John Lawrence Sullivan (1858-1918), American boxer, who claimed he could "lick any man on earth," was the last bare-knuckles heavyweight champion.

John L. Sullivan was born in Roxbury, Mass., on Oct. 15, 1858. His father was a pugnacious hod carrier, 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 125 pounds. His mother stood 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. John inherited his father's temperament and his mother's physique. Though his mother wanted John to become a priest, he left school in his middle teens and spent over a year as an apprentice tinsmith. He then joined his father "in the masonry trade," while earning extra money as a talented baseball player. He always insisted he could have been a professional in that sport.

In 1877 Sullivan had his first important boxing encounter at Boston's Dudley Street Opera House. Accepting Tom Scannel's challenge to fight anyone present, Sullivan knocked Scannel off the stage in the first...