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Since I've been fired (not my fault) I have too much time on my hands, so while reading up on the Figg era I have come to believe that there was a lot of suspicious activity going on.
to wit, the bareknuckle era is notorious for the brutality of the sport. blood, broken bones and swollen eyes were the norm and as anyone knows it takes a while to heal from those kind of injuries. what raises my suspicons
-the amount of fights these early bareknuckle fighters had in comparison to the guys who fought later. Tom Pipes and George Gretting passed the title back and forth and met at least 5 times, then in turn were beaten multiple times by Jack Broughton, and George Taylor beat them as well, and then those two went on to become journeymen. Broughton beat everyone multiple times, and probably had close to 15 fights. Prince Boswell was advertised or known to have appeared in over 20 bouts.
other Bareknucklers (like Paddington Jones) had a lot of bouts but they were few and far between and a lot of those were against guys who weren't of top class or there would be more bouts recorded for them.
-These guys also had long series in some cases, to wit pipes v gretting and Taylor and Boswell were advertised to fight at least 7 times. even today guys don't fight 5 times or more, let alone in such a brutal fashion as bareknuckle fights were.
-The fight game in the time period I'm talking about from 1720-1750 was fought primarily in london at indoor arenas like figg's, taylor's and broughton's theatres. the fighters were paid a share of the reciepts, and as any good promoter knows, if you pack the house you make more money. Create a situation where top level guys were fighting each other regularly, winning on alternate occasions leads to a point where you can see that it would be in their interests to go along for the money.
fighting often, against the same opponents, where drawing money is a huge consideration, awfully suspicious.
to wit, the bareknuckle era is notorious for the brutality of the sport. blood, broken bones and swollen eyes were the norm and as anyone knows it takes a while to heal from those kind of injuries. what raises my suspicons
-the amount of fights these early bareknuckle fighters had in comparison to the guys who fought later. Tom Pipes and George Gretting passed the title back and forth and met at least 5 times, then in turn were beaten multiple times by Jack Broughton, and George Taylor beat them as well, and then those two went on to become journeymen. Broughton beat everyone multiple times, and probably had close to 15 fights. Prince Boswell was advertised or known to have appeared in over 20 bouts.
other Bareknucklers (like Paddington Jones) had a lot of bouts but they were few and far between and a lot of those were against guys who weren't of top class or there would be more bouts recorded for them.
-These guys also had long series in some cases, to wit pipes v gretting and Taylor and Boswell were advertised to fight at least 7 times. even today guys don't fight 5 times or more, let alone in such a brutal fashion as bareknuckle fights were.
-The fight game in the time period I'm talking about from 1720-1750 was fought primarily in london at indoor arenas like figg's, taylor's and broughton's theatres. the fighters were paid a share of the reciepts, and as any good promoter knows, if you pack the house you make more money. Create a situation where top level guys were fighting each other regularly, winning on alternate occasions leads to a point where you can see that it would be in their interests to go along for the money.
fighting often, against the same opponents, where drawing money is a huge consideration, awfully suspicious.