FEATURED ARTICLE
HOLLY HUMPHREY
Boxing’s Return to San Francisco
INSIDE ICONIC / BOXING’S RETURN TO SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco’s layered boxing history has seen a total of 120 championships across several decades. The origins of San Francisco’s fight culture can be traced back to the 1850s, at the time of the 1849 Gold Rush. During this period the Barbary Coast experienced an influx of miners and sailors, all seeking to reap the benefits of the Gold Rush. Amid this surge in migration, violence became an unregulated form of entertainment. Subsequently, bare-knuckle fighting began to surge in backalleys and organised underground competitions. It is said that America’s first nationally recognised heavyweight champion, Tom Hyer, appeared on the coast in the 1850s, suggesting San Francisco’s significance as an early site of pugilistic celebrity and contest. As bare-knuckle fighting increased in popularity, laws began to lax and by the 1860s, San Francisco sought to codify prizefighting. The legal ambiguity of prizefighting created a paradoxical atmosphere in which the sport was both condemned and consumed. Where police frequently attempted to suppress fights, popular sentiment meant they continued to rise in force, with local papers beginning to report on the outcome of such bouts.
1867 marked a pivotal turning point in boxing’s history, following the implementation of the Marquess of Queensberry rules, which formalised gloves, timed rounds and a ring. The legitimacy of the sport began to earn recognition in the public eye. The establishment of the Californian Athletic Club in 1884 signalled boxing’s gradual move into mainstream urban culture and by 1889, weekly fights would attract locals from the San Francisco area. This period saw the rise of San Francisco born fighter Joe Choynski, who became prominent by the late 1880s and embodied the brutal nature of the sport and the city’s rough-hewn spirit.
However, in 1903, the Walker-Otis Law was passed prohibiting prizefighting in order to crack down on the associated gambling and violence. Numerous clubs and boxing officials began to fall into a grey area of boxing, and boxing, once again, returned to back alleys and underground, navigating a space where legality and public fascination were at odds. Yet, renowned local fighters such as “Gentleman” Jim Corbett, Fred Apostoli and Abe Attell rose to prominence within San Francisco, despite the ban.
In 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake and ensuing fires devastated the majority of the city, including the California Athletic Club. It was here that San Francisco seemingly rose from the ashes, claiming boxing as both entertainment and civic balm. Organised bouts occurred that same year in the name of rebuilding, aiming to boost morale and raise money within the city. This pivotal moment led to the golden age of boxing within San Francisco, commencing in the 1920s and continuing into the 1950s. Notable locations such as the Dreamland Rink, which later became the Civic Auditorium, was built in 1915. Closely followed by the Kezar Pavillion in 1924. The first circular ring in the United States was constructed in a San Francisco shipyard in 1944, a physical emblem of the city’s boxing innovation. By the mid-century, the Civic Auditorium welcomed global icons like Sugar Ray Robinson, whose 1955 bout marked a cultural high point in the city’s sporting calendar.
Yet, by the 1960s, the narrative shifted. Social upheaval, anti-war movements and urban shifts led to a decline in boxing’s centrality to San Francisco’s cultural life. When a local promoter, Don Chargin, moved to Los Angeles in 1965, he took with him much of the city’s professional boxing momentum. What remained was a grassroots scene, held aloft by immigrant communities and amateur boxing clubs throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
The early 2000s somewhat rebirthed the momentum behind boxing in San Francisco, with Peter Howes at Howes Entertainment orchestrating numerous professional bouts within San Francisco showcasing the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Tony “the Tiger” Lopez. Yet the Bay Area never fully returned to its original founding glory. It is precisely in this context that iVisit Boxing presents the ICONIC Series, embodying a systematic reclamation of boxing’s urban heritage. The decision to return boxing to San Francisco is deliberate, it signals a restoration of boxing, providing a blueprint for how sports can be both entertainment and urban renewal.
References:
https://www.howesentertainment.com
https://sfchronicle.newsbank.com