For purity of sport, there was no beating boxing: no equipment (save for a couple gloves, but those were introduced much later), no field, only the most basic of rules. This was what made boxing one of the oldest sports, dating back to the Greeks, who believed the gods themselves on Mount Olympus engaged in similar. The sport was revived in 18th century Britain, particularly among the working class. James Figg, the founder of modern boxing, enjoyed an acclaimed championship from 1719-1730, and then left his progeny to keep up the legacy.

On this day, July 29, in 1754, Figg’s grandson Jack Slack defeated the Frenchman Jean Petit in a fight that lasted 25 minutes. This was Slack’s crowning achievement: the first ever match between France and England, and more widely the first international one of the modern era. Slack was a fighter with a formidable record, but widely considered crooked, with each of his opponents standing to gain as much as Slack from their defeat.

Matches for titles – or at least bragging rights – came about a century later, when the rivalry between England and America reached the docks of Hampshire, about 60 miles southwest of London. There, a 26-year-old American, John Carmel Heenan went up against the 34-year-old native son “Brighton Titch” Tom Sayers. The clash of the titans lasted over two and a half hours, and both men were still standing when police broke up the fight. Among the escapees in the crowd were Charles Dickens, W.M. Thackeray, and the prime minister himself, Lord Palmerston, who had to face some sharp questions from the Parliament several days later.