Patrick Killen
American boxer
Pat Killen (December 24, 1861 – October 21, 1891) was an American boxer. He died at 29, in Chicago while hiding from Minnesota authorities.
Early life
Killen was born in Haddington, Pennsylvania. He later moved to Minnesota, where he made his home for the majority of his life and career (notwithstanding the final five months of his life).
Boxing career
Standing 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and weighing around 195 pounds (88 kg), he was large for a heavyweight of his era. This benefited him tremendously, as he was nearly 3 in (7.6 cm) taller than most of his opponents. He was a patient fighter who usually waited for his opponent to make the first move, while setting up his punch. He was known as the best counter-punching heavyweight of his era, but known even more for his devastating one-punch power, winning most often by knockout. Some at the time felt he may have had greater one-punch power than even boxers John L. Sullivan or Peter Maher, but he was less tough or durable, and not as aggressive or tenacious as Sullivan, the reigning champion at that time.
Killen's first fight was against John Howard, whom he managed to knock out in the second round.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patrick Killen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.