14/05/2025
English boxer Tom Sayers fought the ‘fight of the century’ at an outdoor ring near Farnborough, Hampshire in 1860. Considered by many as the first modern international boxing match, Heenan at 6ft 2in and 195lb towered above Sayers’s 5ft 8in and 149lb, the result of their meeting was one of the bloodiest and longest fights in history, ending in a draw and police storming the ring after 2 hours and 27 minutes of fighting.