20 Facts About Larry Foley

Laurence 'Larry' Foley was an Australian middleweight boxer.

Larry Foley was baptised a few years later on 2 May 1852 in Penrith.

Larry Foley returned to Sydney where, at the age of 20, he worked as a building labourer and eventually as a sub-foreman and building contractor.

Larry Foley's first fight, lasting seventy-one rounds, was believed to have been on 18 March 1871 against Sandy Ross, a leader of the Orange gang, which only ended when police stopped the fight.

Larry Foley was known as 'Captain of the Push' after the Rocks Push street gang in Sydney.

On 2 December 1878, Larry Foley fought a championship bout with Peter Newton, though the recorded dates of the fight vary, as do the number of rounds.

Larry Foley had been reluctant to fight Abe Hicken in an antiquated bare-knuckle bout, and his friend Jem Mace discouraged him from accepting the challenge, but Hicken had claimed he was the true Australian champion, and Foley accepted the challenge regardless of the extra risk inherent in bare knuckle boxing under London Prize Ring Rules.

Larry Foley won by knockout in 16 rounds, in one hour and twenty minutes as Hicken, exhausted and badly beaten, fell.

Larry Foley followed his victory over Hicken with a three round win by knockout over Harry Sellars on 1 July 1879 at Redfern in Sydney, though the dates of the bout vary somewhat.

At his gym at the White Horse, Larry Foley taught, trained and guided the careers of the great boxers Young Griffo, Bob Fitzsimmons, Paddy Slavin, and Peter Jackson as well as the lesser known Dan Creedon and George Dawson.

Larry Foley was known worldwide for the quality of his boxing training, and acted as a promoter as well at times, helping to mold the career of his most gifted student Bob Fitzsimmons, who would become a champion in three weight classes.

Larry Foley helped introduce Queensberry Rules at his boxing academy and in the fights held there at his Ironpot Stadium in the back of the White Horse hotel, and he incorporated the scientific, straight-punching methods he learned during his own brilliant career into the techniques he taught his students.

At the advanced age of 39, Larry Foley came out of boxing retirement to fight a gloved battle using the modern Marquess of Queensberry Rules against "Professor" William Miller in Sydney, New South Wales on 28 May 1883 for the championship of Australia.

The contest lasted three hours and would have been called far earlier if held today, as Larry Foley took a great deal of punishment.

In 1884, Larry Foley fought exhibitions to large crowds in Melbourne and Sydney with several of his top rated former opponents including both Miller and Hicken and strongly preferred to use gloves.

Larry Foley fought an exhibition with another of his gifted students, Black boxer Peter Jackson, a future Australian heavyweight champion, in Sydney in May 1885.

Larry Foley continued to exclusively fight exhibitions and no decision bouts in 1886, but against somewhat less famous and accomplished opponents.

In one of his last known exhibitions on 2 May 1910, Larry Foley sparred with onetime world and Australian heavyweight champion, American Tommy Burns in Sydney.

Larry Foley died of heart disease on 12 July 1917, at Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and after a mass at St Mary's Cathedral on July 15, he was buried in the Catholic section of Waverley Cemetery.

Larry Foley was survived by a son and two daughters from his first marriage and three sons and a daughter from his second.