She's Sure to Be a Knockout

A baby in Britain has been named Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown. It's a tradition in her mother's family to name kids after lots of boxers.

The tradition started with Autumn’s boxing-clever grandparents Brian and Sue – who gave their three children no less than 103 names between them.

Autumn's aunt Becky has 34 names, and says it could have been worse.

“We’re all named after different boxers – my brother is bare-knuckle boxers, Maria is named after Heavyweight and all my names are after British Heavyweight boxers.

“I was a bit worried when Maria first had Autumn because she said she was going to name her after all our names combined.

“Thankfully she toned it down." [Link]

I'd Give My Right Arm to See That

Dan Donnelly of Oakdale, California, says he's descended from an Irish bare-knuckle fighter of the same name. The latter Dan Donnelly went down for his final count in 1820, after which his mighty right arm was removed and put on display.

Preserved using red lead and now mummified, Donnelly's arm has been displayed at a medical college, as a circus exhibit and as an attraction at The Hideout Pub in Kilcullen, Ireland.

Last week, however, it arrived in New York, where it will be on display as part of an Irish Arts Center exhibit titled "Fighting Irishmen: A Celebration of the Celtic Warrior." The exhibit will run from Aug. 28 through Nov. 30. [Link]

You didn't think I'd neglect showing you a picture of the arm, did you?

London Boxer Beats Odds, Survives Own Death

From The London Free Press:

Battling butcher doubly dead

James Reaney, Free Press Arts & Entertainment Reporter
2005-07-31 02:34:05

Battling butcher and boxer Gavin Park must have been one tough hombre.

It took two obituaries -- published three years apart -- to lay the big man from London to rest.

[snip]

London Public Library Ivey Family London Room librarian Arthur McClelland first noticed the two obituaries while researching material for a boxing fan in Britain.

"He died twice, this guy. His obituary appeared in 1910 and 1913 . . . it's a mystery," McClelland smiles.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]