As you make your way up Hughes street past Hasper and Dye, about 350 feet on your right you will see the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame. The two white buildings you are now looking at are the original barns owned by famed sporting trainer, William Muldoon. The striking white marble statues outside of the building depict William Muldoon and John. L. Sullivan.
William Muldoon was the first chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission. He worked as a trainer with Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Harry Houdini, and most notably for the time they worked together in Belfast, Bare Knuckle Boxer John L. Sullivan.
When Muldoon owned these barns, they were at the corner of Chamberlain and Merton, where the current St. Patrick’s Hall Parking Lot is located. The barns were locked for one hundred and twenty years before the owner, Mr. Scott Burt, restored them and started sharing them with the community.
Before this was a Hall of Fame, it was a training location. A few interesting ways they trained was by chopping wood, jogging the greenway, working heavy ropes, and even blacksmithing. The Hall of Fame now holds memorabilia associated with bare-knuckle boxers that have been inducted to the Hall of Fame, including John L. Sullivan’s swing clubs, weights, and punching bag.
The Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame has inducted many notable bare-fisted fighters, some who are living and some who fought in the past. It also has honored others who have contributed to sports locally, such as Bill Heaney, and nationally, such as former Sabres player and broadcaster Rob Ray and Boxer Baby Joe Mesi.
In recent years, Bare Knuckle Boxing has returned as a sanctioned sport, and Scott Burt travels to boxing events in the United States and Europe to promote the sport and represent Belfast’s Hall of Fame.
-by Sondra Guilford, Belfast Central School Class of 2024, read by Brendan Heaney