Tweet
Sailor Tom Sharkey. Owner of history most signifikant cauliflower ear along with Battling Nelson.
I have found this brilliant piece regarding the Jeffries-Sharkey relationship:
"...probably his toughest duel, and certainly his most memorable, was his classic championship bout with the great Jim Jeffries in the searing heat of the Coney Island Athletic Club on the night of November 3, 1899.
It was a fight for the ages, which proved in time to be so much more. It was a long, brutal confrontation that showcased outstanding talent and unrelenting courage. It forged a deep mutual respect between two of the hardiest men in the boxing universe and ultimately led to a trusting and enduring friendship.
Many years after that memorable struggle for supremacy, Tom Sharkey walked into Jim Jeffries’ café in Los Angeles. Tom was drifting from job to job, having lost all the money he made in the ring. Big Jeff gave him a position and paid him a good salary. The two men quickly became friends. When the café eventually closed, Sharkey moved on and worked for promoter James Coffroth at the Tijuana racetrack. But Jeffries didn’t forget Sailor Tom.
By 1926, Jeff was having money troubles of his own and began a vaudeville tour in an attempt to recoup some of his losses. He invited Sharkey to join him.
Jeff’s often stern demeanour belied the kind and generous man he was. Honest to the core in his dealings with people, his great failing in business matters was to assume that others followed a similar moral code. Many of Jeff’s investments went awry through his trust of dishonest or deluded schemers.
Jeffries was a happy and contented man for the most part, farming his ranch in the San Fernando Valley, but he clearly had a greater love and understanding for the simpler business and simpler principles of the boxing ring. Perhaps that was why he got along so well with Tom Sharkey, for Tom was even more of a fish out of water after the final punches had been thrown and the cheers of the crowds had died away.
Big Jeff would always talk of Sharkey with great fondness. The Sailor could fight and he never stopped coming at you. This was the man whom the clever and hard-hitting Joe Choynski had so sorely underrated in an incredible, topsy-turvy tussle in San Francisco. Twice Choynski knocked the rampaging Sharkey out of the ring. On each occasion, Tom landed on his head, only to bounce up and clamber back into the ring. He won the fight and the result was regarded as a sensation."
And this is about the fight:
"Two men get to know each other well over 45 rounds of brutal fighting. Before Jeffries and Sharkey renewed hostilities at Coney Island, Jeff had decisioned Tom in another taxing battle at the Mechanics Pavilion in San Francisco in May 1898. Such fights and memories linger in a man’s mind until he takes his final breath.
When big Jeff hooked up with his old pal Nat Fleischer in 1950, the two men turned the clock back half a century and recalled the Irish terror with the cauliflower ear. “They come no greater,” said Jeffries of Sailor Tom. “If ever there was a game and desperate fighter, Sharkey was the man. I split his eye open with one blow in our second battle and his ear started to swell until it was almost as big as my fist. When I landed on that ear, it was like hitting a big wet sponge. Yet he wouldn’t think of quitting.
.....
How they went at each other. Jeffries and Sharkey never let up in their Coney Island classic. The rumour had gone around that Jeff wasn’t in his best shape. Some rumour. The champion announced his weight as 210lbs and looked superb. Sailor Tom was some 25lbs lighter, but gloriously chiselled, gnarled and fighting fit. Of all the toughs, Sharkey was the man you didn’t want to meet in a back alley on a rough night in Dublin.
Jeff and Tom entered the ring at two minutes past ten in the evening, and they were stepping into a furnace that was being stoked by the second.
While it had been an unusually warm day for the time of year, the heat of the night within the Coney Island Athletic Club was coming from 400 arc lamps suspended just fifteen feet above the canvas. For the first time, a film of a fight was being shot in artificial light. People in the great crowd were visibly sweating as they stood tightly packed in the aisles and perched high up around the building. Among them were such giants of the day as John L Sullivan, Jim Corbett, Kid McCoy, Peter Maher and George Dixon.
The two contestants didn’t disappoint the house. In the aftermath, most of those present would be unable to recall when two heavyweights hit each other so hard and for so long. Jeffries and Sharkey fought ferociously from the opening gong, with Sailor Tom very much the rushing and fearless aggressor. Jeff got an idea of the marathon struggle that was in store for him when he dropped Sharkey to his knees in the second round with a big left hook to the jaw. Tom got up and ploughed straight back into the attack, as if the setback were an aberration.
The two men hammered and jolted each other in close with tremendous blows, their durability a testament to their magnificent conditioning and inner spirit. Sharkey was cautioned several times for holding by referee George Siler, but the Irish Terror just kept charging and rushing, locked in his own private war against the one man he wanted to beat above all others."
