Richmond v Shelton: preview and tale of the tape

This Saturday marks the 200th anniversary of the Bill Richmond v Tom Shelton bare-knuckle boxing contest. By way of a celebration, I will be tweeting a live recreation of the fight, including many illustrations and images, via my twitter page @boxianajournal.  

Below I imagine what a preview of the fight back in 1815 may have looked like ...

Richmond v Shelton: the Tale of the Tape

Name: William 'Bill' Richmond
Nickname: 'The Black'
Born: 5 August 1763, Staten Island, United States
Age: 51
Height: 5 feet 9 inches
Weight: 12 stone, 2 pounds
Career record: 17 mills, 15 wins, 2 losses
Boxing style and qualities: Expert in hitting and getting away, possessor of a terrible right-handed hit.
Typical quote: "A gentleman, sir, only uses his hands to defend himself, and not to attack; we call the pugilistic art, for that reason, the noble science of defence."
Career summary: After several impromptu set-tos in the north of England, where he was raised, educated and apprenticed after arriving on these shores with Earl Hugh Percy, Richmond entered the lists with a defeat against the seasoned George Maddox in January 1805 in a close contest. Thereafter, a run of three unbroken successes secured a contest with rising talent Tom Cribb, a tiresome contest in October 1805 which he lost. Since then, Richmond's science has become manifest to all and he has won all seven of his mills, albeit with several periods of inactivity. Richmond also won much notoriety when he mentored fellow former slave Tom Molineaux to the brink of championship honours, only for the American pretender to be vanquished by Cribb in two mighty contests in 1810 and 1811. Richmond is now an esteemed and respected member of the pugilistic corps, renowned for his good manners, milling anecdotes and tactical acumen.

Name:  Thomas 'Tom' Shelton
Nickname: 'The Navigator'
Born: 1 May 1787, Wrotham, Kent,
Age: 28
Height: 5 feet 10 inches
Weight: 12 stone, 7 pounds
Career record: 3 mills, 2 wins, 1 loss
Boxing style and qualities: Scientific boxer, good in-fighter, left-handed hitter.
Typical quote: "I like fighting; but I hate animosity."
Career summary: Shelton’s eccentric nature is best summed up by a series of events in September 1812; by the end of a day’s drinking in Hampstead, the Navigator had gambled away all his worldly possessions, whereupon he risked the only thing he had left – namely his life – on the roll of a dice. The luckless Shelton lost that wager too and, bound by a
twisted sense of honour, tried to hang himself on a street lamp. His first attempt failed, so he tried again, at which point a passing police officer intervened. Although the policeman succeeded in preventing Shelton’s suicide, he received two black eyes and a broken nose for his troubles. Thereafter, Shelton threw his hat into the prize ring, defeating Fitzgerald at Tothill Fields in August 1812, before losing a distinguished battle to Harry Harmer in April this year. In June, Shelton bounced back to the top of the lists by vanquishing a Suffolk farmer by the name of Studd.
 
Verdict: Private pique between Shelton and Richmond resulted in this contest, which now unreservedly occupies the attention of the Fancy. Odds were even until Shelton injured a knee in training, meaning  Richmond is now the slight favourite. Both men are first raters, and much hinges on whether the Black's considerable advantages in science will compensate for his deficit of youth compared to his opponent.

Richmond v Shelton is recreated this Saturday on www.twitter.com/boxianajournal
Richmond Unchained is published on 15 August

Richmond v Shelton: 200th anniversary

This Saturday marks the 200th anniversary of the Bill Richmond v Tom Shelton bare-knuckle boxing contest. By way of a celebration, I will be tweeting a live recreation of the fight, including many illustrations and images, via my twitter page @boxianajournal
 

Richmond versus Shelton was a fascinating event from both a sporting and a sociocultural perspective. In purely pugilistic terms, the fight represented the perfect conflict between 'youth' and 'experience' that has become such a trope of sporting discourse - taking place as it did just two days before Richmond's 52nd birthday, while Shelton was a mere 27 years old. The contest would ultimately prove to be the final official contest of Richmond's stellar career, and the only time that he fought at the iconic venue of Moulsey Hurst in Surrey on the southern banks of the river Thames.

Significantly, the bout took place less than two months after Britain's triumph in the Battle of Waterloo. The militaristic context of this, and many other Georgian prize fights, enables us to understand that for many people bare-knuckle boxing was a natural expression and off-shoot of Britain's military might and prowess.

Indeed, throughout the early part of the 19th century, the exploits of the country's leading pugilists inculcated many of the general public with a feeling of self-confidence that the nation would ultimately repel the challenge of France and Napoleon. Such confidence had been legitimised by the sensational events of Waterloo - hence by August, when Richmond fought Shelton, there was a sense of widespread pride and joy among the Fancy. No wonder, then, that over 10,000 spectators gathered on Tuesday 1 August to watch the contest!

As you would expect, newspapers published on 1 August were heavily preoccupied with the political and military fall-out from Waterloo and Napoleon's surrender, and speculation concerning 'Boney''s ultimate fate was a running theme in many journals. As the extract below from The Times of 1 August shows, some believed (or perhaps hoped!) that the former French emperor might end up in the Tower of London!

How then, did Bill Richmond - a black prize fighter who began life as a slave in the United States - fit into the celebration of British military and physical might that the sport of pugilism so often symbolised?

It's a fascinating question, and one which is examined in depth in my upcoming book Richmond Unchained. As a black celebrity within white-dominated Georgian England, Richmond was certainly in an unusual position; the Slave Trade Act of 1807 may have abolished the slave trade, but slavery itself still existed throughout the British Empire, as made clear by this advertisement which appeared in The Times the same day that Richmond faced Shelton.

 

Despite the continuing spectre of slavery, Richmond had achieved such a position of respectability and fame within sporting circles that his ethnicity was not mentioned or referred to in disparaging terms in reports of the Shelton fight. For example, the Morning Post's 1 August preview of the fight referred to him as "the black" and a "first rater", in sharp contrast to earlier in his career when he had been routinely disparaged by newspapers as "Mungo" or "Blacky".

By this stage of his career, Richmond's talents and fame seemed to render his ethnicity unimportant to many spectators and observers - one of many amazing achievements within his remarkable life.

Richmond v Shelton is recreated this Saturday on www.twitter.com/boxianajournal
Richmond Unchained is published on 15 August

Richmond v Wood commentary

Having enjoyed live tweeting many boxing matches on my Twitter account @boxianajournal, I have noticed with interest the trend on Twitter for live tweets of historical events as though they were happening right now.

9/11, JFK's assassination, the voyage of the Titanic and the House of Parliament burning down are among the events that have received this treatment, and I thought I would give this 'historical re-enactment' thing a go myself by tweeting 'as live' some of Bill Richmond's greatest fights.

I began on Saturday, 11 April, with Richmond versus Isaac 'Waterman' Wood. Appropriately enough, the live tweet of this event took place 206 years to the day since the fight took place.

The tweets from the full event are reproduced below! More live tweet events will follow in the months leading up to publication of Richmond Unchained in August.