1 The Boxing Biographies Newsletter st Volume 7 No 11 – 31 Oct , 2011 www.boxingbiographies.com If you wish to sign up for the newsletters ( which includes the images ) please email the message “NEWS LETTER” [email protected] Name: Tommy Ryan Career Record: click Alias: Joseph Youngs Nationality: US American Birthplace: Redwood, NY Hometown: Van Nuys, CA Born: 1870-03-31 Died: 1948-08-03 Age at Death: 78 Stance: Orthodox Height: 5' 7� Trainer: Jack Hamilton Manager: Captain Jim Westcott Tommy Ryan 1911-12 articles In 1911 Tommy Ryan wrote a series of weekly articles for the Syracuse Herald entitled ―Nineteen Years In The Ring‖, the story of the life and battles Of Tommy Ryan, retired middleweight champion of the world as written by himself. There are 38 weekly instalments and I have reproduced them with as much accuracy as possible given the poor quality of some of the documents. In addition to the text I have added various other items of interest. This edition concludes the series. Ryan Wins The Middleweight Championship HOW DID TOMMY RYAN win the middleweight championship of the World is a Question I often see in the query columns of the sporting: pages of the newspapers. In this article I am going to explain how I won that title and became the recognized holder of two world's championships. The welterweight and middleweight. To get at the root of things, I must go back a bit and tell something about the history of the middleweight championship. Jack 2 Dempsey was one recognized world's middleweight champion, so I will take up the history of the title from his time. Bob Fitzsimmons fought Dempsey for the title, the articles calling for 154 pounds, Fitz won and became the champion. After his contest with Dan Creedon, whom he knocked out in September, 1894, at supposedly 158 pounds, which had come to be the recognized middleweight limit, Fitz went into the heavyweight ranks and everybody claimed the middleweight title. Among these were Jack Bonner, ―Kid"- McCoy, Dan Creedon, 'Kid" Carter and Frank Craig, but like many of the present day claimants for that same titles many of them were nearer the heavyweight than the middleweight division. Craig had defeated all the best middleweights in England and came to this country with an open challenge to any middleweight for a battle. In the meantime, Bonner and Creedon, the two leading claimants on this side of the water got together and Bonner won by a knockout in the first round. He then claimed the middleweight championship of America. Bonner made a statement that he was prepared to defend the title against all comers and I challenged him. I had been fighting as a welterweight, but there were few left in my own division who could give me a battle and I believed that I could defeat any middleweight in the country. Bonner and I were matched to fight twenty rounds at Coney Island on October 24th, 1898, for the title. The articles called for us to make 158 pounds. I weighed about 151 pounds while the Philadelphian was just able to save his forfeit. I found. Jack Bonner to be one of the gamest men who ever opposed me and while I won the battle rather handily the first ten rounds saw some very hard fighting. Bonner was strong and his favourite method of fighting was to rush his opponent at every opportunity and gradually wear him down until he could land a finishing punch. He tried that with me but found that something was wrong with his figuring. There was little doing in the first round but in the second Bonner caught my left glove with his own left and held it while he swung a hard right my jaw. I went down and took the count of nine. On getting up I tore into Bonner and he was glad when the bell signalled the end of the round. I believe that my best blow in the early part of that fight was a short hook to the body that seemed to take the strength out of my opponent. Instead of tiring me he himself became tired from the rushing, for every time he rushed I met him with a hook. Along about the eighth round the short left jabs that I had been landing on Bonner's face 3 broke nose and his left eye was also badly cut I kept up this jabbing and in two more rounds his eye was badly cut and bleeding profusely. The tide of battle was going against the Philadelphian and he realized it. We had been warned to break clean at the order of the referee, but Bonner had to be warned several times to desist from hitting as we broke. Finally he was told that he would be disqualified if he persisted, and this unfair method stopped. From the twelfth round to the end I never had the slightest doubt of the result. In the sixteenth round I had my heavier opponent in serious difficulties and again in the seventeenth he was in trouble. I tried my best to get in a finishing punch., but was unable to land it. In and after the eighteenth round it was simply a case of Bonner's staying powers. He was tired out and was practically helpless, but he continued to cover up and clinch at every opportunity and I was unable to land the knockout punch; In this way Bonner managed to go the twenty rounds with me. I was given the decision and was hailed in the newspapers as the middleweight champion of America. Frank Craig had in the meantime been taking a few minor fights and Matchmaker Brady of the Coney Island club determined to match us for the world's championship. I will have to get a bit ahead of my story here, but will content myself now with stating that I fought the English champion at Coney Island on September 16th, 1890, and knocked him out in the tenth round. In another article I will tell more about this fight. Johnny Gorman was the next to oppose me. He had made a very favorable showing- against other middleweights and though not a wonderful boxer, he was what is known as a "tough" fighter. In his bouts he had taken a lot of punishment to win by one of his hard knockout punches. The bout was to be for twenty rounds and Gorman asked that the weight be set at 157 pounds, though I could easily have made ten pounds less. The bout, took place in Syracuse on Thanksgiving eve, November 23d, 1898. I had turned promoter myself and the bout was staged under the auspices of my club, the Monarch A. C. In Turn Verein hall, which was jammed to the doors. Gorman lived up to his reputation of being able to take punishment. He was slow and I found little difficulty in landing almost at will. He lasted eight rounds, quitting- then and stating that he had been, badly hurt around the ribs and could no longer continue. I was given credit for a knockout. Tommy West had not been satisfied with the result of our first battle and he again challenged me. West Gives Ryan a Tough Battle TOMMY WEST had not been satisfied with our first battle and we were matched by a Louisville club for December 2nd 1898. Perhaps it would be well for me to go back a bit and explain something about how West and I became enemies, for there is no question about the ill feeling which existed between us and which was referred to in the press of that time as "The Tom-Tom feud." When I was making my headquarters in Chicago, West was also a resident of that city and we used to work out In the same gymnasium. Pretty nearly every day we had the gloves on together and had some lively workouts. I never liked to be a loser, even when working out with my sparring partners. West probably had the same feeling and one day each of us got trying for a slight advantage over the other and the first thing we know we were fighting: In 4 real earnest. What the result would have been had not attendants separated us I would not care to say. Bad blood was stirred up over that little incident in the gymnasium. We never worked out together after that and West soon changed his training quarters to another gymnasium. We both advanced in the fistic world and like myself west went east and was soon was soon making a reputation for himself among the welterweights and the climax of his career was a victory over Joe Walcott. West then challenged me and we fought In New York. I won in the fourteenth round, as I have already described In a previous article. I expected no more difficulty in my second bout than I had in my first contest with him, but I got the surprise of my life when I met him in that Louisville ring. West went at me like a bearcat In the very first round and before I realized that the fight had fairly started I was on the floor. I got up groggy and he was at me again. For eight rounds, West gave me a terrible pummelling and I took as much punishment as I ever did in any battle I had in my career. My face was badly cut up by his gloves, for he had become an adept at all the little tricks that got to mark up an opponent.