Urbanization
and Industrialization lead to the growth of boxing from 1880 to 1915. Boxing
became a big part of pop culture, brought in money and jobs to the cities, and
brought people together for a common cause. From the origins of boxing as
bare-knuckle brawling to even the large spectacle of western-style
fighting that was seen with the likes of Cassius Clay, George Foreman, and Joe
Frazier, none of it would be possible without urbanization.
Unfortunately, urbanization also lead to
the decline of boxing as a sport, and became more like entertainment. It lead
to boxing promoters not wanting to make a fight between the two most deserving
candidates. In a newspaper found on Chronicling
America by the NYTribune, they had a headliner article dedicated to how
boxing was not the same as it used to be, and that it was now only about
money(something that is regarded as fact today with modern day boxing). The
article goes on to talk about how a couple of late boxing promoters would be
incredibly disappointed with how boxing turned out, as they should be.
Corruption became a part of boxing as promoters wanted to make sure that their
big draws basically remained big draws, so they “pushed” fighters to have an
off night or not perform as well as they should do the promoter could ensure
the money kept flowing in. (PBS unforgivable Blackness) (BBC boxing history)
However while boxing may have been slowly dying as
a sport, it had only just started to take off as a more entertaining brand, now
every boxer had agents upon agents negotiating the best deals with the boxing
promoters and only getting marquee match ups. This in my opinion is one of the
main contributors to boxing’s growth. Boxing began to take off as a spectator’s
sport and gambling also became a big part centered around boxing. Boxing also
affected urbanization because due to this gambling boxing began to typically
set up shop in Reno, Nevada which would lead to Las Vegas becoming as big as it
is today. With boxing and sports related to boxing such as MMA having entire
arenas dedicated to their sport. (Chronicling America by the NYTribune) (
Boxing was evolved due to
urbanization enough, that it helped bring people together for one cause. The
unjust murder of Stanley “The Michigan Assassin” Ketchel took up entire sports
sections of newspapers. For example, four separate articles were written about
him after his death in this newspaper Chronicling America the vinita daily chieftan Ketchel was an all-time great middleweight
boxer that wasn’t even that popular for a boxer as he didn’t fight in the
renowned heavyweight division, but this just goes to show how big boxing was in
the early 1900’s. Cities all over the
United States were saddened by the loss of one of the premier athletes at that
time.
While boxing could bring
people together, this was not always a good thing. Boxing’s first “superfight”
between heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and the challenger Jim Jeffries. Jack
Johnson had just become the first African-American champion and let’s just say
White America was not happy. Now Jeffries wasn’t a fan favorite because he was
fighting in his hometown or because he had a charismatic personality, but
largely because the fans thought he represented White America.(PBS) Jeffries had
been retired for 6 years but due to the color of his skin, was announced the
favorite with many casual fans expecting him to take the belt. When the fight
began, the talent level became obvious with many eye witness accounts claiming
Johnson was just toying with Jeffries until he decided to knock him out in the
13th round.(Great White Hope; Not great, no Hope NY Times)
While, Johnson may have been a pioneer for blacks across
the country, the events that followed the fights were disastrous. As news flew
across the USA due to industrialization, white citizens were angered by this
starting race riots all over the USA. At least ten blacks died in New York with
many being savagely beaten according to Upi.com
I would say that yes, boxing had some
effect on urbanization and industrialization. But, overall boxing just leeched
from the potential revenue that boxing brought with having all these people in
one place.
Sources used:
Chronicling America/The Kendrick gazette
Source used to see how the Johnson vs Jeffries fight was reported around the country.
Upi.com race riots
This source was used to see the effect of boxing on urbanization and the fallout from Johnson vs Jeffries
This was used to get an overall history on boxing from 1880-1915
This was used to get a backstory on Johnson vs Jeffries and to see how the fight itself went
I used this source to see how urbanization affected and changed boxing, by making boxing less honorable as a sport and changed to where its main goal was to entertain the fans.
Stanley Ketchel ESPN
I used this to see how Stanley Ketchel affected communities and saddened people around the United States and Stanley's legacy.
PBS unforgivable Blackness
I used this source to see how black fighters were affected by the influx of money due to urbanization
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