Boxing was long viewed sickly. Generally forbidden by law in earlier days, the fighting was usually done with bare fists, and matches often lasted forty or fifty rounds.
In 1882 John L. Sullivan, a fighter of great power, won the world heavyweight championship from Paddy Ryan in a bare fisted battle marked by hitting, scratching, and biting without any rule. Five years later, while fighting Patsy Cardiff at Minneapolis, Sullivan broke his right arm in the third round, but he continued fighting to the sixth round and won. In 1889, Sullivan defeated Jade Kilrain with his bare fists in another championship fight, winning twenty thousand dollars and a diamond prize medal. His admirers talked then of running him for the next governor, but he traveled to Australia for a boxing tour instead, coming back only to lose his title in a twenty-one-round match with a young Californian named James J. Corbett.
“Gentleman James” victory in this match marked a turning point, for it showed scientific boxing was over strength. But Corbett’s title ended in 1897, when another boxer, Bob Fitzsimmons, in less than three seconds, achieved his feats and then Fitzsimmons knocked out an Irishman, won the heavyweight championship of the world, and invented the terrible “solar plexus punch.”
Boxing matches in the early days were ________.

A．short and bloody	B．usually spare-time competitions
C．governed by strict rules	D．cruel

Sullivan held the world’s heavyweight title for ________.

A．at least seven years	B．only a year
C．five years	D．twenty-one years

Sullivan’s fight with Kilrain was ________.

A．the first boxing championship match

B．a bare-fisted championship fight

C．the last boxing match to be fought bare-fisted

D．a six-round match

Sullivan was so popular that his admirers ________.

A．encouraged him to be a governor

B．raised twenty thousand dollars for him

C．advised him to take boxing tour of Australia

D．refused to believe he could be defeated

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