The article is long and I recommend reading the whole piece which includes a fine fight description.
I have found this brilliant piece regarding the Jeffries-Sharkey relationship:
"...probably his toughest duel, and certainly his most memorable, was his classic championship bout with the great Jim Jeffries in the searing heat of the Coney Island Athletic Club on the night of November 3, 1899.
It was a fight for the ages, which proved in time to be so much more. It was a long, brutal confrontation that showcased outstanding talent and unrelenting courage. It forged a deep mutual respect between two of the hardiest men in the boxing universe and ultimately led to a trusting and enduring friendship.
Many years after that memorable struggle for supremacy, Tom Sharkey walked into Jim Jeffries’ café in Los Angeles. Tom was drifting from job to job, having lost all the money he made in the ring. Big Jeff gave him a position and paid him a good salary. The two men quickly became friends. When the café eventually closed, Sharkey moved on and worked for promoter James Coffroth at the Tijuana racetrack. But Jeffries didn’t forget Sailor Tom.
By 1926, Jeff was having money troubles of his own and began a vaudeville tour in an attempt to recoup some of his losses. He invited Sharkey to join him.
Jeff’s often stern demeanour belied the kind and generous man he was. Honest to the core in his dealings with people, his great failing in business matters was to assume that others followed a similar moral code. Many of Jeff’s investments went awry through his trust of dishonest or deluded schemers.
Jeffries was a happy and contented man for the most part, farming his ranch in the San Fernando Valley, but he clearly had a greater love and understanding for the simpler business and simpler principles of the boxing ring. Perhaps that was why he got along so well with Tom Sharkey, for Tom was even more of a fish out of water after the final punches had been thrown and the cheers of the crowds had died away.
Big Jeff would always talk of Sharkey with great fondness. The Sailor could fight and he never stopped coming at you. This was the man whom the clever and hard-hitting Joe Choynski had so sorely underrated in an incredible, topsy-turvy tussle in San Francisco. Twice Choynski knocked the rampaging Sharkey out of the ring. On each occasion, Tom landed on his head, only to bounce up and clamber back into the ring. He won the fight and the result was regarded as a sensation."
And this is about the fight:
"Two men get to know each other well over 45 rounds of brutal fighting. Before Jeffries and Sharkey renewed hostilities at Coney Island, Jeff had decisioned Tom in another taxing battle at the Mechanics Pavilion in San Francisco in May 1898. Such fights and memories linger in a man’s mind until he takes his final breath.
When big Jeff hooked up with his old pal Nat Fleischer in 1950, the two men turned the clock back half a century and recalled the Irish terror with the cauliflower ear. “They come no greater,” said Jeffries of Sailor Tom. “If ever there was a game and desperate fighter, Sharkey was the man. I split his eye open with one blow in our second battle and his ear started to swell until it was almost as big as my fist. When I landed on that ear, it was like hitting a big wet sponge. Yet he wouldn’t think of quitting.
.....
How they went at each other. Jeffries and Sharkey never let up in their Coney Island classic. The rumour had gone around that Jeff wasn’t in his best shape. Some rumour. The champion announced his weight as 210lbs and looked superb. Sailor Tom was some 25lbs lighter, but gloriously chiselled, gnarled and fighting fit. Of all the toughs, Sharkey was the man you didn’t want to meet in a back alley on a rough night in Dublin.
Jeff and Tom entered the ring at two minutes past ten in the evening, and they were stepping into a furnace that was being stoked by the second.
While it had been an unusually warm day for the time of year, the heat of the night within the Coney Island Athletic Club was coming from 400 arc lamps suspended just fifteen feet above the canvas. For the first time, a film of a fight was being shot in artificial light. People in the great crowd were visibly sweating as they stood tightly packed in the aisles and perched high up around the building. Among them were such giants of the day as John L Sullivan, Jim Corbett, Kid McCoy, Peter Maher and George Dixon.
The two contestants didn’t disappoint the house. In the aftermath, most of those present would be unable to recall when two heavyweights hit each other so hard and for so long. Jeffries and Sharkey fought ferociously from the opening gong, with Sailor Tom very much the rushing and fearless aggressor. Jeff got an idea of the marathon struggle that was in store for him when he dropped Sharkey to his knees in the second round with a big left hook to the jaw. Tom got up and ploughed straight back into the attack, as if the setback were an aberration.
The two men hammered and jolted each other in close with tremendous blows, their durability a testament to their magnificent conditioning and inner spirit. Sharkey was cautioned several times for holding by referee George Siler, but the Irish Terror just kept charging and rushing, locked in his own private war against the one man he wanted to beat above all others."
The article is long and I recommend reading the whole piece which includes a fine fight description.
foreman would murder him!
.
Comment