Mace-Allen Fight Monument

On this site, in the City of Kenner, the first World Championship Heavyweight Prize fight held in the United States took place.

In the predawn hours on May 10, 1870, a crowd of about 1,000 people left the New Orleans Jackson Street Railroad Station for Kennerville. There, in a makeshift ring in the back of William Butler Kenner’s old sugar house about 100 yards from the Mississippi River, Jed Mace of Beeston, Norwich, England beat Tom Allen of Birmingham, England in 10 rounds. The prize for the bare knuckles event was $2,500, winner takes all.

Mace-Allen Fight

Description:

The “Mace-Allen Fight” commemorated by the sculpture in Kenner’s Heritage Park was a significant event in the history of bare-knuckle boxing. It wasn’t a local brawl, but rather a world heavyweight championship prize fight that took place on May 10, 1870, in Kenner, Louisiana.

Here are more details about the fight:

The Fighters:
- Jem “Gypsy” Mace: An English boxing champion.
- Tom Allen: An American heavyweight titleholder.
Significance of the Fight: This bout is considered by some to be the first-ever World Heavyweight Championship prize fight in the history of boxing.
Location: The fight occurred on the banks of the Mississippi River in Kenner. The monument in Heritage Park marks the approximate location.
The Event: Despite efforts to ban bare-knuckle fighting in Louisiana, about 1,000 people reportedly attended the event.
The Outcome: The fight lasted for ten rounds, with Mace defeating Allen to claim the World Heavyweight Championship title. He also won a significant purse for the time, around $2,500.
Historical Context: There was reportedly strong anti-British sentiment among the Irish American boxing community at the time, which led some to disregard Mace’s claim to the title.
Commemoration: Besides the sculpture in Heritage Park dedicated in 1988, the event is also remembered by the name of Sullivan-Kilrain Road, which runs through the site of another famous bare-knuckle fight, near where the Mace-Allen fight took place.