Yankee Sullivan
American boxer
Yankee Sullivan (born James Ambrose; c. 10 March 1811 – 31 May 1856), also known as Frank Murray and James Sullivan, was a bare-knuckle fighter and boxer. He claimed the American bare knuckle heavyweight champion from 1851 to 12 October 1853. When Tom Hyer vacated his title, he laid claim to it, though many modern boxing historians dispute his claim. He lost any claim to the title after losing a fight to John Morrissey.
Early life
James Ambrose was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, in 1811, but grew up in London's East End, becoming a prizefighter at an early age. After being sentenced to twenty years jail, he was sent to a penal colony in Australia to serve his time. After serving eight years building roads, he was granted a ticket of leave and settled in The Rocks, Sydney, Australia, then considered the most dangerous waterfront in the world.
On 2 February 1841, Sullivan defeated Hammer Lane in Crookham Common for the Middleweight Championship of England in a nineteen round bout, taking 34 minutes. After first arriving in America, Sullivan fought Vincent Hammond on 2 September 1841 at League Island near Philadelphia, winning in eight short rounds which took a total of only ten minutes. Many Irish communities began to take note of their new champion.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8048783. VIAF identifies the subject as 22102342. The Library of Congress control number is nr2006008842. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1856, 1851 and 1853.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yankee Sullivan” 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.