What Is the Longest Boxing Match? The 110-Round Epic That Ran 7 Hours 19 Minutes

Seven hours and nineteen minutes. That’s how long the record-setting boxing marathon ran before everyone-fighters, ref, crowd-had nothing left. If you clicked for a straight answer, you’ll get it fast. If you want the story, the numbers, and how this could never happen today, you’ll get that too.

• TL;DR: The longest boxing match on record is Andy Bowen vs Jack Burke-110 rounds over 7 hours 19 minutes-on April 6-7, 1893, at the Olympic Club in New Orleans. The referee called it a No Contest when both were too spent to continue.
• Why so long? Rounds were three minutes with one-minute breaks, and there was no round limit. They fought until someone couldn’t.
• Context: Bare-knuckle bouts earlier in the 1800s often ran for hours (records are messy), but Bowen-Burke is the go-to benchmark for gloved, Queensberry-rules boxing.
• Modern boxing can’t repeat this. Title fights are capped at 12 rounds, a shift driven by safety reforms in the 1980s.
• Quick math tip: For old unlimited-round fights with 3-minute rounds, duration ≈ (rounds × 3) + ((rounds − 1) × 1) minutes.

The 110-Round Marathon: What Happened and Why It Lasted

If you’re after the exact record, here it is in one clean line: Andy Bowen vs Jack Burke, 110 rounds, 7 hours 19 minutes, April 6-7, 1893, New Orleans, ruled No Contest. That’s the answer you’ll hear from boxing historians and statistical repositories like BoxRec, and it’s the one Guinness World Records has highlighted when the question comes up. Contemporary coverage in the Times-Picayune the morning after backs the timeline and the exhaustion-fueled finish.

So how did two lightweights fight for that long? The rules let them. Under the Marquis of Queensberry code used in New Orleans by the 1890s, rounds were three minutes with one-minute rests. Crucially, there was no hard cap on rounds. You fought until someone was knocked out, failed to come up to time, or the referee stopped it. The ref that night, John Duffy, finally pulled the plug after 110 rounds because both men were effectively done-Burke with badly damaged hands and Bowen barely able to keep going. It wasn’t a neat, decisive ending. It was survival.

The arithmetic lines up perfectly. If you take 110 rounds at three minutes each, you get 330 minutes of fighting. Add 109 one-minute breaks and you tack on another 109 minutes. Total: 439 minutes, or seven hours and nineteen minutes. That matches the official duration reported at the time. There were brief pauses for tape and glove fixes, as you’d expect, but nothing that changes the overall clock.

The fight started on April 6 and bled past midnight into April 7. The Olympic Club kept the crowd, the fighters kept answering the bell, and the ref kept counting out the minutes until he couldn’t justify it anymore. Today, when people say “110 rounds,” it can sound almost mythical. But the math is plain. The rules allowed it, the fighters accepted it, and the referee let it run.

There’s another layer here that boxing lifers always bring up: damage. This wasn’t a clean fencing match stretched to a ridiculous length. Burke reportedly broke (or at least badly injured) both hands, which turned the late rounds into more grit than offense. Bowen pressed and pressed but couldn’t finish. The ring canvas took a beating, and so did the clock. Even in 1893, journalists asked whether it should have gone that far. Within a year, Bowen died from injuries suffered in a separate fight-different night, different circumstances, but a grim reminder of what the sport extracted from bodies back then.

Want to sanity-check any long-fight claim you hear at the pub? Use this quick formula for old, unlimited-round gloved bouts:

1. Assume three-minute rounds and one-minute rests.
2. Multiply rounds × 3 to get fighting time.
3. Add (rounds − 1) × 1 for the breaks.
4. Convert minutes to hours to see if the story even fits.

For Bowen-Burke: 110 × 3 = 330 minutes of action; breaks = 109 minutes; total = 439 minutes = 7 hours 19 minutes. That’s why historians showcase this bout as the benchmark-not because of romance, but because the numbers lock in with the reports.

What “Longest” Really Means: Rounds, Hours, Rules-and Fair Comparisons

Here’s where people talk past each other. Longest by what-total time, number of rounds, or the biggest title on the line? And under which rules-bare-knuckle London Prize Ring rules or gloved Queensberry rules? If you pin those down, you avoid most arguments.

• By duration under gloved Queensberry rules: Bowen vs Burke (1893) holds the recognized record at 7 hours 19 minutes.
• By rounds under Queensberry rules: Same fight-110 rounds.
• By duration for a marquee world title bout in the gloved era: Joe Gans vs Battling Nelson (1906) went 42 rounds in Goldfield, Nevada, with a listed duration a touch under four hours before a disqualification ended it. That’s often cited by historians as the long championship benchmark.
• Bare-knuckle era: Several 19th-century fights are reported to have pushed past six hours, but record-keeping varied. You’ll find detailed round counts in Pierce Egan’s Boxiana and the National Police Gazette archives, yet totals can conflict between sources.
• Modern era (sanctioned): With 12-round caps, the maximum bell-to-bell time today is fixed: 36 minutes of fighting, 11 minutes of rest-47 minutes total-unless the fight ends early.

