Heavyweight Boxing

Jake Kilrain vs John L. Sullivan

A fight that actually happened — and everything both records say about it.

Meetings on record

Jake Kilrain and John L. Sullivan met once (1889). John L. Sullivan won in 1889 by ko.

SOURCE·Jake Kilrain and John L. Sullivan — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·both records name the other·REVIEWED AUG 2026

How this head-to-head is established

This pairing exists only because at least one of the two articles' own results tables names the other fighter. No matchup on this site is speculative and none is a hypothetical.
Every figure in the comparison below comes from that fighter's own page and carries the same source line. A dash means the source states nothing, not that the value is zero.
Common opponents are found by matching linked bout lists, which is only possible because every fight list here is linked to every other. A shared opponent is not a transitive result and this page does not treat it as one.
Nothing on this page predicts an outcome. It is a comparison of what is on record.

A comparison of what is on record. Nothing here predicts a result.

Both fought these 4. This is the comparison the siloed databases cannot make, because it needs every fight list linked to every other.

The same ledger line on each: wins stamped above the rule, losses below, the mark's shape carrying how it ended.

WON ABOVE·LOST BELOW BAR = STOPPAGE·BROKEN BAR = SUBMISSION·TICK = DECISION 1879–1899 · 2 UNDATED

winlossdraw / NC1879–1899

WON ABOVE·LOST BELOW BAR = STOPPAGE·BROKEN BAR = SUBMISSION·TICK = DECISION 1879–1892

winlossdraw / NC1879–1892

Cross-references

The full ledger: 51 bouts, the reach placed in its cohort, and what the record does not say.

The same, from the other corner — 50 bouts and the cohort Sullivan is ranked inside.

The other 899 pairings whose own records confirm the fight happened — not a list of fights anyone imagined.