English Champions: Robert "The Pugilist" Whittaker

James Figg's Academy was now in high estimation, and the encouragement he received from plenty of scholars and numerous visitors upon all occasions, made him a man of no little importance among the heroes of the fist, stick, or sword; and he turned out some excellent pupils in all the various branches of the art of self-defence.

It was about this period that the whole boxing hemisphere was up in arms. Occasioned by the insolent threats to the English laurels being torn from their native soil, and transplanted to a foreign land. It was a Venetian gondolier that threw down the gauntlet, boasting that he would break the jawbone of any opponent who might have the temerity to fight him. The Venetian was a man of prodigious strength, possessing an arm not only very large and muscular, but surprisingly long and had proved a complete terror to his own countrymen by the number of jawbones which he had sent to the surgeons of those persons who had possessed courage enough to oppose him.

Captain Godfrey spells the name “Gondolier” in his 1747 book. Future ‘historians’ would name him “Tito Alberto di Carni”. I believe this name originated from knowledgeable guys who created their own prize-fighting computer game. People stole their information, believing it to be real, and then posted it onto other internet sites. Paper published authors stole from the theives so this fake Venetian name has become ‘fact’. Also it's not nice to list British Gazetteer (a mid-19th century English anecdote collection) or the London Journal as a source for 1720s information if the historian has not seen the actual publication. It is lazy, sloppy research and unfair to whomever they ‘borrowed’ as their actual source.


His fame ran before him, and his impetuosity was described to be overwhelming. The Venetian was considered a good subject, and a foreigner of distinction; several of his countrymen backed him for a large sum, so was not thus to be bounced out of his pluck or his money and, in this situation of affairs, Figg was applied to tor a customer to serve him out, if such a one could be found.

"Found?!" exclaimed Figg, laughing heartily, "aye, my masters, plenty; but I don't know, d'ye see, as how that'ere's truth about his breaking so many of his countrymen jawbones with his fist? Howsomever, that's no matter, he can't break Bob Whittaker's jawbone if he had a sledge-hammer in his hand. If Bob must knock under, why, before this here outlandish waterman shall rule the roast, I'll give him a Figg to chew, which, perhaps, he'll find some trouble in swallowing." After this luminous display upon the matter, the match was made, and the day appointed for the combat to take place at Figg's Amphitheatre.

The stage was ordered to be cleared, when an awful silence prevailed in the anxiety manifested for the set-to. The Venetian mounted with smiles of confidence, and was greeted welcome by loud plaudits from his countrymen and partizans, and instantly began to strip. His giant-like arms claimed universal astonishment, and his size in general struck terror.

Bob appeared cool and steady, in a few seconds afterwards, and was cheered with huzzas. He eyed the Gondolier with firmness, and quite undismayed, threw off his clothes in an instant.

Then the attack commenced: the Venetian pitched himself forward with his right leg, and his arm full extended, and before Whittaker was aware of his design, he received a blow on the side of the head, so powerful in its effect as to capsize him over the stage, which was remarkable for its height. Whittaker's fall was desperate indeed, as bedashed completely against the ground.

I hate to break the flow of Egan but I have to jump in here and point this out. They used to charge the audience to come watch the whole day's events at the amphitheatre. This particular fight had such a draw the day's charge was gouged up excluding the normal poor folk audience. The usual poor folk audience are the fellas sat on the ground, in the dirt, ringside. I know, ringside...poor, weird, anyway, without those people there, there was nothing to catch Whittaker on his way down. He was knocked out of the ring and off the stage sort of like Marciano did to Joe and Roland, but without any pressman or fans or anything to catch him. A real bad knockdown in any era.

The bets ran high, and the foreigners vociferate loudly in behalf of the Venetian, and flattered themselves, that Bob would scarcely be able to come again from the desperate blow and fall that he had received, and sported their cash freely in laying the odds thick against him.

Whittaker was not to be out so soon, and jumped upon the stage like a gamecock to renew the attack. Sparring now was all at an end, and Whittaker found out that something must be clone to render the Venetian's long arm useless. So, without further ceremony he made a little stoop, ran boldly in beyond the heavy mallet, and with one " English peg" in the stomach, quite a new thing to foreigners, brought him on his breech.

