On the morning of 17 April 1860 boxing's inaugural "world title" international boxing match took place and, illegal as it may have been, sporting historians on each side of the Atlantic accept that Heenan v Sayers, US v England, in a Hampshire field, was the one and only true beginning – the very first of many thousands of "fights of the century".
John Carmel Heenan, 25, had made a belligerent name for himself as an "enforcer" in rigged elections in and around the sweatshops of the steamship dockyards at Benicia, San Francisco. Gambling backers and buddies had nominated him as all-American champ to take on England's famed title-holder, the 34-year-old "Brighton Titch" Tom Sayers, the "small, clever little ring general", as the public prints described.
On the arrival of Heenan's party at Liverpool, excitement spread. As Bob Mee's colourful 2001 classic Bare Fists has it: "In drawing rooms and drinking houses, in the workhouse and in Westminster, men chewed over the merits, day and night, of Heenan and Sayers. Was it in some kind of massed relief to the close of the Crimean War in 1856, or a subconscious revolt against new disciplines imposed by the Imperial spirit?"
No sooner had 17 April, pre-dawn and Waterloo Station been whispered than vast crowds swamped the London platforms for the fleet of south-bound "specials". Three-guinea tickets were stamped "To Nowhere". The new 30-year-old Metropolitan Police dotted "Peelers" down the track for 15 miles to ensure at least that the contest would not take place on their "manor".
The fields near the tiny village of Farnborough were black with people as the contestants stripped down. "We have a fine morning for our business," Heenan said. "If a man can't fight and win on such a crisp morning, then he can't fight at all", said Sayers. At 6ft 2in and 195lb Heenan towered above Sayers's 5ft 8in and 149lb as they were called to the "scratch" at 7.29 am. Each severely battered and bloodied, yet unbowed, they would finish, level pegging, tit for tat, their business unsettled as a draw and with all bets off, fully two hours 27 mins and 42 rounds later when the Aldershot police, brandishing magistrates' warrants, stormed the ring.
As the reporter from Bell's Life described: "The final round was merely a wild scramble, both men ordered to desist from fighting. The Blues being now in force, there was, of course, no chance of the men continuing, and adjournment was necessary. Heenan had rushed away from the ring, and ran some distance with the activity of a deer, and although he was as fit as ever, he was obviously totally blind. Sayers, although tired, was also strong on his pins and could have fought some time longer, although by then the authorities were up in arms in all directions, so it would be a mere waste of time to go elsewhere."
The two men shared the "purse" of £400. Sayers also dodged the police and entrained "to drink champagne at The Swan in the Old Kent Road". He never fought again and was dead at 39, more than 30,000 attending his Highgate funeral in November 1865. Post-fight, Heenan spent 48 hours "in a totally darkened room in Osborne's Hotel in the Adelphi"; he died in poverty in Wyoming in 1873, aged 38.