Disheartened that the Stanley's were not scheduled to return to England, Bullard found work with the Turner family in Dawson, Georgia. Because he was hard-working as a stable boy, young Bullard won the Turners’ affection and was asked to ride as their jockey in the 1911 County Fair races. In 1912, he made his way to Norfolk, Virginia where he stowed away on the German freighter "Marta Russ", hoping to escape racial discrimination. Bullard arrived at Aberdeen, Scotland and made his way to first to Glasgow and then London where he boxed and performed slapstick in the Freedman Pickaninnies, an African-American troupe. While in Londson, he trained under the then-famous boxer Dixie Kid who arranged for him to fight in Paris. As a result of that visit to Paris, he decided to settle in France. He continued to box in Paris and also worked in a music hall until the start of World War I.