Legendary boxing matches – Legendary boxers: The longest match of all time

There are matches, which are never to be forgotten, and there are boxing icons, who are going to stay with us for eternity.

Back in time, at the end of the 19th century boxing matches were much different like nowadays. The fights did not stop at the end of the 8/10/12th round therefore a boxing match could become extremely long.

The longest fight took place in New Orleans, USA, and it took 110!!! rounds, ended with a draw (originally with no contest, later changed to draw). The two real warriors, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke fought for the Southern States lightweight champion title in 1893. Fun fact, Andy’s opponent originally was one of Jack’s students, but at the last moment, he withdrew from the fight, so Jack became the replacement.

Both fighters were in their twenties, they had extremely good stamina, they were well trained, which were all qualities needed to reach a world record long fight. The match started at 9.00 p.m. and the final round ended at 4:19 a.m., by then only one judge remained in his seat, and most of the audience went home as well.

During the 7 hours 19 minutes battle both boxers lost around 5 kg of their weight and suffered severe injuries. Jack broke both his arms, Andy received a serious concussion and when the fight was over, both could not get out of their corners.