Career
Elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012. Kilrain found employment as a teenager in Somerville, Massachusetts. By the age of 20, he had been recognized as the toughest fighter in the mill.
He was later stripped of that honor when it was discovered that he was a prizefighter and thus could not be considered an amateur.
In 1883, Kilrain took up prizefighting as a profession and quickly established a reputation as a very tough fighter. Bout with John L. Sullivan
In a hard-fought contest, Kilrain lost at the start of the 76th round when Mike Donovan, his second, threw in the sponge.
In any case, the Kilrain-Sullivan fight can rightly be listed among the greatest fights of the pre-modern era. The awarding of the belt to Kilrain was part of a strategy by Fox to draw Sullivan into a fight.
Later career
Kilrain continued on for 10 more years after the Sullivan fight with gloves under Marquis of Queensberry rules with some success.
After his saloon burned down, he moved back to Somerville and was given a job with the parks department. After government cutbacks during the Great Depression he became a night watchman at a Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard. When Sullivan died in 1918, Kilrain served as a pallbearer at the funeral.