James Figg The First Champion

wonderful articles, thanks.

 

According to Boxiana Figg died in1740. It credits him with only 2 fights , wins over Sutton The Pieman ,who came from my home town and the Venetian Gondolier.

 

I never suggested Boxiana was the final word on anyone.

 

http://www.ringsideboxingshow.com/SheltonBLOGStokes.html

 

Figg died on December 7, 1734. He likely never participated in boxing bouts, at least no source ever mentioned it that I know of.

 

Gents, thank you all for all the info that you've contributed on this excellent thread:good

 

Has anyone more information on the Venetian Gondolier?

The name Tito Alberto di Carni comes up on some old boxrec posts and the likeness but according to historian Chris Shelton that name came from a computer program.

CJS "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 stealers so this fake Venetian name has become ‘fact’. Historians must be wary of the endangered “Tree Octopus” and other internet jokes and traps. It is also not nice to list British Gazetteer (a mid-19th century English anecdote collection) or the London Journal as a source for 1720’s 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."

also, any idea what game he's talking about? I might **** around with a game that goes back to the 1720s even if it's history is shaky.

 

damn, its sure is shame we had to have a 500 year dark age in europe, if we skipped that we'd have figg and co recorded on video files to watch whenever we wanted.

though we'd all now be living in boats perhaps on waterworld too or some other apocalypse.

 

Sorry if this reads a little disjointed, I've copied and pasted from the sites I found.

James Figg – He changed the course of British boxing history by employing the fighting methodology and footwork he had learned from fencing.
https://www.historyoffighting.com/boxing-scene-in-18th-century.php

Timothy Buck, had been the fencing teacher of James Figg and although Figg doesn't appear to have written a book, another student of Buck's did (Thomas Page), and it's here on this site. It may give a little insight into the methods of Figg's fighting.

https://linacreschoolofdefence.org/Library/Page/Page.html

For those interested, Figg's premises/pugilism school was in Adam and Eve court, the court is still there off Oxford Street as are a few pubs that have connections/history of pugilism like the Lamb and Flag in Covent Garden, it was commonly known as The Bucket of Blood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_and_Flag,_Covent_Garden

Enjoy.