Cold Open

It’s 7:25 on April 17th, 1860, in a field in Hampshire, in southern England.

Tom Sayers steps under the ropes of a boxing ring and throws his arms up into the air.

The huge crowd surrounding the ring roars its approval. Tom is 34 years old and the most famous boxer in Britain. Today, he wants to prove he’s the best fighter in the entire world.

His challenger is the American John Heenan.

John's welcome to the ring is less enthusiastic, but Tom knows that no crowd, however supporter, can win a fight for him. The boxer must do the hard part himself.

Today’s bout is a “prize fight”—an illegal boxing match with few rules. In recent years, enough men have died in such contests for London's Metropolitan Police to crack down on them. And that’s why this fight is being held in the countryside, well outside the capital.

John Heenan has brought a small team across the Atlantic with him, just his coach and his corner man. They stand ready with a bucket of cold water to treat the inevitable cuts and bruises that are to come.

Tom has a much larger contingent in his corner—including, bizarrely, a grown man dressed as a bird.

And as the British and American boxers get to their feet, this Birdman runs between them, flapping his makeshift wings and squawking at the crowd.

The crowd is thrilled, hooting and hollering until the Birdman’s strange performance comes to an end, and he finally leaves the ring.

It’s time for more serious business.

With a broad smile, Tom steps forward with his hand outstretched.

The two men shake and exchange a few warm words. Then they return to their respective corners, ready to start the Fight of the Century. The clash between Tom Sayers and John Heenan will more than live up to the crowd’s expectations. Their bout will last for over two punishing hours and make celebrities of both men. In fact, their battle will be so iconic that it will come to be said that boxing’s first-ever world championship fight was held in that muddy field in England on April 17th, 1860.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 17th, 1860: The First World Championship Fight.

Act One: Has Boxing Been Good?

It’s December 16th, 1851, in a meadow outside the English city of Derby, nine years before Tom Sayers fights John Heenan.

Boxer Harry Paulson prowls the ring, patiently waiting for the right time to strike. He spots his opponent lowering his hands slightly, so steps forward. He feigns a punch from the left before jabbing with his right.

The other man scowls and throws a punch at Harry’s face. Harry draws back, but not quite fast enough to avoid a glancing blow.

There’s a roar from the crowd, and around the ring, burly men armed with sticks push back any spectators who get too close. But Harry can almost feel the mass of people pushing in from all sides, their eyes fixed on the fighters—their bloodied knuckles and swollen faces gives Harry the energy he needs to keep fighting.

So Harry swings again, and this time connects with his opponent’s jaw. The other fighter stumbles, then falls to his knees. The round is over.

As Harry returns to his corner, he feels in control of this fight. A few more rounds like this, and he’s sure to be declared the winner. But then, behind him, he hears a disturbance—whistles and the sound of horses. Harry turns and sees mounted police moving through the crowd toward the ring. They’ve come to break up the fight. People scatter. Harry’s opponent vaults the rope and disappears into the crowd. Leaving Harry’s hopes of claiming victory to vanish with him. But all Harry really cares about now is escaping with his freedom.

While it has always been illegal, boxing was once watched by royalty, nobility, and celebrities. And that popularity led the authorities to turn a blind eye to the sport. But in recent years, the allure of bare-knuckle boxing has declined. Several fighters have died in the ring, and high society has begun to shun the sport. So now, without the elites protecting it, the police are cracking down.

Prize fight promoters have tried to turn the tide. They’ve brought in new rules to protect fighters from serious injury. Previously, boxers could kick and head-butt their opponents, but those moves have now been banned. Organizers hope the changes will bring back a degree of respectability to the fights and make the authorities start looking the other way again.

But right now, that plan is not working.

After the police break up Harry Paulson’s illegal fight, Harry and his entourage make a break for the local train station. But they are arrested boarding a train to Nottingham. And after weeks languishing in jail, Harry is then sentenced to ten months’ hard labor. The punishment is harsh—even men who killed other fighters in the ring faced shorter prison sentences than Harry.

But the authorities hope that this long sentence will send a message to the rest of the boxing world. Still, fight promoters aren’t deterred—instead, they continue their quest to make their sport legitimate, and they hit on the idea of creating a new competition, open to anyone who is willing to fight. The winner will receive a gold championship belt and £200 in cash.

That's over five times the annual salary of the average laborer in Britain, so plenty of men put themselves forward. Among them is Harry Paulson. Since completing his sentence, Harry has scraped for a living on the railroads, helping to move mountains of earth to make way for new tracks. But all that hard work has kept him strong, and he thinks he has as good a shot at the championship belt as any other man in the country.

But having been out of the sport for a few years. Harry decides to ease his return to the ring. His team arranges a contest with a young bricklayer from Brighton named Tom Sayers. Tom has a decent reputation as a fighter. But he only weighs a little more than 150 pounds so Harry isn't that worried. But when the day of the fight arrives, Harry Paulson learns that he has underestimated his opponent. Despite his diminutive size, Tom Sayers’ abilities in the ring soon leave Harry gasping for breath and spitting out blood.

His dreams of a triumphant return to the boxing ring will be ruined. Instead, it will be Tom who will become the nation’s new favorite. And over the next few years, he will win fight after fight. And eventually, the call will go out across the world asking for a worthy opponent to take on Britain’s champion. That call will be answered in America.

