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
Round 1.—Johnny Raw, who was quite a novice in the ring (in fact it
was his first appearance), went to work pell mell; but the science
and experience of Abbot gave him the best of it, and after a few
hard blows he put in a hit upon the throat of the countryman that
floored him like a shot. For the instant Johnny was quite senseless,
and upon Richmond’s picking him up, he asked, “Who done that? What’s
that for? Where am I?” Richmond, with a smile upon his mug,
observed, “Why you are in the Court of Chancery; and, let me say,
you are not the first man that has been bothered by its practice.”
2 to 4.—Abbot had the best of these rounds, and he explained to the
countryman the term pepper.
5.—The clumsy hitting of Johnny Raw gave him a turn, and Abbot
received a tremendous floorer; and, notwithstanding the chevying of
the lads to daunt the countryman, it was seven to four in his
favour.
6 to 30.—It was a sort of reciprocal milling during all the rounds;
many hard blows passed between them. Abbot showed the first blood,
and was also the worst punished.
31.—Abbot got his opponent at the ropes; but with all his endeavours
to fib the poor countryman’s nob, he failed.
32 to 40 and last.—It was never exactly safe to Abbot till in this
round, when he again floored Johnny by a tremendous blow on the
throat. Johnny was now quite senseless, and all attempts to bring
him up to time were useless. Water was thrown on his face; but Abbot
was pronounced the conqueror after one hour and twenty minutes had
elapsed. Abbot was by far the worst punished. On Johnny’s recovering
his recollection, he observed, “Who done that? Dang it, have I been
in the Court of Chancery again? I don’t like that place; it makes a
body so stupid. But I am ready to take another turn.”
Abbot entered the lists with a sturdy navigator, at the close of Hampton
Races, 1820, for a small subscription purse. Abbot was seconded by
Purcell and Brown, and the navigator by Shelton and West Country Dick.
It was a good battle, and the navigator proved himself a very
troublesome, dangerous customer. He stood over Abbot, and was also very
strong, game, and would not be denied; but the superior science of our
hero enabled him to win it cleverly in forty-five minutes.
Abbot, in a turn-up in Harper’s Fields, Marylebone, on Monday, June 5,
1820, defeated a Birmingham man of the name of Bennyflood, for a small
purse, in the course of a few minutes, without a scratch upon his face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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