Jack Sharkey
American boxer (1902–1994)
Jack Sharkey (born Joseph Paul Zukauskas, Lithuanian: Juozas Povilas Žukauskas, October 26, 1902 – August 17, 1994) was a Lithuanian-American boxer who held the NYSAC, NBA, and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1932 to 1933.
Boxing career
The son of Lithuanian immigrants, Sharkey was born in Binghamton, New York in 1902. He took his ring name from his two idols, heavyweight contender Tom Sharkey and heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, to gain acceptance in the Irish-dominated boxing world of Boston. He won an important fight in 1926 over black heavyweight contender Harry Wills, but his first big year was 1927, when he defeated former light heavyweight champ Mike McTigue in twelve rounds and Boston rival Jim Maloney in five. That put him in the ring on July 21, 1927, with his idol Dempsey, the winner to meet heavyweight champion Gene Tunney for the title. For six rounds Sharkey engaged in fierce infighting with Dempsey who had a slight lead on the scorecards. In the seventh round, Sharkey turned his head to complain to the referee about an alleged low punch and Dempsey landed a classic left hook that knocked Sharkey out.
In 1928, Sharkey fought heavyweight contender Tom Heeney to a draw and defeated former light-heavyweight champion Jack Delaney. Early in 1929, he signed in a Tex Rickard promotion to fight Young Stribling in Miami. However, Sharkey and all involved suffered a scare when Rickard died unexpectedly.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Sharkey” 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.