“No sir, I won’t fight any more in this city, and you can put that just as strong as you like…” [Wannop V Godfrey, Part I]

As 1889 began, The Sporting Life received word from Jack Wannop that he wasn’t quite done with America yet, despite his stay now reaching ten months.  Jack had struck gold, he said, by “knocking the brass off” some champions in the Far West and now the money was finally rolling in. My last post suggests… Read More “No sir, I won’t fight any more in this city, and you can put that just as strong as you like…” [Wannop V Godfrey, Part I]

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WANNOP IS A WHIRLWIND: A drunk boxing ring fire and a mid-match escape

Following his defeat at the hands and shoulders of Evan Lewis and Duncan McMillan, Wannop caught a break of a sort in July 1888. With his reputation as a wrestler severely dented, Wannop gloved up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His opponent was Jim Fell, a fellow Englishman. Born just a few months after Wannop in… Read More WANNOP IS A WHIRLWIND: A drunk boxing ring fire and a mid-match escape

Sarah Elizabeth Cox2 Comments

Back in New Cross – George Steadman v George Brown for England’s heavyweight wrestling championship

The month of May ended as badly as it had begun for a despondent Jack Wannop. In a step down from the 3,000 seats sold for his match with Lewis, his next appearance was at Milwaukee’s much smaller opera house. In front of a tiny crowd Wannop was once again beaten, at catch-as-catch-can for $200… Read More Back in New Cross – George Steadman v George Brown for England’s heavyweight wrestling championship

Sarah Elizabeth Cox1 Comment

Jack Wannop V John L. Sullivan… sort of

Having passed the afternoon downing drinks at Mike Clark’s Boston saloon, an intoxicated John L. Sullivan staggered into Patsey Sheppard’s place, the ‘Abbey’, in a wild state. After ordering another round, and slamming down his glass, he spotted a vaguely familiar face at the bar – a burly, shaven-headed Englishman, also looking somewhat the worse… Read More Jack Wannop V John L. Sullivan… sort of

Sarah Elizabeth Cox2 Comments

For Blood and Money: Jack Wannop V Evan ‘The Strangler’ Lewis

“Wannop was nearly killed.” So concluded a cablegram from The Sporting Life’s New York special correspondent, published on 10 May 1888 to update British readers on Jack Wannop V Evan Lewis three days prior. The wrestling match at Chicago’s Battery D Armoury for the first wrestling ‘Championship of the World’ had been hotly anticipated. A… Read More For Blood and Money: Jack Wannop V Evan ‘The Strangler’ Lewis

Sarah Elizabeth Cox3 Comments

Grappling With History in the Lewisham Ledger

I love local newspapers. From their late teens onward both my parents (@coxchat and @stage_review) spent their careers as reporters, editors and film/theatre critics on the Luton News, Dunstable Gazette and Leighton Buzzard Observer. Since 2011 a large part of my day job has involved trying to get the public interested in fun and educational… Read More Grappling With History in the Lewisham Ledger

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