A huge alligator owned by boxing tent promoter Fred Brophy's grandfather once sparked a hilarious and terrifying mystery – but another tent-fighting maestro's mascot was even more bizarre.
Fred Brophy's Boxing Troupe is the last remaining spectacle of its kind anywhere in the world, but it wasn't too long ago that roving tents of itinerant fighters were dotted all over Australia.
One of those belonged to Harry Paulsen – a Norwegian sailor who got in a blue with the bosun, jumped overboard and swam ashore to Hobart in 1928 with one-and-six in his pocket and not a word of English.
