John L. Sullivan
74″ reach · +5.74% reach advantage · 75th percentile
42–1–3
John L. Sullivan has a reach of 74″ against a height of 70″ — a reach advantage of +5.74%, long for heavyweight boxing and the 75th percentile of the 317 compared here.
SOURCE·John L. Sullivan — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·derived figures computed here·REVIEWED 2026-07-07
How this record is compiled
- Measurements come from the fighter's English Wikipedia infobox; the bout list is parsed from the results table on the same article, read on 2026-07-07. Boxing tables are read by header name and MMA records by the fixed column order of the
MMA recordtemplate — two different parsers, because reading MMA rows as a boxing table returns a fighter's boxing record in place of their real one. - A bout enters the ledger with whatever fields the source states: result, opponent, method, round, year. Any field the source leaves empty stays empty here. A date that cannot be established is left blank rather than inferred, and the bout is still counted.
- A no contest is counted and printed as a no contest. It is never folded into the wins, the losses or the draws, and it never disappears to make a total balance.
- Where the article's infobox total disagrees with its own results table, both figures are published and each is labelled with where it came from. Nothing is averaged and nothing is reconciled against a second database.
- Percentiles rank this fighter among the 317 heavyweight boxing fighters in the dataset — the most specific group of at least 30 that this fighter belongs to.
reach advantage = (reach − height) ÷ height × 100
Bout record
Every bout the article's own results table lists, in order. A dash is a field the source leaves empty — it is not a zero and it is not a guess.
| Year | Result | Opponent | Method | Rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1892 | L | James J. Corbett | KO/TKO | 21 |
| 1889 | W | Jake Kilrain | KO/TKO | 75 |
| 1888 | D | Charley Mitchell | Decision | 39 |
| 1888 | W | William Samuells | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1887 | D | Patsy Cardiff | Decision | 6 |
| 1886 | W | Paddy Ryan | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1886 | W | Frank Herald | — | 2 |
| 1885 | W | Dominick McCaffrey | Decision | 7 |
| 1885 | W | Jack Burke | Decision | 5 |
| 1885 | ? | Paddy Ryan | — | 1 |
| 1885 | W | Alf Greenfield | — | 4 |
| 1884 | W | John Laflin | KO/TKO | 4 |
| 1884 | W | Enos Phillips | KO/TKO | 4 |
| 1884 | W | William Fleming | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | Dan Henry | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | Al Marx | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | George M Robinson | DQ | 4 |
| 1884 | W | Boiquet | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | James Lang | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | Sylvester Le Gouriff | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1884 | W | Fred Robinson | KO/TKO | 2 |
| 1884 | W | Jeff Tomkins | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1883 | W | Mike Sheehan | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1883 | W | Morris Hefey | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1883 | W | Jim Miles | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1883 | W | James McCoy | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1883 | W | Herbert Slade | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1883 | W | Charley Mitchell | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1883 | W | Harry Gilman | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1882 | W | P J Rentzler | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1882 | W | Charley O'Donnell | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1882 | W | S P Stockton | KO/TKO | 2 |
| 1882 | W | Henry Higgins | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1882 | W | Joe Collins | Decision | 4 |
| 1882 | W | Jimmy Elliott | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1882 | W | John McDermont | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1882 | W | Paddy Ryan | KO/TKO | 9 |
| 1881 | W | Jack Burns | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1881 | W | Captain James Dalton | KO/TKO | 4 |
| 1881 | W | Dan McCarty | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1881 | W | Fred Crossley | KO/TKO | 1 |
| 1881 | W | John Flood | KO/TKO | 8 |
| 1881 | W | Steve Taylor | KO/TKO | 2 |
| 1880 | W | Professor John Donaldson | — | 10 |
| 1879 | W | George Rooke | KO/TKO | 3 |
| 1879 | W | John A. Hogan | Decision | 4 |
| 1879 | W | Tommy Chandler | Decision | 4 |
| 1879 | W | Dan Dwyer | — | 3 |
| 1879 | W | Johnny Cocky Woods | KO/TKO | 5 |
| 1879 | W | Jack Curley | — | — |
8 of these opponents have their own page here.
SOURCE·John L. Sullivan — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·derived figures computed here·REVIEWED 2026-07-07
Reach in context
Reach advantage
+5.74%
74″ reach on a 70″ frame
Compared against 317 heavyweight boxing fighters. Median 3.99%.
| Reach | 74″ (188 cm) | 15th pct |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 70″ (177.8 cm) | 4th pct |
| Stance | Orthodox | |
| Division | Heavyweight Boxing | |
| Most active decade | 1880s — 43 of 50 dated bouts | |
| Country | United States |
Record
Boxing record
42–1
46 bouts on record
Finish rate
76%
of wins ended inside the distance — heavyweight boxing median 68%, 67th percentile
The career, bout by bout
50 recorded bouts from 1879 to 1892. Every incumbent shows this as a table you have to read; here it is as a shape you can see.
Career span
14y
1879–1892
Longest unbeaten run
46
without a loss — draws do not break it
Busiest year
1884
11 bouts
Recorded bouts
50
50 with a date
Closest in build
heavyweight boxing fighters with the nearest reach advantage.
- Archie Moore+5.66% 75″ reach · 75th pct
- Tony Tubbs+5.63% 79″ reach · 74th pct
- Duncan Dokiwari+5.96% 80.5″ reach · 75th pct
- Leotis Martin+5.52% 76″ reach · 73rd pct
- Billy Miske+5.52% 76″ reach · 73rd pct
- Marvis Frazier+5.52% 76″ reach · 73rd pct
- John Conteh MBE+5.52% 76″ reach · 73rd pct
- Gene Tunney+5.52% 76″ reach · 73rd pct
What this record does and does not say
- What is John L. Sullivan's record?
- 42–1–3 in boxing. That is the aggregate stated in the English Wikipedia infobox; the results table on the same article lists 50 bouts individually.
- Does a no contest change a record here?
- No. A no contest is not a win, a loss or a draw, and it is never folded into one. It is counted and printed separately, so a 20–0 record with two no contests is shown as exactly that rather than as 22–0 or as 20–0 with the no contests dropped. The same applies to a bout overturned after the fact where the source records the change.
- What happens when sources disagree about a fight?
- This site publishes one source — the fighter's English Wikipedia article, read on the date printed under every table — and it does not silently reconcile that against anyone else's database. Where the article's own infobox total and its own results table disagree, both are shown and the page says which one each figure came from. Nothing is averaged, and no field is filled in from a second source to make a total balance.
Where this record leads
The 605 heavyweight boxing fighters this record is ranked against, and the distribution Sullivan sits inside.
605 FIGHTERS Denny Moyer vs John L. SullivanA bout both records confirm — set out side by side, with every opponent the two men have in common.
1973 Longest unbeaten runsJohn L. Sullivan went 46 without a loss. This is where that sits against every run on the site.
LEADERBOARD