Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863Miles, Henry Downes
History
Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing, Volume 2 (of 3): Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists; Full Reports of Their Battles from Contemporary Newspapers, With Authentic Portraits, Personal Anecdotes, and Sketches of the Principal Patrons of the Prize Ring, Forming a Complete History of the Ring from Fig and Broughton, 1719-1740, to the Last Championship Battle Between King and Heenan, in December 1863
Miles, Henry Downes
Boxing
18 and last.—On the Gas appearing at the mark, instead of putting up
his arms to fight; he endeavoured to button the flap of his drawers
in a confused state. Neat scorned to take advantage of his
defenceless situation, and with the utmost coolness waited for him
to commence the round. The Gas, as a last effort, endeavoured to
show fight, but was pushed down, which put an end to the battle by
his proving insensible to the call of time. The contest occupied
twenty-three and a half minutes. Neat jumped and threw up his arms
as a token of victory, amidst the proud and loud shouts which
pronounced him conqueror. He went and shook the hand of his brave
fallen opponent before he left the ring. A medical man bled Hickman
on the spot without delay, and every humane attention was paid to
him by his backer and his seconds. He remained for a short time in
the ring in a state of stupor, was carried to a carriage, and
conveyed to the Castle Inn, Speen Hill, near Newbury, and
immediately put to bed.
REMARKS.—To sum up the behaviour of the fallen hero in the fight, it
is only common justice to say of the Gas, that he cut up, without
disparagement, gamer than any man we ever before witnessed. His
greatest enemy must join in this remark; indeed, if his countenance
was anything like an index of his mind, the courage of Hickman was
so high that he appeared to feel ashamed, and to quarrel with nature
for deserting him. It is true that he was floored, but it is equally
true the Gas was not extinct. “Give him,” said an old sporting man,
“but a chance with anything near his weight, and the odds will be in
his favour; he will again burst forth with redoubled splendour.” It
cannot be denied that Hickman made himself numerous enemies by his
chaffing. Out of the ring he was viewed as a great talker, often
asserting more than he could perform; but in his battle with Neat he
decidedly proved himself no boaster; and in the eyes of the sporting
world, although suffering defeat, he raised his character higher
than ever it stood before as a pugilist. His fault was, he thought
himself unconquerable, and laughed at the idea of weight, length,
and strength being opposed to him. If any apology can be offered for
Hickman, it is that he did not stand alone in this view of his
capabilities, for he was flattered by the majority of the fancy to
the very echo, who backed him, on the match being made, nearly two
to one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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