The Black Boxers

For many years after prize fighting flourished in England, the white man reigned supreme and it was seldom that a principal with black skin ventured to dare fortune in the ring. Here and there in the old records, we read of a Negro donning the mufflers, generally some servant of a spark of nobility who had taught his valet a little of the science which he himself had learned from a pugilistic star.

Bill Richmond, the son of a Georgia born slave who drifted North as the property of Reverend John Charlton, was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean and display in British rings the science he had absorbed while working on a plantation.

He was born on August 5, 1763, on Staten Island, New York, and was the forerunner of a great array of Negro ringmen whose deeds have gained for them a niche in the Boxing Hall of Fame.

During 1777, while New York was held by British troops, Richmond, by whipping in quick succession three English soldiers who had set upon him in a tavern, attracted the attention of General Earl Percy, who afterwards became the Duke of Northumberland. The British General took Richmond into his household, and under his patronage the Negro, who was only a middleweight, defeated several top heavyweights. His first defeat was at the hands of George Maddox.

With several victories under his belt, Richmond looked for bigger prey and challenged Tom Cribb. Cribb accepted and knocked Richmond out.

That defeat was taken to heart by Richmond. He temporarily retired and didn't appear again in a public ring until he faced Jack Carter at Epsom Downs on April 25, 1809.

Though he clashed with one of England's best heavyweights and was knocked down in the second round, Richmond quickly recovered and at the end of twenty-five minutes he battered his man into submission.

In his next contest, the American beat Atkinson of Bandbury in twenty minutes and followed that with a victory over Ike Wood, a waterman, on April 11, 1809, in twenty-three rounds.

On August 9, 1809 Richmond again faced his first conqueror, George Maddox, and the latter, then fifty-four years old, was stopped in the fifty - second round.

For four years Richmond remained idle, then at the age of fifty-two he made a successful comeback by beating Tom Davis and Tom Shelton.

In 1818 Jack Carter, then aspiring to the championship, threw down the gauntlet to the American invader, who accepted the defi, and on November 12, the former slave, despite his fifty - six years, downed his man and emerged the victor. That fight was Richmond's last.

Richmond died on December 28, 1829, in London at the age of sixty - six. He was the first native-born American to acquire high honors in the ring. It was his success that induced another Negro warrior, also hailing from this side of the Atlantic, the celebrated Tom Molineaux, to invade the London field. Tom came from a family of fighters. He was born in Virginia on March 23, 1784.

When he landed in England, he resolved to follow in Richmond's footsteps. With Richmond's help, he found a backer who matched him with Burrows, the "Bristol Unknown." The latter was a protégé of Tom Cribb, who won the championship in 1809 and then retired.

Much to Cribb's chagrin, Burrows was hopelessly outclassed and Cribb, determined on avenging this defeat, selected Tom Blake, a veteran of many battles, as the Negro's next opponent. Blake was also defeated. Cribb's choice proved a disappointment and it was this defeat and Molineaux's claim to the heavyweight title that caused Cribb to accept Molineaux's challenge.

This international title bout on December 18, 1810, at Copthall Common, was the first between a Negro and white man in which the crown was involved. Cribb was returned the victor in thirty-three rounds and he retired temporarily.

Unable to coerce Cribb into a return engagement, the American issued a challenge to any man in England, and this was accepted by Joe Rimmer. Molineaux once more claimed the heavyweight championship after defeating Rimmer, and Cribb came to his country's rescue by agreeing to fight Molineaux again.

The fight took place at Thistleton Gap, Leicester, with a crowd computed at 25,000 in attendance, and lasted nineteen minutes and eleven seconds with Cribb the victor. Molineaux died on August 4, 1818, at the age of thirty-four.

Tom Cribb, still champion, had fought his last battle, and on May 18, 1822, he named Tom Spring as the successor to his throne.

Cribb, born at Hanham, Gloucestershire, July 8, 1781, engaged in eleven contests, then retired. He opened a public house, "The Union Arms," and was well patronized. He died in his sixty-eighth year.