Boxing has a long history in the Borderland.
On Saturday, May 30, El Paso’s Stephanie Han will defend her WBA lightweight title vs. Holly Holm on an ESPN televised card at the El Paso County Coliseum.
With that, reporter Felix Chavez looked at some of the top boxing matches in El Paso history. His list includes 14 fights and some honorable mentions. Here is a sample:
This list of bouts prompted me to dig in the archive and I came up with two fights to share.
The first, Fitzsimmons vs. Maher. This story involved both the presidents of the United States and Mexico, the Texas governor, a New Mexico law, the Texas Rangers, Judge Roy Bean and a 16-hour train ride to an unknown destination:
Fitzsimmons vs. Maher
In 1895, Dallas sports promoter Dan Stuart announced a heavyweight championship bout between Robert Fitzsimmons and James Corbett and scheduled it for Oct. 31, 1895, in Dallas.
Stuart faced opposition from Texas Gov. Charles Culberson, among others. Culberson called a special session of the Legislature, and on Oct. 3, 1895, Culberson signed a bill making prizefighting in Texas a felony.
Stuart decided to take the fight to Indian Territory, but the commissioner of the Indian office didn’t take kindly to that plan either.
Stuart then launched a failed attempt to move the fight to Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Meanwhile, a group of El Pasoans were working to stage the fight in Juárez. They raised $10,000 toward the purse and sent saloonkeeper J.J. Taylor to Dallas to persuade Stuart to bring the fight to the border.
On Oct. 16, 1895, the Times reported that the Mexican consul in Laredo, Texas — Sameda Diaz — said the Mexican capital didn’t want the fight to occur on Mexican soil either.
Before the fight could be scheduled, Corbett decided to retire, and Stuart turned to Peter Maher to replace him.
Although a site for the fight still hadn’t been confirmed, Fitzsimmons and his entourage arrived in El Paso on Christmas Day, Stuart arrived Jan. 9, 1896, and Maher arrived two days later before heading to his training camp in Las Cruces.
On Feb. 7, President Grover Cleveland signed into law an “anti-fight” bill, introduced by New Mexico congressman Thomas Benton Catron. Mexican President Porfirio Diaz warned that he had sent cavalry to arrest anyone entering Mexico to take part in the fight, and Texas Gov. Culberson sent U.S. marshals to El Paso.
On Feb. 20, 1896, fight fans boarded a train in El Paso not knowing their destination. After a 16-hour train ride, they found themselves in Judge Roy Bean’s town, Langtry, Texas.
Bean arranged for the train to bring the spectators, press and the Texas Rangers to a sandbar on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The Rangers had no authority there, and there were no Mexican lawmen to be found.
After months of trying to arrange the fight, Fitzsimmons took only 95 seconds to claim the $10,000 purse, when he knocked out Maher in the first round.
After the fight, Mexican officials said that “nothing can be done to punish the people concerned … and that President Diaz has taken the ground all along that Mexican law did not cover prize fighting and his endeavor was merely to prevent the fight, out of consideration for the United States.”
Jack Dempsey vs. Marty Farrell … Farmer Lodge … Ray Stevens … and Marty Cutler
The second was actually four fights, on April 18, 1926, Jack Dempsey fought four opponents in an exhibition to open the new Juárez Coliseum. The Times reported:
Opening day attendance at the new Coliseum in Juárez was given as between 7,000 and 8,000, but Juárez Night Chief of Police Albino Frias said 15,000 would be a conservative estimate of the number of visitors in the city.
To open the coliseum, Jack Dempsey took on four opponents in one night.
His first opponent was Marty Farrell, middleweight champion of the Pacific Coast. Dempsey landed a left hook off Farrell’s chin, and the seconds dragged him away.
Farmer Lodge lasted the four rounds.
Ray Stevens went three rounds, during which he was knocked down seven times. His seconds tossed in the towel.
Dempsey finished with Marty Cutler. Two minutes after the bell rang, Dempsey lifted him from the floor and knocked him out through the ropes with a right hook. Cutler got up and ran for the nearest exit, turning back to yell that he was through for the afternoon.
Later Dempsey said in a little curtain speech, “I want to thank all of you because I have never been treated better anywhere than right here in El Paso and Juárez. I have enjoyed every minute of my visit and am anxious to come back.”
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-253-6817.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: From a secret train ride to Dempsey in Juárez, two Borderland boxing matches
Reporting by Trish Long, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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