[Boxing]:

$850 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE EXTRA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. CONTAINING A FULL REPORT OF THE GREAT FIGHT BETWEEN SAYERS AND HEENAN. A CHRONICLE OF THE TURF, FIELD SPORTS, LITERATURE, AND THE STAGE [with:] INTERNATIONAL ... A pair of special issue American newspapers offering "first-hand" reports on the famous Sayers-Heenan bareknuckle boxing match, generally considered the sport's first international title match. As evidenced by these two papers, contemporary reports of the fight vary wildly on the details, but the outline appears to be as follows. John C. Heenan of California, nicknamed the "Benicia Boy," travelled to England in early 1860 in order to enter the ring with the reigning champion of English pugilism, Tom Sayers. The international nature of the contest attracted intense interest from both sides of the Atlantic, despite the illegal nature of prize fighting. The fight took place on the morning of April 17 in front of a crowd of thousands at an "undisclosed location" in Farnborough, Hampshire. The match was protracted and violent, lasting over two hours and with both fighters sustaining serious injuries. The ultimate result is a point of debate, but the most accepted version is that local police eventually managed to force their way into the ring and break up the unsanctioned event, resulting in a draw.Together here are extra issues of two of the most prominent sports periodicals of the day, the Spirit of the Times and the New York Clipper. Between them, they present three different accounts of

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