July 17, 1918 BoxingHistory Heavyweight
Jack Dempsey KO 1 Fred Fulton, Harrison, NJ.
Dempsey flattens the 6’ 3” Fulton in 23 seconds.
When chronicling Dempsey’s rise to the heavyweight title, “historians” just loved giving the details of his first round KO!
Fulton was a 2 to 1 favorite over Dempsey.…
Fulton’s purse was $12,500 and Dempsey’s was $5,000.
New York Times, July 28, 1918:
“Jack Dempsey of California punched his way to pugilistic fame at the Federal League Baseball Park, in Harrison, yesterday afternoon, when he knocked out Fred Fulton of Minnesota, claimant for the heavyweight title, with a terrific right swing to the jaw when the fight was but twenty-three seconds old. The finish came as a sensational surprise to the crowd, for it really was a one-punch fight.”
Washington Post, July 28, 1918:
“It took Jack Dempsey, until a few months ago an unheard of boxer, only 23 seconds this evening to take his place at the top of the pugilistic ladder as the man most likely to gain the heavyweight championship of the world. He achieved this by knocking out Fred Fulton in the first round of their scheduled eight-round battle here with a right to the jaw. Fulton, looked on as the most formidable rival of Jess Willard, was relegated to the pugilistic scrapheap by the punch.”
Nat Fleischer, Jack Dempsey: the Idol of Fistiana, 1929:
“It was at the old Federal League Ball Park of Harrison, N.J., that 10,000 spectators saw Dempsey land the haymaker on the man who was being primed by Tex Rickard for a shot at Jess Willard. They saw the Minnesota plasterer knocked out in eighteen and three-fifths seconds. A left hook to the stomach, followed by a right to the jaw, sent Fulton careening through the ropes on his hands and knees. He was knocked out clean as could be, and after Johnny Eckhardt, the referee, had finished the count of ten, he still was lying sprawled out on the canvas. Fulton never landed a punch on Dempsey, and it was really the first blow that Dempsey sent across that told the tale.”
