicago DRAW
Points
1884-06-26 Mike Cleary WDWLWW Madison Square Garden, New York DRAW
Points
1884-05-06 William Sherriff DDWDLD Union Hall, Cambridgeport WIN
Points
1884-03-26 Charlie Mitchell WDDWW Institute Hall, Boston DRAW
Points
1883-10-29 Jerry Murphy debut Bangor WIN
KO
1883-10-26 Jem Goode DDWL Conant Hall, Boston DRAW
Points
1883-05-16 George Godfrey DDDWWD Boston WIN
Technical knockout
1883-04-16 John McGlynn debut New Bedford WIN
Technical knockout
1883-03-19 Pete McCoy debut Mechanics Building, Boston WIN
KO
1883-02-10 John Allen debut Boston WIN
Points
1882-01-15 George Godfrey DWWWW Boston DRAW
Points
1880-01-10 John Hughes debut Boston WIN
Points
1879-04-01 Dennis Roach debut Somerville WIN
Technical knockout
1879-03-10 Dan Dwyer debut Somerville WIN
Points
1879-02-01 Jem Driscoll debut Somerville WIN
Technical knockout
1879-01-01 Jack Daley debut Somerville WIN
KO