Fred Fulton

Fred Fulton, the towering heavyweight known as “The Rochester Plasterer,” was one of the most formidable contenders of the years immediately before Jack Dempsey’s championship reign. Born Fred Tobias Fulton at Blue Rapids, Kansas, in April 1891, he later made his home in Rochester, Minnesota, where he worked as a plasterer when boxing did not occupy him. Even the basic details of his life contain the sort of discrepancies common to fighters from that period. Sources variously give his birthday as April 18 or April 19, while surviving career totals differ according to whether newspaper decisions and unofficial contests are included. BoxRec lists 83 victories, 15 defeats and two draws in officially decided bouts, with 72 wins by knockout. Other reconstructions produce slightly different figures. What is not in dispute is that Fulton was an unusually destructive puncher who fought professionally for two decades and met many of the leading heavyweights of his time.

Fulton was generally listed at around 6ft 5in, although contemporary measurements varied, and possessed an exceptional reach of approximately 84½ inches. His supplied height of 6ft 6in reflects the generous measurements often attached to large heavyweights, but official figures recorded during his prime placed him a little shorter. He was naturally left-handed, yet usually boxed from an orthodox stance and was reported to have switched positions on occasion. His physical advantages were obvious. He could hold shorter opponents at the end of a long left hand, and his leverage gave him considerable power in straight punches and uppercuts. He was not merely a lumbering giant. At his best he could box at range, use his height intelligently and finish men once they had been hurt. The Ring later included him among its 100 greatest punchers, recognition of a knockout record which remained impressive even in an era crowded with loosely supervised contests and uneven opposition.

His professional debut took place on January 1, 1913. Fulton entered boxing during the final years of the so-called White Hope period, when promoters and newspapers searched for a white heavyweight capable of defeating Jack Johnson. By the time Fulton developed into a serious contender, Jess Willard had already taken the championship from Johnson, but the appetite for large American heavyweights remained. Fulton’s size and punching power made him a natural candidate, though his early career was irregular. He lost by disqualification to Carl Morris in 1914 and was stopped by Al Palzer and Arthur Pelkey, setbacks which showed that his imposing frame did not make him invulnerable.

Fulton’s progress became more convincing from 1915 onwards. He assembled a long winning run, stopping most of his opponents, and defeated men such as Charley Weinert, Terry Kellar and Pelkey in return contests. An important episode occurred in Rochester on May 14, 1915, when Fulton boxed an exhibition with heavyweight champion Jess Willard. Contemporary witnesses reported that Fulton forced the pace and knocked Willard down, an unusual occurrence against a champion of such size. The exhibition did not carry the standing of an official title contest, but it strengthened Fulton’s reputation and helped establish him as a plausible challenger. Discussions followed concerning a championship match, including proposed contests in New Orleans and later the Twin Cities, yet none came to fruition. Willard’s camp publicly questioned Fulton’s drawing power, while political opposition to major boxing promotions during the First World War created further obstacles.

By 1917 Fulton had earned a strong claim through results rather than measurements alone. He defeated Gunboat Smith and stopped the great Sam Langford, whose experience and skill had undone many larger heavyweights. Fulton’s win over Langford was especially significant because the smaller man remained dangerous despite the mileage of a long career. Reports of their later meeting described the enormous contrast in height, yet Fulton again prevailed. He also continued a bitter series with Carl Morris, though fouls and disqualifications marred their contests. In one bout Fulton was thrown out for deliberate infringement; in another Morris was disqualified after repeated butting. Such episodes damaged the sporting value of the rivalry. Still, Fulton’s wider body of work was sufficient for many observers to regard him as the leading available challenger to Willard by the close of 1917.