To make the landscape easier to scan, here’s a compact comparison. Note: durations reflect reported official times and the best-documented estimates from ringside accounts where clocks weren’t perfectly standardised.

If you’re trying to win a debate, define your terms first. “Longest” for a Queensberry-era gloved bout? That’s Bowen-Burke, full stop. “Longest” including bare-knuckle? You’ll be quoting 1800s sources that don’t always agree, which is fine as long as you flag the uncertainty.

Quick checklist to stay precise when you answer this question:

• Specify the ruleset (bare-knuckle vs Queensberry).
• Specify the measure (time vs number of rounds).
• Flag whether it was a title fight or not.
• For pre-1900 bouts, cite at least one contemporary newspaper or a recognised compendium (BoxRec, Boxiana, IBHOF).

Why You Won’t See It Again: Safety Rules, Round Limits, and How to Talk About It Today

Could a sanctioned fight run seven hours in 2025? Not a chance. After a series of high-profile ring tragedies in the late 20th century-Duk Koo Kim’s death in 1982 is the one often cited-the WBC led a shift from 15 to 12 rounds in 1983. The other major bodies followed across the 1980s. Add modern ringside medicine, concussion protocols, and stricter officiating, and you’ve got an ecosystem designed to avoid marathon attrition.

Here’s a simple way to talk about it at the gym or at trivia night (we swap these stories a lot in Melbourne): in the 1890s, fights could go as long as the fighters and ref allowed. Today, they’re capped and closely monitored. The “romance” of the 110-rounder is really just a snapshot of a different rulebook and a different tolerance for risk.

Useful rules of thumb and quick calculations:

• Modern championship fight: 12 × 3-minute rounds + 11 minutes of breaks = 47 minutes max bell-to-bell.
• Old unlimited gloved fight: duration ≈ (rounds × 3) + (rounds − 1) minutes. If someone claims a 100+ round gloved fight, you’re looking at 6+ hours minimum.
• “Rounds” meant different things in bare-knuckle days-some ended with a knockdown, not a clock. That’s why their round counts don’t map cleanly to time.
• If the source can’t name the referee, venue, or at least one primary report, be cautious with the claim.

One last context note that matters when you’re being exact: the Bowen-Burke fight was not a world title bout. It was a high-profile, sanctioned contest under Queensberry rules at a major club. If you’re asked strictly about world titles, Joe Gans vs Battling Nelson (42 rounds) is the safer, documented reference.

Mini-FAQ

Was the 110-round fight three-minute rounds, like today?
Yes. Queensberry rules set three-minute rounds with one-minute rests by the 1890s. That’s why the 7h19m duration matches the simple math.

Who stopped it, and why not a draw?
Referee John Duffy stopped it when both fighters were spent and neither could force a finish. Contemporary reports list it as a No Contest. You’ll see some later summaries call it a draw; the core point is that it wasn’t decided by a knockout or points.

Did either fighter suffer lasting harm from that specific bout?
Burke’s hands were badly damaged; both men were depleted. Bowen tragically died after a different fight in 1894. Historians cite that era’s accumulation of damage as a reason modern safety reforms matter.

Could a major sanctioning body allow unlimited rounds today?
No. The 12-round cap is part of modern sanctioning standards across WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO. Athletic commissions would not approve an unlimited-round pro bout.

What about bare-knuckle boxing today?
Modern bare-knuckle promotions use short, fixed-round formats with medical oversight-totally different from 19th-century prizefights. Comparing their durations to 1800s marathons isn’t apples to apples.

What’s the longest women’s title fight?
Women’s championship bouts are typically 10 two-minute rounds (plus nine minutes of rest), so 29 minutes max. The limit is universal across major sanctioning bodies.

Why is Bowen-Burke the standard answer?
Because it’s gloved, Queensberry-era, with clear round and time reporting, and it’s cited consistently by BoxRec, Guinness, and contemporary press. It’s the cleanest, best-documented case.

Next Steps

• For students: When you cite the record, name a primary-era newspaper (e.g., Times-Picayune, Apr 7, 1893) alongside BoxRec. Define “longest” by duration to avoid ambiguity.
• For trivia buffs: Memorise “Bowen vs Burke, 110 rounds, 7h19m, New Orleans, 1893.” If someone asks “title fight longest,” pivot to “Gans vs Nelson, 42 rounds.”
• For coaches: Use this history lesson to explain why 12-round caps and medical checks exist. The sport deliberately moved away from attrition wars.
• For journalists: Clarify ruleset and measure in your lede. If you reference bare-knuckle marathons, flag source variability; name Boxiana or Police Gazette and a specific year.
• For fans: Want the feel of the night? Look up archived microfilm of the next-day reports. The language is raw and vivid-and you’ll see how different 1893 really was.

If you came here asking, “What is the longest boxing match?” you’ve got the answer that holds up in any room: Bowen vs Burke, 110 rounds, seven hours and nineteen minutes. Different time, different rules, same sport-and a record that’s not getting touched.