The Fitzsimmons vs Sharkey Heavyweight Championship boxing match between Bob Fitzsimmons and Tom Sharkey was awarded by referee Wyatt Earp to Sharkey after Fitzsimmons knocked Sharkey to the mat. Earp ruled that Fitzsimmons had hit Sharkey below the belt, but very few witnessed the purported foul. The fans at the December 2, 1896, fight in San Francisco booed Earp's decision. It was the first heavyweight championship fight since James J. Corbett, the prior champion, had retired from boxing the year before. The fight may have been the most anticipated fight in the US that year.
The match was illegal under city law, but civic and police officials who attended the match along with the public bet heavily in Fitzsimmons' favor. Virtually no one agreed with Earp's ruling and Fitzsimmons' managers went to court to prevent Sharkey from obtaining the purse. The judge ruled that since the match was illegal the court had no standing, allowing Sharkey to claim the prize. After Corbett ended his retirement the next year he was the de facto champion, but he fought Fitzsimmons and lost.
Earp was pilloried for his decision by the public and popular press, who vilified him and accused him of accepting a payoff to throw the match. The story about the fight and Earp's contested decision was reprinted nationwide. Earp left San Francisco soon after and when he died in 1929, he was perhaps more well known for his decision in the title fight than his actions at the O.K. Corral gun fight. In 1905, Dr. B. Brookes Lee confirmed the fight had been fixed and confessed he had treated Sharkey so it would appear that he had been fouled, although it is unclear whether Earp had prior knowledge of the scam.
Background
In 1896, James J. Corbett, the first heavyweight champion crowned under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules, hadn't defended his title in three years. In November 1895, Corbett gave up the championship to play the role of Ned Cornell, a boxer, in the play A Naval Cadet. He lived in San Francisco and promoted his protege, Australian Steve O'Donnell, as the next candidate for the heavyweight title, but he had been knocked out within the first minute by Peter Maher, who in turn was knocked out in the first round by Bob Fitzsimmons.
At the time of the fight, Sharkey was unbeaten in 24 trips to the ring with 20 knockouts. He had already fought Corbett on June 24, 1896, in San Francisco, but the match was ruled a draw after four rounds due to police interference.
Promoter Jim Coffroth promoted the match between Fitzsimmons and Sharkey as the World Heavyweight Championship. Although boxing was illegal, the fight between Fitzsimmons and Sharkey was very popular, and the title fight was attended by city and police officials who bet on the outcome like everyone else. Nationwide, the public believed Fitzsimmons would win. In the days prior to the fight, Fitzsimmons was favored 3/1, until a late surge of betting on Sharkey dropped the odds to 3/2. Suffragettes protested that the fight was restricted to men and successfully got the ban on women removed.
Wyatt Earp selected as referee
During the previous summer the San Francisco Examiner had run on three consecutive Sundays a ghostwritten series of articles under Earp's byline, written in the first-person, posturing Earp as virtually the sole reason law and order had come to the Old West. The Hearst family, owners of the Examiner, had hired Earp to provide security to their family and specifically for Andy Lawrence, the managing editor of the newspaper, during a visit to Tombstone. Lawrence had acquired the nickname of "Long Green" because of his ability to turn a shady dollar and made many enemies as a result, requiring Earp's services. Earp had refereed 30 or so matches in earlier days, though not under the Marquess of Queensberry rules, and he had never refereed a match of national prominence.
Fight promoters John D. Gibbs and J. J. Groom of the National Athletic Club were unable to find a referee that both sides could agree on. Fitzsimmon's manager, knowing that his boxer was heavily favored to win, rejected all of the names, thinking that the fight had been fixed in Sharkey's favor.
Gibbs told the San Francisco Call that he spotted Wyatt Earp in the Baldwin Hotel in San Francisco. "I knew that Wyatt Earp was a cool, clear-headed person of unimpeachable reputation, and one who would be perfectly fair to both fighters." He called Earp "the bravest fighter, squarest gambler, best friend and worst enemy ever known on the frontier." Even then, the Fitzsimmons side fought against the choice until the very last minute. The San Francisco Call told a different version of the story, that Lawrence, managing editor of the competing newspaper The Examiner, had suggested Earp to Gibbs. In a personal visit to the offices of The Call, Groom and Gibbs delivered a letter in which they denied that Lawrence played a role in choosing Earp. They stated that they had only met Earp once, when he visited Fitszimmons' training quarters about 10 days before the match. When both Sharkey's and Fitszimmons' managers would not agree on a referee, they chose Earp on the day of the fight because he was "reported to be fearless, cool and honest." They declared that they had sought Earp out in the Baldwin Hotel that afternoon and made the arrangements at that time.
The Fitzsimmons camp strongly resisted Earp as referee, but with no alternative, finally yielded, knowing that 15,000 people had paid between $2 and $10 for tickets.
In the afternoon, the Oakland Tribune ran a front-page story praising Earp as the choice for referee. "Wyatt Earp is one of the bravest and best known sporting men in the country. He has had a varied experience since he retired from office in Arizona and is now in the horse racing business. He is the owner of Don Gara, the horse that started at 100 to 1 and won at the Oakland track the other day."