A proposed championship contest between Fulton and Willard was announced for July 4, 1918, with Willard reportedly taking a large percentage of the profits and Fulton receiving a fixed purse. The promotion was cancelled amid political resistance to staging a heavyweight championship during wartime. Fulton then agreed to face the rapidly rising Jack Dempsey at the Federal League Baseball Park in Harrison, New Jersey, on July 27. Fulton was the bigger and more established man and entered as favourite. The contest was expected to determine the rightful challenger to Willard. Instead, it lasted only seconds. Dempsey rushed across the ring, got inside Fulton’s reach and attacked the body before landing heavily to the head. Fulton went down and was counted out, the official time generally recorded as 23 seconds, although later accounts shortened it to 18⅗ seconds. It was one of the most damaging defeats suffered by any leading contender. Fulton’s physical advantages had been removed before he could use them, and Dempsey left Harrison recognised as the man most likely to face Willard.

Fulton later alleged that the Dempsey contest had been intended as a controlled exhibition and that Dempsey had broken an agreement by attacking in earnest. The claim was denied and never supported by convincing evidence. It appeared more an attempt to explain an embarrassing defeat than a reliable account of what had occurred. Fulton nevertheless showed considerable resilience after the setback. From late 1918 into 1920 he put together another substantial sequence of victories, defeating Willie Meehan, John Lester Johnson, Frank Moran, Jack Thompson and Gunboat Smith. Thompson reportedly suffered a broken jaw, while Smith was dropped repeatedly before being stopped in two rounds. Fulton’s career was therefore not destroyed by Dempsey, though his position at the front of the championship queue had gone.

His second major reverse came against Harry Wills in Newark on July 26, 1920. Wills, a powerful and highly skilled black heavyweight who was himself denied a championship opportunity, broke three of Fulton’s ribs and knocked him out in the third round. The finish came after a short right to the body and another right to the jaw. The result demonstrated that Fulton could be overwhelmed when a strong opponent succeeded in reaching his body and denying him space. Yet he again continued rather than retire, adding victories and a draw over the following two years. He defeated Morris once more and remained active in important boxing centres including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Winnipeg and the Pacific Coast. A draw with Bartley Madden at Madison Square Garden in 1922 was poorly received, contemporary reports judging Fulton fortunate not to have been beaten. Billy Miske later stopped him in three rounds, after which losses to rising men such as Floyd Johnson, George Godfrey and Jack Renault confirmed that his best years had passed.

Fulton’s matchmaking over the course of his career followed the hard pattern of his era. He fought frequently, often travelled great distances and met opponents repeatedly. There were soft assignments and obscure names on his ledger, as there were on the records of most busy heavyweights. Still, he also faced Dempsey, Wills, Langford, Miske, Moran, Meehan, Morris, Smith, Godfrey and other recognised contenders. He was not protected from dangerous opponents once he had reached prominence. His losses tended to come badly, several by early knockout, and that vulnerability prevented him from securing either the championship or lasting recognition as the outstanding heavyweight of the period. Against opponents who allowed him room, however, he was a formidable proposition. His long arms, heavy right hand and natural punching power enabled him to dispose of many experienced men with uncommon speed.

Fulton continued boxing intermittently into the 1930s. BoxRec records his last appearance in April 1933, when he lost a newspaper decision to Louis “Kid” Fettig at the Grand Forks Auditorium in North Dakota. By then he was 42 and far removed from the contender who had once been expected to challenge Willard. He had also worked as a referee, another indication that boxing remained part of his life after his principal fighting years. He died in Minnesota in July 1973 at the age of 82. The precise date is again disputed, with BoxRec giving July 3 and other sources July 7. He was inducted into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame in 2018, appropriate recognition for a fighter closely associated with Rochester and the state’s early boxing history.

Fulton’s reputation has inevitably been shaped by the speed of his defeat to Dempsey. That is understandable but incomplete. He did not become a leading contender merely because he was unusually tall. He defeated respected heavyweights, possessed genuine finishing power and remained a prominent figure for several years in a particularly unsettled division. His failure to secure a title contest reflected his damaging defeats, but also the politics, promotional uncertainty, and racial divisions that characterised heavyweight boxing during the period. He was never champion and cannot reasonably be placed alongside Dempsey or Wills on achievement. He was nevertheless more than a footnote to their careers: a dangerous, heavily punching contender whose long record provides a clear picture of the difficult and frequently disorderly heavyweight business of the 1910s and 1920s.