Howdy and welcome to a bonus episode of Wise About Texas, the Texas history podcast.

In our last episode, we discussed the big heavyweight

championship fight between Bob Fitzsimmons and Peter Mahor that occurred in 1896. This was the biggest

sporting event of its time, and it was held on a sandbar in the Rio Grande River to avoid the

anti-boxing laws of Texas and the surrounding states.

In that episode, I told the story of a legendary Old West gunfighter and lawman,

Bat Masterson, having turned into a sports writer. He made the mistake of facing off with

legendary Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald, who convinced him to improve his behavior and attitude.

While I was researching that episode, I came across another story of a legendary Old West

gunfighter getting mixed up in a boxing match.

The connection to the Texas story of episode 8 is that the story I'm going to tell you today

occurred in connection with

Bob Fitzsimmons next fight which was held in San Francisco California on December 2nd 1896

now first let's go back to October 26th 1881 on that day which was a cold one in

Tombstone Arizona Wyatt Earp and his brothers,

Virgil and Morgan, along with their friend Doc Holliday, faced off against the Clanton brothers,

the McClory brothers, and Billy Claiborne at the O.K. Corral. At the end of that famous gunfight,

Wyatt Earp was a legend. Now fast forward to 1896, and we find Wyatt Earp settled in San Francisco, California.

Earlier that year, the San Francisco Examiner published a three-part story about his life.

Now, that series was said to be a very significant exaggeration of Earp's life.

It turns out that the Hearst Corporation who owned the San

Francisco Examiner had just hired Earp as its head of security. So they were sending a message

...