After more than seven hours in the ring, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke could no longer lift an arm.
The stands at the Olympic Club in New Orleans thinned as the fight stretched to 110 rounds, each 3 minutes long with one-minute breaks in between. Midway through, Burke had broken both of his hands and relied on head movement, footwork and angles to avoid Bowen’s punches.
By the 108th round, referee John Duffy announced the fight would be stopped if no clear winner emerged in the next two rounds. When those rounds passed, Bowen and Burke were too dazed to leave their corners.
“Gentlemen, this fight is off,” Duffy said. “I declare it no contest.”
The match in April 1893 — promoted as “one of the greatest scientific events of the times” — lasted from 9:15 p.m. to 4:41 a.m. the next day. More than a century later, it remains the longest gloved boxing match on record in the world, according to Guinness World Records, a reminder that Louisiana’s proud history of athletic feats extends beyond football.
Perhaps the New Orleans States-Item, a now-defunct newspaper, captured that legacy best in a 1938 column: “The New Orleans of today holds no more fame than the New Orleans of yesteryear. For it was here that some of the world’s sport celebrities have performed.”
The Olympic Club was a New Orleans establishment that hosted prizefights in the Bywater.
In the decades that followed the match, the Olympic Club in the Bywater continued to host prizefights until it burned down in the late 19th century. New Orleans went on to produce several world champions, including Pete Herman and Tony Canzoneri. More recently, Regis Prograis has claimed two world titles, and Tiffany Junot became the city’s first women’s world boxing champion.
Bowen, known as the “Louisiana Tornado,” remained one of the region’s top fighters after his bout with Burke. A month later, he defeated Jack Everhardt in an 85-round match. The following year, Bowen died at 27 after being knocked unconscious by Kid Lavigne at the Olympic Club. Reports later linked his death to injuries sustained during the marathon fight.
The bout came decades before the condition now known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, was identified — first described as “punch-drunk syndrome” in a 1928 study of boxers. Linked to repeated blows to the head, the disease did not enter the national consciousness until the early 2000s.
Today, the World Boxing Council limits professional fights to 12 rounds. But in 1883, there was no such restriction.
Bowen and Burke pushed the limits of human endurance, becoming a catalyst for modern safety regulations while leaving behind a fight that defined grit — and helped put New Orleans on the map in boxing history.
‘A good battle may be expected’
In January 1983, the Olympic Club president sent a telegram to Burke, a Texas lightweight champion, inviting him to fight Bowen at 133 pounds, according to Times-Picayune reports. The winner would receive $2,000, while the losing fighter would be paid $500.
Burke accepted within a day.
He arrived in Bay St. Louis for training in February and frequently spoke with reporters during his preparation, predicting a quick victory over Bowen. Reports tended to favor Burke, noting his advantages in height and reach.
Bowen’s preparation, however, received far less coverage in New Orleans newspapers. In March, it was reported that he traveled to Mississippi City — an unincorporated community in Harrison County — to begin training. He also trained in Covington, while Burke moved between gyms in Bay St. Louis and Uptown New Orleans.
Three days before the fight, a report from the States-Item described both fighters as being in “tip top condition.”
“Both men are clever and scientific,” the report said, “and a good battle may be expected.”
A firsthand account of the bout
Local newspapers offered only limited coverage of the fight itself. Firsthand accounts did not surface until 1918, more than two decades after Bowen’s fatal bout and three years after Burke had died of heart trouble at 44.
One spectator wrote in the States-Item that the no-contest decision was widely unpopular among the audience, who thought Bowen should have been declared the winner after Burke had attempted to agree to a draw at the 41st round.
Both Bowen and Duffy refused.
“Have no fear, gentlemen,” Duffy said, “This fight will be to finish no matter how long it takes.”
The spectator downplayed the violence, describing the fight as “by no means a brutal one” and adding that “there was not a speck of blood visible on either contestant.” In the final rounds, he wrote, hardly a punch was thrown until the last two, when Burke sprinted across the ring and Bowen was “fighting all he knew how.”
After 7 hours and 19 minutes, the fighters agreed to a draw and split the $2,500 purse. Burke later told reporters why he persisted despite his broken hands.
It was loyalty to his friends who had bet on him, he said, that kept him standing, long after he knew he could not win.
This story is part of a new series focused on New Orleans history as Poet Wolfe dives into The Times-Picayune archives. Email ideas for interesting history stories to [email protected]
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
