The Sayers-Heenan Fight

Victorian England was agog at the prospect of Tom Sayers meeting a confident but unproven challenger from the USA.

1860

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Introduction

Boxing’s first world title bout, on April 17th, 1860, featured England’s own Tom Sayers against a challenger from the USA, John Heenan, ‘the Benicia Boy’. It was the boxing event of a whole generation, and bare-knuckle fighting’s swansong.

by Clay Lane

THE title bout between England’s Tom Sayers and Irish-American John Heenan, the ‘Benicia Boy’, of California, took place on April 17th, 1860. It was billed as the first world championship fight, and proved to be the last great bare-knuckle contest in England.

The first the public knew of it was a notice in the Times on April 2nd, recording that Hertfordshire’s Chief Constable had issued a warrant for the arrest of Tom Sayers and John Heenan, anticipating a breach of the peace. The notice helpfully reminded readers that Tom was ‘Champion of England’. Colonel Robertson did not get his man, so in the small hours of the seventeenth, excited sportsmen crowded onto two specially chartered trains at London Bridge, and a mystery tour of southern metals began. At first they passed stations staked out by genial policemen, but these became rarer until in lonely meadowland near Farnborough in Hampshire the train stopped. It was just after sunrise, and a boisterous and cosmopolitan crowd was already waiting.

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Précis

In 1860, England’s champion bare-knuckle boxer, Tom Sayers, met US challenger John Heenan for what was billed as the first world title bout. As the authorities frowned on fist-fighting, the contest was held at a secret location near Farnborough in Hampshire, but two special trains from London evaded the police cordons and swelled the crowd to two thousand.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What made the Sayers vs Heenan bout an historic occasion?

Suggestion

It was the first recognised international fight.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Tom Sayers was a bare-knuckle boxer. In 1860 he was Champion of All England. American John Heenan challenged him to a fight.

Clay Lane The Copybook