John L. group photo

	FROM THE BOOKS JUNE 1891
	By this time the man who had been champion for more than nine years, regarded himself as being virtually in retirement from the ring. He hadn't used his fists, except behind footlights, for almost two years. He was tired of fighting. Besides, there wasn't anyone worth fighting, or so it seemed to John L.
	1892 With Sullivan's theatrical tour, to which he was bound, scheduled to wrap up on June 4, 1892 and not to resume until September 12, 1892, Sullivan made the following public challenge.
	I hereby challenge any and all the bluffers who have been trying to make capital at my expense to fight me either the last week in August this year or the first week in September this year at the Olympic Club, New Orleans, Louisiana, for a purse of twenty-five thousand dollars and an outside bet of ten thousand dollars, the winner of the fight to take the entire purse. I insist upon the bet of ten thousand dollars to show that they mean business, twenty-five hundred dollars to be put up by May 1, and the entire ten thousand and as much more as they will bet to be placed by June 15.... We are ready to put up the entire ten thousand dollars now. First come, first served. I give precedence in this challenge to Frank P. Slavin, of Australia, as he and his backers have done the greatest amount of blowing. My second preference is the bombastic sprinter, Charles Mitchell, of England, whom I would rather whip than any man in the world. My third preference is James Corbett, of California, who has achieved his share of bombast. But in this challenge I include all fighters - first come, first served - who are white. I will not fight a Negro. I never have and never shall. I prefer this challenge should be accepted by some of the foreigners who have been sprinting so hard after the American dollars of late, as I would rather whip them than any of my own countrymen. The Marquis of Queensbury Rules must govern this contest, as I want fighting, not foot racing, and I intend to keep the championship of the world where it belongs in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
	Nat Fleischer's-JOHN L. SULLIVAN Champion of Champions