Act Two: Take A Good Swing

It’s October 20th, 1858, on the shore of Lake Erie, three years after Tom Sayers became Britain's favorite boxer.

In the corner of a beachside ring, the English boxing coach Aaron Jones cleans his man’s bloodied knuckles before the start of the next round.

Aaron is convinced that the 23-year-old John Heenan has it in him to be the best fighter in the world one day. John has the strength and skills to take down any opponent. But Aaron knows he still has a lot to learn. His left hand is badly cut from a mistimed punch that only connected with the wooden pole holding up the ring ropes. So Aaron binds the wound as best he can and warns John to keep his hand protected. Then the bell rings for the next round. John gets to his feet, and Aaron pushes him into the center.

Aaron knows what it takes to step into the ring. He’s a former boxer himself and even fought Tom Sayers twice. The first lengthy fight between them was declared a draw. But their second, held on the banks of the Thames, ended in a humiliating defeat for Aaron. Licking his wounds, he decided that his future lay elsewhere and moved across the Atlantic to the United States.

He began to look for younger fighters he could coach. And after rejecting a few hopefuls, he now thinks he’s found a real contender. Standing at six-foot-three and weighing 190 pounds, John Heenan is a formidable sight in the ring.

But he also has a long way to go if he is to fulfill the potential Aaron sees in him.

When the fight begins again, John quickly forgets Aaron’s advice to protect his left hand. He can’t resist swinging it at the other fighter. This time, he makes a solid connection, but it does more damage to John than his opponent. And for the next seven rounds, John has to fight effectively one-handed. He still manages to land punch after punch. But he can’t ward off all the other fighter’s blows, and one well-timed hit to the throat leaves John on the floor struggling for breath. Frustrated, Aaron lashes out and kicks the bucket at his feet, sending water flying. He knows John won’t get back up in time to save the fight.

Still, despite losing the bout, John Heenan is hailed by the press as a fighter to watch. Writers praise both his physicality and his spirit, arguing he did more with one hand than most fighters manage with two.

So, when word gets out that legendary British boxer Tom Sayers is looking for a new opponent, many in America think John is the man to show him what a real fighter looks like.

But getting John to England won’t be cheap. Thankfully for Aaron, John’s growing popularity sees a host of backers come forward to support him. And only when the funds are ready does Aaron send a letter to Tom Sayers, telling him that John is ready to fight him for the world title.

Tom’s response is far from instantaneous. The sheer number of fights he’s had since beating Harry Paulson has left his body so battered that he's making plans to retire from boxing. Yet he knows the fight with John will draw an enormous crowd. And in the end, the allure of one final payday is too hard to turn down.

The fight between John Heenan and Tom Sayers is on.

And the bout generates huge excitement in the press. Sports reporters are sent to the pre-fight camps to watch Tom and John train. But all that attention has organizers worried. If they hold the fight in London, the police are sure to intervene. So, they decide to move the clash out of the capital, and to keep the authorities guessing, no one is told exactly when or where the fight will take place until the morning of the contest.

When that day finally arrives, word will go out, and thousands of excited boxing fans will board trains from London bound for Hampshire. “The Fight of the Century” is about to begin.

Act Three: A Couple of Years I’d Be Through

It’s 10 AM, on April 17th, 1860, in a field in Hampshire, England, two hours and twenty minutes into the fight between Tom Sayers and John Heenan.

Tom’s right arm hangs limply in front of his chest. He can’t lift it to defend himself and suspects it may be broken. But that doesn’t mean Tom is giving up. His American opponent, John Heenan, is in a bad state, too. His eyes are so swollen that he can barely see. But he keeps fighting in vicious fashion.

The American John lunges forward, and, throwing all his weight onto the shorter British boxer, John pushes Tom back. When they get to the edge of the ring, John then begins to wrap the rope around Tom’s neck.

It’s Round 42 of the Sayers versus Heenan fight. And among the thousands in the crowd are politicians, noblemen, clergymen, and writers. They have all been enthralled by every minute of this epic contest.

But as the two fighters continue to pummel each other, the local police finally arrive. They fight their way through the crowd, accompanied by a chorus of boos. But by the time they reach the ring, both fighters have been ushered away.

So, the “Fight of the Century” has ended in a tie. For some in the crowd, it’s an anticlimactic end to the contest. For others, though, the fight was so entertaining that it doesn’t matter that there wasn’t a winner. And in the days that follow, both boxers will be celebrated as champions and given a share of the prize money.

Despite being broken up by the police, the Sayers —Heenan fight will help transform the future of boxing. This clash will become known as the first World Championship bout. And its fame will push the sport back into the mainstream and eventually help lead it to legalization under new safety rules that include three-minute rounds, a ten-second count, and gloves instead of bare knuckles.

Decades later, in the 20th century, fights between American and British boxers will become global spectacles, generating billions of dollars in revenue. But every one of these contests will owe a debt to Tom Sayers and John Heenan, the great boxers of the Victorian era who fought the first World Championship fight on April 17th, 1860.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 20th, 1152. After an eight-year feud, Baldwin III of Jerusalem seizes sole control over his kingdom from a bitter rival—his own mother.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.