Boxer known for rigged fights:PETER CORCORAN (c1749-c1781), bare-knuckle boxer and heavyweight champion of England, was born in Athy, Co Kildare. He was a powerful fighter, skilful with both fists, but had to go to England after killing a man in a fight over a woman. In Birmingham he fought a butcher, himself a boxer, over the price of a leg of mutton.
Corcoran moved to London, where he worked as a coal-heaver before being press-ganged into joining the navy. Released from service, he ran a pub in London.
He continued boxing, and fell under the influence of another Irishman, Col O’Kelly. O’Kelly arranged a contest against the English champion Bill Darts, which took place at Epsom on Derby Day 1771. A huge crowd witnessed the fight, which went down in history as a “barney”, or rigged. In round one, after light sparring, Corcoran landed a blow on Darts’s face, knocking him to the ground, after which Darts surrendered. The crowd suspected that O’Kelly had paid Darts a large sum to lose.
Corcoran thus became the first Irish-born heavyweight champion of England. He defended his title successfully over the next five years, and purchased a new pub.
In October 1776 he lost his championship to Harry Sellers without, it seems, putting up much of a fight. A week before the fight he had been unable to pay his rent, yet within days of losing the title he had redecorated and restocked his pub. Suspicions of corruption proved ruinous, and his trade collapsed. He lost his premises and was reduced to begging.
Corcoran died in poverty. He is usually included in championship lists as “doubtful”.
Adapted from the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie
