330 



and he having ordered that the fight should cease when the ropes 

 were cut and the police appeared, the men should have been taken 

 away : no cognisance was therefore taken of these supplementary- 

 rounds. 



Heenan, seeing how matters stood, and that the fight must be 

 declared " a draw," behaved himself, it must be regretfully stated, in a 

 most scandalous manner, and, to quote the words of BelVs Life, "while 

 Sayers was on his second's knee, Heenan rushed at him in an excited 

 state, let fly left and right at Tom's seconds, floored them, and kicked 

 them when on the ground in desperate s*-yle, after which he closed 

 with Sayers, and after a wild rally they fell together." 



The referee was then able to get near and again ordered the men to- 

 desist from fighting. They did so after having added five rounds and 

 fourteen minutes to the authorised termination. Many accounts of 

 this fight give forty-two rounds with two hours and twenty minutes. 

 But what I here state is the/«c^ of the matter. 



That Heenan was comparatively fresh, although terribly punished 

 and almost stone blind, is proved by his having rushed with the crowd 

 and run for some distance with the activity of a deer, immediately 

 after which he lost his sight totally, and collapsing altogether, he had 

 to be lifted bodily up the embankment and into the railway carriage. 



Sayers became quite fresh after a few minutes, while his eyes were 

 as good as ever, and, with the exception of his broken arm, he 

 showed comparatively few signs of the fearful punishment he 

 sustained. 



Upon returning to London, Heenan had to be put to bed, and did 

 not turn up for some days. Sayers, on the contrary, appeared in the 

 evening at one of the fighting pubs — I think at Langham's — and went 

 about London next day apparently as well as ever, but with his arm in 

 splints, hung in a sling, the radius bone having been broken. 



Never in the annals of British prize-fighting was there such a battle as. 

 this ; skill, science, and tact were displayed by both men to a degree 

 perhaps equalled but never surpassed, while each fought with courage 

 and determination to be admired for all time. Manliness and fairness 

 were displayed by both men, and without an attempt at shifting, each 

 gcorned to take a mean advantage. Evidence of this they frequently 

 gave during the fight, for which they were loudly and repeatedly 

 cheered alike by backers of both. 



AVhiie according to each equal share of courage, manliness, and 

 dogged determination to win, there can be no doubt Sayers was the 

 best man. This is abundantly proved by the fact that for thirty- one 

 rounds, occupying just one hour and forty minutes, he, with his left 

 hand and bothered with the sun, fought, until he blinded him, the 

 man who was four inches and a half taller, weighed three stone five 

 pounds more, and was eight years younger. 



Of course it was Heenan's blow broke Sayers' arm ; but that, it cannot 

 be denied, was nothing but a chance blow. If that fluke had not 



