On This Day

In Boxing History!

1900: Joe Gans vs Terry McGovern

          The Fight That Banned Boxing!           

Chicago was the site of this meeting of all-time greats with both fighters in their respective primes. If ever a match-up should have resulted in an exciting and highly competitive tilt this was it, despite the fact lightweight Gans enjoyed a natural size and weight advantage over featherweight McGovern. But such was not the case. Instead Gans was decked seven times before being counted out in the second round, with fans booing the obvious fix even before it ended.

Gans on the canvas: Chicago says goodbye to boxing.

The widespread word on the street was that the match was not on the level and virtually no one regarded the result as legit. And Gans vs McGovern proved to be not just a controversial boxing match, but a most consequential one, as it led to the state of Illinois banning professional prizefighting for almost thirty years.

James Toney vs Mike McCallum

December 13th, 1991

IBF World Middleweight Title

Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey

December 13th

1900: Terry McGovern KO2 Joe Gans

1913: Archie Moore was born in Benoit, Mississippi

1929: Jimmy McLarnin KO2 Ruby Goldstein

1940: Ken Overlin W15 Steve Belloise

1974: Cesar Bazan was born in in Mexico City, Mexico

1975: Carlos Monzon KO5 Gratien Tonna

1978: Masashi Kudo W15 Joo Ho

1980: Salvador Sanchez W15 Juan LaPorte

Wilfredo Gomez KO3 Jose Cervantes

Peter Mathebula W15 Tae Shik Kim

1983: Marvin Camel KO5 Roddy MacDonald

1985: Jiro Watanabe KO5 Suk Hwan Yun

1987: Jung Koo Chang W12 Isidro Perez

1991: Victor Cordoba KO11 Vincenzo Nardiello

James Toney D12 Mike McCallum

Terry Norris W12 Jorge Castro

1993: Yuri Arbachakov W12 Nam-Hook Cha

1994: Miguel Angel Gonzalez KO5 Calvin Grove

1996: Dariusz Michalczewski KO8 Christophe Girard

1997: Dariusz Michalczewski KO6 Darren Zenner

Vince Phillips KO10 Freddie Pendleton

Hector Lizarraga KO11 Welcome Ncita

Johnny Tapia W12 Andy Agosto

Mauricio Pastrana KO2 Manuel Herrera

Paddy DeMarco, 69, dies

2003: John Ruiz W12 Hasim Rahman

Wayne Braithwaite KO 1 Luis Perez

Bernard Hopkins W 12 William Joppy

Cory Spinks W12 Ricardo Mayorga

Luis Perez W12 Felix Machado

Rosendo Alvarez D12 Victor Burgos

2004: Raul Garcia W12 Jose Luis Varela

2008: Wladimir Klitschko KO8 Hasim Rahman

2013: Delfine Persoon TKO10 Lucia Morelli

Carolina Raquel Duer W10 Estrella Valverde

Edith Soledad Matthysse W10 Ogleidis Suarez

Yesica Patricia Marcos W10 Angela Marciales

2014: Keith Thurman W12 Leonard Bundu

Andy Lee TKO6 Matt Korobov      

Jose Benavidez Jr W12 Mauricio Herrera

Erik Skoglund W10 Glen Johnson

2017: Jeff Horn TKO11 Gary Corcoran  

Katie Taylor W10 Jessica McCaskill

2023: Batyrzhan Jukembayev W10 Mohamed Mimoune

2024: Brock Jarvis TKO4 Adrian Rodriguez