Bowen and Burke fought longest fight in history.

[Willie Pep 229]

The 'longest fight' in history is legendary for its brutality, . . .

examples

Ripley's Believe it or Not

On This Day in History

but maybe it wasn't, what it is purported to be . . .

[Quicksilver*]

Men were men

[Marchegiano]

This fight was very, very interesting to me early on when I was on forums, around 2010, my debut here. I don't know why, but, I never looked into it as I grew into the sort who does look into things.

I'll have to have a dig around and see what I can find on this fight. It is incredibly interesting, but, I wonder how much more sure is Bowen-Burke than say Theaganese-Euthymos. Because if there is no more supporting evidence behind these boys than there is the ancient boys then I'm going to add some ancient names, and possibly medieval names, to challenge this legend.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Jeannette defending his colored title vs McVea in Paris 1909 or thereabouts, prob more brutal in the 20th Century.

Over 30 knockdowns mostly on Jeanette for 48 rds. For the 49th McVea walked out hand extended to cede the bout as he was swelling completely shut.

Needless to say the French were utterly flabbergasted and shortcircuited over such sheer brutality...Only in boxing.

[The Old LefHook]

Don't overrate all those knockdowns. In those days whenever a man was knocked down the round ended. So you let yourself be knocked down when you needed a little break.

Now I know of a street fight that went an hour and a half between Bob Johnson and Dave Dudley, with nary a break to the fighting except when Johnson tossed Dudley over the roof of a car. Dudley was a fine boxer who knew how to move, but Johnson had the milking muscle and it prevailed. His milker was out of shape, for the man had been in a body cast for six months in the hospital after being crushed between two parked tanks during WWII. He milked Dudley of his enthusiasm until he was suggesting a little break in a friendly manner as if they were suddenly friends or something. But Johnson yelled, "You hear that everybody? He wants a break. Say it out loud so everyone can hear."

With that milking muscle of his he had more grip than the best man in a million. Of course grip pretty much equals punch, with a few additional tweaks in the equation. Trained well, Johnson might very well have KO'd the Marciano, and we would be talking about the Johnson instead.

[PBR Streetgang]

Don't overrate all those knockdowns. In those days whenever a man was knocked down the round ended. So you let yourself be knocked down when you needed a little break.

Yeah, I remember reading that rounds were counted differently prior to Queensbury; a knockdown would end the previous round and begin the next so not all rounds were the same length.

As for Bowen and Burke, according to what I could find the bout lasted over 7 hours; Burke won the first 25 rounds until Bowen dropped him in the 25th. After that both guys were so exhausted they couldn't really do much offensively...Burke had broken both his hands and neither were throwing punches and just circling each other. With most of the crowd asleep or gone the referee mercifully ended the bout and declared it a draw.

[Marchegiano]

Yeah, I remember reading that rounds were counted differently prior to Queensbury; a knockdown would end the previous round and begin the next so not all rounds were the same length.

As for Bowen and Burke, according to what I could find the bout lasted over 7 hours; Burke won the first 25 rounds until Bowen dropped him in the 25th. After that both guys were so exhausted they couldn't really do much offensively...Burke had broken both his hands and neither were throwing punches and just circling each other. With most of the crowd asleep or gone the referee mercifully ended the bout and declared it a draw.

Used to be guys who wanted to bring a man into a late fight would flop over when punched at. Loads lost to DQ because they hadn't even been hit. Loads more won fights without really fighting. Some would flop and kick, because kicks are illegal but if you happen to be flailing about as you go down and that happens to ned with you kicking the man who sent you down then that's fine.

When NP Dempsey fought Johnny Reagan for MW title, Reagan flopped against Dempsey and included the kicking. They wore cleats, Dempsey suffered a four inch gash in his calf, still KO'd the guy like an hour later.

It's a good read, there's even a police chase and some swimming.