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Jack Sharkey

Sharkey in 1925
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Boston Gob, Sharkboy
Nationality	American
Born	Joseph Paul Zukauskas (1902-10-26)October 26, 1902 Binghamton, New York, U.S.
Died	August 17, 1994(1994-08-17) (aged 91) Beverly, Massachusetts, U.S.
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	Heavyweight
Boxing career
Reach	72 in (183 cm)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	55
Wins	38
Win by KO	13
Losses	14
Draws	3

Jack Sharkey (bornJoseph Paul Zukauskas,Lithuanian:Juozas Povilas Žukauskas, October 26, 1902 – August 17, 1994) was a Lithuanian-American boxer who held the NYSAC,NBA, andThe Ring heavyweight titles from 1932 to 1933.

He took his ring name from his two idols, heavyweight contenderTom Sharkey and heavyweight championJack Dempsey, to gain acceptance in the Irish-dominated boxing world of Boston.^[1] He won an important fight in 1926 over black heavyweight contenderHarry Wills, but his first big year was 1927, when he defeated former light heavyweight champMike 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 championGene 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 contenderTom Heeney to a draw and defeated former light-heavyweight championJack Delaney. Early in 1929, he signed in aTex Rickard promotion to fightYoung Stribling in Miami, Sharkey and all involved suffered a scare when Rickard died unexpectedly. All preparations ceased as Rickard was laid to rest in New York. Unhappy with the uncertainty of it all, Jack complained to sportswriterDan Parker, "That man isn't in his grave yet, and already they're trying to break my contract."^[2] In factBill Carey, president ofMadison Square Garden saved the day by appointingJack Dempsey himself to the task. Dempsey, a close personal friend of Rickard, had never handled a promotion before, but did so now with what might be called "large and largesse". Between leasing theCarl Fisher mansion on Miami Beach as well as theGeorge Washington Hotel, the latter of which was equipped for the press with a 24-hour bar, the Sharkey-Stribling fight at the oldFlamingo Park drew 40,000 fans, including 423 writers, and did $405,000 at the box office, an amount unsurpassed in the South until television receipts for Clay vs. Liston in 1964 managed a richer gate.^[3]

A fight held inYankee Stadium later that year gave Sharkey the United States heavyweight title when he knocked out former light heavyweight championTommy Loughran. This victory earned him the opportunity to fight for the vacant world title against the German contenderMax Schmeling on June 12, 1930. Sharkey was disqualified in the fourth round after delivering a punch that landed below Schmeling's belt. This was the first time in boxing history that the heavyweight championship was won on a foul since Joe Goss in 1876.

In October 1931, Sharkey defeated Italian heavyweight,Primo Carnera and was then given another chance to fight for the title. On June 21, 1932, at theMadison Square Garden Bowl inLong Island City, New York, Sharkey defeated Schmeling in a controversial split decision to win the championship. Sharkey lost the title on June 29, 1933, in his second fight withPrimo Carnera. This meant that Sharkey was the first heavyweight champion in history to both win and lose the championship against a European fighter.Floyd Patterson repeated this feat whenregaining the title againstIngemar Johansson, having lost it to the Swede in theirfirst fight.Oliver McCall then became the third such heavyweight champion whenhe beatLennox Lewis for theWBC title in 1994 beforelosing it to Lewis's countrymanFrank Bruno the following year. In recent years, with the proliferation of European-born world heavyweight champions, fighters such asChris Byrd andHasim Rahman have also won and lost their championships against European opposition. Sharkey's distinction is noteworthy, however, as Schmeling and Carnera were, respectively, only the third and fourth Europeans to win the world heavyweight championship.

Later in life, Sharkey would allege that his second fights with both Schmeling and Carnera were fixed.^{[citation needed]} He took a year off, fought four mediocre fights, and then foughtJoe Louis on August 18, 1936, losing by knockout in the third round. This made him the only man to fight both Dempsey and Louis.

Sharkey then retired with a record of 38-14-3 with 13 knockouts. As the Cyber Boxing Zone website describes him, "Sharkey had good skills, could hit with power, box well and take punishment when he set his mind to fight; But, he was an erratic, 'up-and-down' boxer who never seemed to put all his skills together consistently; when he was good, he was very good but when he was bad, he was awful."^[4]

Ex-world heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey refereed the world light heavyweight title defense byArchie Moore againstYvon Durelle on December 10, 1958, at The Forum, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, one of boxing's first championship televised bouts. Moore came off the canvas three times in the first round, and again in the fifth round, to knock out Durelle in the eleventh round. Sharkey also refereed the rematch at The Forum, in which Moore knocked down Durelle four times in the third round before knocking him out on August 12, 1959.^[5][6] Both bouts were world televised in black and white from Canada, with commentary and post-fight interviews.

All information in this section is derived fromBoxRec, unless otherwise stated.

Allnewspaper decisions are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.

Record with the inclusion ofnewspaper decisions in the win/loss/draw column.

• NYSACheavyweight champion (200+ lbs)
• NBA (WBA) heavyweight champion (200+ lbs)

• The Ring heavyweight champion (200+ lbs)

• American (ABA) heavyweight champion (200+ lbs)

• Undisputed heavyweight champion

• List of heavyweight boxing champions

• Boxing record for Jack Sharkey fromBoxRec(registration required)
• Jack Sharkey vs Max Schmeling 12/06/1930 – footage onYouTube
• Boxing Hall of Fame
• Fighty City Biography -- Jack Sharkey
• Massachusetts Memento Mori: Jack Sharkey and Ernie Schaaf

• 1902 births
• 1994 deaths
• American male boxers
• American people of Lithuanian descent
• Boxers from Boston
• Boxers from New York (state)
• Heavyweight boxers
• International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
• World Boxing Association champions
• World heavyweight boxing champions

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from October 2015
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles containing Lithuanian-language text
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• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2017
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