The tables were then turned, the sporting men laughing heartily, and the foreigners a little chapfallen. The Venetian showed symptoms of uneasiness, and with his wind touched protested the legality of Whittaker's body blow claiming a proper fight is be face to face and fist to head. Figg deemed body blows legal and the match continued

Bob now punished him in fine style, drove the Venetian all over the stage, and soon gave him a leveller. The odds shifted fastin favour of Whittaker, and the foreigners displayed some terrible long faces. The Gondolier was completely puzzled, and, in the course of a few rounds, the conceit was so taken out of him that he lost all guard of his person, and was compelled to give in. To the no small chagrin of the foreigners, who were properly cleaned out upon this occasion.

It should be noted, The Venetian never believed he lost, he felt he was cheated and quit the match in protest.

The Venetian had the mortification to retire in disgrace, after his vain-boasting, and with a good milling; or, as Captain Godfrey concludes, " the blow in the stomach carried too much of the English rudeness for him to bear, and finding himself so unmannerly used, he scorned to have any more doings with his slovenly fist."

Figg was so enraptured with the elegance of the audience, and not wishing to let so good an opportunity slip, instantly mounted the stage, and addressed the spectators, nearly to the following purport: "Gentlemen, perhaps, as how, you may think, that I have picked out the best man in London to beat this here foreigner; but if you will come this day se'nnight, I'll produce a man that shall BEAT BOB WHITAKER, by fair hitting, in ten minutes." It had the desired effect by the company proving as great and as fine as the week before, and who came to see whether Figg was not trilling with them; it being considered a difficult task to beat such a bottom man as Bob in so short a space of time.

On the day appointed, the Amphitheatre, as before, was crowded at an early hour, and poor Whittaker's laurels were doomed to be but of short duration. Nat Peartree was the man looked out to deprive him of his honours; and who was considered a most admirable boxer. it was supposed that Peartree was a match for any of the pugilists. He was famous for fighting at the face, and putting in his blows with great strength; yet felt doubtful in being able to beat Whittaker by force, as the latter had proved himself, upon many occasions, a most enormous glutton, and therefore cunningly determined to fight at his eyes. The event proved Peartree's judgement to be correct, for, in about six minutes, he had directed his arms so well that Whittaker was shut out from daylight by both his eyes being closed up. In this distressed situation he became an object of pity, by being completely at the mercy of his antagonist; when poking about awhile for his man, and finding him not, he wisely gave in, with these odd words

"Dam'me, I am not yet beat, but what signifies when I cannot see my man?!"

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Thanks for reading buds. Bob's one of those guys who are a bit controversial. Some historians see him as a champion, most do not. It's a bit like Figg himself. Most see Figg as a champion, some do not. I go for inclusion and let the reader decide for themselves. Either way, Bob's is an important story in the history of boxing because he solidifies the status of English boxing. Who knows what might have happened had he lost, maybe this would be titled Venetian Champions:

Little side note, if your wondering, Venetian boxing, according to Egan, was inspired by English boxing. So from Egan's point of view boxing goes from Greece to Rome, Rome to England, and England back down to Veneto.

Heavyweight Champions from Ancient to Present


Edit- Forgot to say, the source is Boxiana edited by me. Source for my edits would be knowing my ****. if you need a source for when Whittaker hit the dirt I can find one but I'm not prepped atm and any other addition or change I made to Egan's original was purely spelling/grammar sort of editing.

Edited the whittaker-venetian fight, added a paragraph on the venetian.

 

You know I can't say for sure actually. My understanding is rules were something agreed to before hand and Broughton clarified the basic rules that had been used most often but in all honesty I've not gone through the bare knuckle stories in about five years or so.

I believe regions had their own cultures and expectations around fighting and what Broughton did was codified what most region vs region rule debates ended up agreeing with. Again it's been awhile so I could be well wrong. I know he's considered the author of the rules, but I don't think he invented them.

I should point out the original Boxiana looks like what you'd think a very old boxing books would. It's in english but some parts you'll swear or some foreign language because it's so poorly maintained. I have a digital recreation I bought on amazon's kindle store for about five bucks. I'm not sure the original boxiana used the word time. It could have been a similar word that the computer couldn't see very well and interpreted it as time. I'm absolutely sure they used a computer to transcribe because sometime you read Whittaker as WHBBMER in all caps with nothing to clue you in but context. Other parts i'm reading things like $*G for Figg.