Fight controversy
Earp had learned gambling and boxing when he was a young man in the towns that were built in advance of the Union Pacific Railroad. He developed a reputation officiating boxing matches and refereed a fight between John Shanssey and Mike Donovan on July 4, 1869, in Cheyenne, Wyoming in front of about 3000 people.
But he had until this time refereed fights under the older London Prize Ring Rules, which allowed bare-knuckled brawling and a broad range of fighting techniques including holds and throws of the opponent. The new Marquess of Queensberry Rules were designed to eliminate some of the underhanded elements of boxing matches.
Earp was a controversial choice, and he gained instant notoriety before the fight started when he entered the ring carrying his customary .45 caliber pistol in his coat pocket. Police Captain Charles Whitman, watching the match from ringside, climbed into the ring and demanded Earp hand over his pistol, which Earp promptly gave up.
Fitzsimmons was taller and quicker than Sharkey and dominated the fight from the opening bell. In the eighth, the two were punching at such close quarters that virtually no one witnessed the hits the two men exchanged clearly. What was obvious to everyone watching was that Fitzsimmons hit Sharkey with his famous "solar plexus punch," an uppercut that struck under the opponent's heart and could temporarily leave the opponent helpless. Different sources describe the alleged foul. In the much-criticized and disputed biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, Stuart N. Lake wrote that Sharkey "stumbled forward instead of back. Fitzsimmons' right, coming up, struck Sharkey in the groin." Sharkey later testified Fitzsimmons hit him below the belt. Sharkey went down, clutched his groin, and rolled on the canvas, screaming foul.
Earp stops fight
Earp stopped the bout, and after conferring with both corners for more than 30 seconds, ruled that Fitzsimmons had hit Sharkey below the belt, a violation of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. His decision disqualified Fitzsimmons and Earp handed the check for the prize money to Sharkey's second. College student and future novelist William MacLeod Raine happened to be in San Francisco. Until he saw Earp in the ring, he'd never heard of him. Raine later reported,
Another report said Earp left without raising the hand of the winning boxer. The crowd noise was so loud that most didn't hear Earp render his decision giving the fight to the downed Sharkey. Many only figured out something was wrong when Earp slipped between the ropes and headed for the exit.
His ruling was greeted with loud boos and catcalls. San Francisco Examiner reporter Edward H. Hamilton wrote "The information became general by a slow trickling process, and tier to tier so that by the time the full significance of the situation had reached the throng, Earp was gone."
Very few thought that the punch Earp called was a foul. Sharkey's attendants carried him out as "limp as a rag". The public loudly protested the decision and it was widely believed that there had been no foul and Earp had bet on Sharkey. The public had bet heavily on Fitzsimmons and they were livid at the outcome.
Fitzsimmons gets injunction
"Sailor" Tom Sharkey's manager D. J. Lynch went to the Anglo California National Bank the day after the fight and attempted to cash the certified check for the purse of $14,700 (about $ today). But Fitzsimmons had obtained an injunction against distributing the prize money to Sharkey until the courts could determine who the rightful winner was. Bank manager Philip Lilienthal told Lynch that the bank's attorney had advised him he could not pay the check until the issue was resolved in court.
Bets are paid off
Despite the accusations of a fix, the bookmakers paid off bets on the fight based on Earp's decision as final.
The Call cries foul
The two main newspapers in town were on opposite sides of the debate. The Examiner supported Earp, but the San Francisco Call unrelentingly attacked Earp's character, both directly and indirectly. They devoted almost all of their front page on December 5 to the fight. They reported that Danny Needham, Sharkey's trainer, had sent telegrams to a number of friends in San Francisco and other cities, saying: "Bet all you have got on Sharkey to win." They accused Lawrence of The Examiner as having been in on the fix.
The Call mocked Earp, describing how Earp had gone into the ring "...with a Navy revolver a foot long sticking out of his hip pocket," and that Police Captain Wittman "...took a murderous-looking revolver from him in the prize ring in Mechanics' Pavilion." They described Earp as a gunslinger: "His past mode of making a livelihood by the use of his 'gun' has been told. He has been a man who has shot down people innumerable, wiped the smoke from off the barrel of his shotgun and cut another notch in the butt, and said 'What a great man am I.'"
Judgments against Earp
On December 4, 1896, Earp appeared in court to face a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. He explained that he always wore a gun as a precaution in the event he met someone he had sent to prison, and because he was carrying a large amount of cash. He later paid a $50 fine. On December 8, a sheriff deputy put a lien on two horses Earp owned for $170.45 for a debt allegedly owed to J. G. Swinnerton of Stockton. Another lawsuit was filed on December 9 by J. H. Levenson of Tombstone, who claimed Earp owed two notes totaling $1110.79, 19 years after leaving Arizona.
The San Francisco district attorney threatened to convene a grand jury. A panel appointed by mayor Washington Bartlett learned that the racehorses Earp was reputed to own were leased, and that he owed $2,121 (about $ today) to a loan company. They also received information that his wife Josephine Earp was a "degenerate horseplayer" and that she frequently took loans out against her jewelry. When asked in court if he had any property, Earp replied, "Nothing, except the clothes on my back."