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In the late 1890s, when boxing rivaled the popularity of baseball, George Dixon and Terry McGovern were among its most famous practitioners. Their paths first crossed in 1900 in what is widely considered the most significant featherweight bout in history. Both men were fighters who died young under distressing circumstances. Both were products of a burgeoning industrial society and a cult of masculinity, at a time when prizefighting's adherents and opponents were in a constant tug-of-war.
This book tells the full story, with a fascinating cast of characters including imperious manager/promoter Tom O'Rourke, World Welterweight Champion Barbados Joe Walcott, and Tammany Hall bigwig Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan, whose invisible hand made New York the epicenter of boxing in the 1890s.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
¿1.¿George Dixon Coming of Age
¿2.¿George Dixon's Boston
¿3.¿George Dixon: Champion of Three Continents
¿4.¿Coney Island: Sodom by the Sea
¿5.¿Young Griffo and the Kentucky Rosebud
¿6.¿Eastern Precincts and a Wild Goose Chase
¿7.¿The Horton Law and the Broadway Athletic Club
¿8.¿Highs and Lows on Opposite Coasts
¿9.¿Terry McGovern: The South Brooklyn Comet
10.¿1899: The Year of the Deluge
11.¿Tom O'Rourke and the Other Guy
12.¿Dixon vs. McGovern: The Championship Fight
13.¿Terry McGovern: High Times and a Shocking Reversal
14.¿George Dixon's Second Act: A Career on the Skids
15.¿Terry McGovern After the Fall
16.¿Little Chocolate in the Autumn of His Years
17.¿Terrible Terry's Psychopathology
18.¿Funerals and Monuments
19.¿Necrology
Appendix I. Key Fights in the Boxing Career of George Dixon
Appendix II. Key Fights in the Boxing Career of Terry McGovern
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
The editor-in-chief of The Sweet Science on-line boxing magazine, Arne K. Lang taught sociology at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the University of Nebraska and Tuskegee. A leading authority on the history of boxing and the history of American sports gambling, he lives and writes in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is his fifth book.