 

Yeah, exactly. I have to look into it directly as opposed to leaning on what I think I learned in the past because often one book will discredit the next. Chris Shelton discredited both Boxrec and CBZ's coverage of Mollyneaux so even good solid sources can be mistaken.

I'm mostly leaning toward the word itself not having that much significance in this case. I didn't reread but I'm pretty sure he's just saying the big man barely made it back to his feet before people gave up on him. I mean time, in some fashion, must be called in the event of a KO, no? Perhaps what's wrong here isn't computer transcribed nor does it challenge Broughton's authorship but rather our understanding of calling time. I really can't say until I gather notes on Broughton specifically really but what I got the statement was Whittaker hit the Venetian in the middle sending him on his bum in such a state as to make his face appeared ill and his body out of breath causing him to nearly be pronounced knocked out.

 

No, yeah don't get me wrong it was a good notice.

I did a bit of digging around other sources and came up with something. The story of Whittaker vs Venetian has some variance between the main sources for the era. I checked Pugilistica and it has the story a bit differently. After this post I'm editing the original to reflect Pugilistica's version.

As far as the rules goes, I think that's probably best left for when I get to Broughton himself, but it wouldn't hurt my feeling if you beat me to it.

Thanks for pushing me to dig a little more bud, and sorry I was lazy the first go.

 

I were confused, then I remembered you're the one gumdrop what reckons me an alt.

I dunno why, I felt like I was respectful to you and the only one in your thread willing to hear you out. I agreed with you in spots and disagreed with you in others. Honestly bucko I got more respect for you than Bits. He doesn't seem to think you've any sense at all....I'm starting to see why.

I didn't treat you like you're damn near brain dead, and so I'm the one you want to harass? C'mon buddy think on that for a second. It weren't a good move. If anyone was gonna aid your argument it was me. All the up until you told me you reckon I'm this other fella I just lack the balls to say **** like he does on this account.

Well sonny, I got the biggest balls in town. My first posts I laid the gauntlet down, told the forum I am most knowledgeable and asked any to step. I went right to the respected knowers and told them their days of spreading **** research are numbered. I told the whole damn forum they're a bunch of pussies for their rules, and everytime a mod touches my work I call them a *****. I ain't scared of you mother ****er, I ain't scared of being a massive dick. I just took pity on how no one else would hear ya out and now I'm being harassed for it.

Keep up the witch hunt bucko. You'll find me eventually. I don't think you'll be prepared for what you discover though.

 

Not sure your confusion. I wouldn't expect every account to be a perfect clone it just needs to be reflective.

I'd not adopt Stopa as his name. Perhaps they're correct but I am sure the man who fought the Venetian was Bob and they did a number on his name. Likewise I'd not adopt the whittaker took no falls narrative. Too many sources claim he did.

If your curious is great enough I would try to find what it is that makes Egan's book the authority rather than newspaper accounts of the time. I know Bell's Life bought Egans work and reworked it a few times, but I'm honestly unsure what Egan or Henry for that matter, used for sources that were before their time. I'm not sure when Harry lived and hell to be honest I need a refresher on Egan himself but I'm fairly certain he's well after Figg and is using other's accounts.

So to challenge it academically you need those accounts or whatever it is that "verifies" Egan's work while simultaneously negating all other claims contrary to that one's. Like with the other, could be good stuff, could just be a writer doing his best to sell, could be anything really. I'm no authority, just a fan who began to forget and started to make a resource to stop me from forgetting. There was once when I was younger when I could recite most of this HWs work from memory.

That said, my research or rather my notes on the material are something near five years old. New stuff gets put online all the damn time and it's no one's job to sift through history linking what is connected. What I mean is if they uncover some new scroll in Egypt or some such it may well be put online and go unnoticed for years before anyone from the boxing world notices and says "Hey guys whadda bout this'en"

Herakliedes (didn't check the spelling but it's close enough) may be a mummy sitting at the getty right now. I can't get them to talk to me about the likeliness. There is an Egyptian mummy from the same area as his, buried in the manner a champion would be at the time, and from the proper era. I'm already planning on bugging the boxing historians and egyptologists over that one. If you ain't up to it, just keep stacking things for me to verify later and I'll do it. Probably gonna take about a year to get there though.