JEM MACE, SWAFFHAM GYPSY, PETIT, HYER
JEM MACE, the "SWAFFHAM GYPSY", PETIT, HYER
JEM MACE, "the SWAFFHAM GYPSY," a bareknuckle fighter, was called the father of scientific boxing.
JEM MACE
Right-handed; 5'9½"; 160 lbs
1831 April 8 born Beeston, Norwich, England
1910 March 3 died, age 79, England
MACE worked as an apprentice cabinetmaker and as a fiddler.
As a teenager in the environs of Norfolk, he used to play a fiddle in the manner of a cellist for the few coppers the music would bring.
He got into the business of boxing after a drunken fisherman busted his fiddle while he was playing outside a Yarmouth tavern.Annoyed, young Mace knocked the fisherman out.
A passerby who enjoyed the show,handed MACE a sovereign and advised him to take up the "Fancy" professionally.
Fiddleless, MACE trained briefly.
1855 Oct 2his first professional bout, defeated SLASHER TOM SLACK, Mildenhall, England in 9 rounds.
Then, POSH PRINCE and then won the heavyweight title from SAM HURST in 1861.
1861 June 18 knocked out SAM HURST in the 8th round, Medway, England.Hurst, a noted wrestler, out-weighed MACE by about 100 lbs.
As champion, MACE toured the county in a circus before facing TOM KING.
1862 JAN 28 defeated TOM KING, an ex-tar,in 43 rounds; Godstone, England. In rematch Nov 26, King upset Mace to win the championship.When King resused to fight mace again, Mace picked a fight with him on the street.Mace reclaimed the championship after King's retirement and defended it against Irishmen, Americans and Englishmen.
1863 Sept 1 defeated JOE GOSS; London, in 19 rounds.
With boxing in a decline in England, MACE then traveled to America for a few fights and eventually went to Sydney, Australia.There, he set up a most respectable boxing school.He greatly influenced Austrailia's progress as a fistic power and was indirectly responsible for the rise of such Antipodean stalwarts as PETER JACKSON, BOB FITZSIMMONS and FRANK SLAVIN.
In 1864 JOE COBURN went to England for the express purpose of fighting JEM MACE, the British champion.But when MACE refused to let a good friend of Coburn's act as referee, as Coburn insisted,the fight was called off and Coburn returned to America.
1870 May 10 defeated TOM ALLEN; Kennerville, LA in 10 rounds.
1870 Port Ryeson, Canada, police stopped bout with JOE COBURN before a winner was determined.
1871 Nov 30, 12 round draw, JOE COBURN, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Coburn emerged from retirement to have another go at MACE, who was now preaching the gospel of British boxing in America.The bout, held at Long Point, was one of the most nonsensical on record.Coburn, a clever boxer, had been informed that Mace's great skill lay in his ability to counter after his opponent jabbed or made any kind of lead.Coburn reasoned that if he refused to lead, no matter what opening was offered, MACE would be stymied.As indeedhe was.Coburn did not throw a single punch, and the twojigged around the ring, making head feints, shoulder feints and eye feints as though intent on doing furious damage.MACE as just as stubborn as COBURN.The crowd became restless and after an hour and seventeen minutes of the...
[end of my copy]
Mace continued to fight sporadically until he was in his sixties.His style was widely emulated in both England and America.
Mace spent the last years of his life back in England were he died at age 79.
Up to 1866 and for some time thereafter, professional prizefighting in England could be a cruel sport.
[Also called "the Fancy" or "the Sweet Science"...and bareknuckle fighting]
The London Prize Ring rules, adopted in 1838 and revised in 1853, didn't permit physical carnage...it was just the the umpires (referees) largely ignoredbrutality and spectators seemed to relish it as part of the entertainment.
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PETIT, HYER
It is interesting to note that the lone Frenchman whose name appears on the lists of fighters for bareknuckle purses between 1750 and 1830 was MONSIEUR PETIT...credited as the first Frenchman to take up boxing.He was six feet six inches tall..a monsters height for thse days...and weighed 220 pounds.
During the time that black warriors were fighting one another at Southern crossroads, little interest was being shown in boxing in the North, except in the waterfront areas.Not until 1816, in New York City, did JACOB HYER and TOM BEASLEY fight what was reportedly the first battle between white men under bareknuckle rules.That same year...HYER's son Tom was born.TOM HYER was later to make a consideralbe impression on the prizefight world.
[My source: ¹The Legendary Champions by Rex LARDNER.American Heritage Press;²The Boxing Register, Ref 796.83 ROB1977]
I will try to scan photos later.
Does anyone have Mace's full name?
I added PETIT and HYER...two names from Mace and RIFFLE lines...there may be a connection!
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