John Lawrence Sullivan, known simply as John L. among his admirers, and dubbed the "Boston Strong Boy" by the press, was an American boxer. He is recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, de facto reigning from February 7, 1882, to September 7, 1892. He is also generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules, being a cultural icon of the late 19th century America, arguably the first boxing superstar and one of the world's highest-paid athletes of his era. Newspapers' coverage of his career, with the latest accounts of his championship fights often appearing in the headlines, and as cover stories, gave birth to sports journalism in the United States and set the pattern internationally for covering boxing events in media, and photodocumenting the prizefights.
The Sullivan-Kilrain fight
Sullivan as he appeared in 1898, late in his career
Corbett licks Sullivan.
Boxing is a combat sport and a martial art in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring.
Two Royal Navy men boxing for charity (1945). The modern sport was codified in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A painting of Minoan youths boxing, from an Akrotiri fresco circa 1650 BC. This is the earliest documented use of boxing gloves.
A boxing scene depicted on a Panathenaic amphora from Ancient Greece, circa 336 BC, British Museum
A boxer and a rooster in a Roman mosaic of first century AD at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples
