333 



aged only 39^ years. He was buried in Highgate Old Cemetery near 

 the top gate. A massive marble monument, with an excellent likeness 

 of the gallant fellow carved on the front and another of his favourite 

 mastiff at the foot, now marks the resting-place of the greatest prize- 

 fighter that ever lived. Two days ago I hung a wreath of oak leaves 

 over the poor fellow. 



I met Heenan soon after his fight with Sayers and we spent some 

 evenings together. Xo one would ever take him for a prize-fighter 

 unles? they crossed fists with him. He was refined both in manner 

 and taste, while ia figure he was about the most perfect model of 

 a man I ever saw. Some of the old folk of Waterford may still 

 remember the time when he came there with some big travelliog circus, 

 and when " a local amateur " entertaiaed a large audience by putting 

 on the gloves with him in the sawpit. 



He subsequently fought Tom King for the original belt and £1,000 

 a-side on December 8, 18G3, but was defeated in thirty-five minutes 

 after a hard fight of twenty-four rounds. Observing the etiquette of 

 the P.B.A., Sayers seconded Heenan in this fight. Alas ! what a 

 miserable and melancholy remains was he of what he was when the 

 two met but a few years before in the famous Farnborough field. 



Heenan also went into consumption, but I don'c think it was pro- 

 duced from dissipation. When travelling south to a warm climate 

 he was seized with violent hemorrhage at Rawlin Station, in Utah 

 County, on the Union Pacific Railway, where he bled to death in a 

 few minutes on October 25, 1873, aged, by a curious coincidence, 

 exactly the same as Sayers, viz., 39| years. 



I suppose I shall be pitched into by some of my friends for thus 

 describing at such length the prize-fight between Sayers and Heenan. 

 Valuing as I do the good opinion of everyone, I care not if I be. To give 

 an account of a fight such as this, unparalleled as it is in every way for 

 magnanimity, is what I feel pleasure, if not pride, in being able to do. 

 Were I to allude in these pages to other so-called fights, particularly 

 those which have taken place within recent years, I would indeed not 

 alone deserve condemnation but, absolutely, I should disgrace my 

 book. 



The "fights" of the present day with stakes of £2,000 and upwards 

 are more inferior in manliness to the old than are the stakes superior 

 in value. 



Throughout portions of this book, when making comparisons between 

 the past and present, I gave my opinions. Many of them, including 

 what I now say about the old and new system of prize-fighting, will 

 doubtless be traversed by my readers. I shall therefore bring evidence 

 to back me in this case as I did in others. It will be found in the 

 following record of Tom Sayers, by which it will be seen that out of 

 sixteen battles he was beaten only once. He fought three draws, and won 

 outright twelve battles. He won the Belt by his victory over the 

 Tipton Slasher, and had four times to defend it (marked a). Deduct- 



