Tom Sayers - Prize Ring Career

Prize Ring Career

Although the prize ring had long been illegal, it continued as an underground activity, and Sayers, having earned a considerable reputation from a number of informal fights, decided to try to make a living with his fists. His first contest as a professional was in March 1849, when he defeated Abe Couch (or Crouch).

In 1853, after three more victories, he challenged Nat Langham, who, despite the absence of formal weight divisions, was widely accepted as England’s middleweight champion. This was Sayers's toughest fight so far, and a combination of illness and inexperience contributed to his first and only defeat. The wily Langham gained the upper hand by temporarily blinding his opponent with frequent blows to the eyes.

Still, Sayers had fought well, and defeat did not damage his career. But his marriage that same year to Sarah Henderson, by now old enough to marry without her father’s permission, was soon in ruins as she left to live with another man. To make matters worse, on top of an expensive failure to set himself up as a publican, he had great difficulty arranging another payday in the ring: after one further victory, men of his own size considered him just too dangerous.

Finally and in desperation, he took the bold step of challenging a leading heavyweight. The convention – though it was never a formal rule – was that men fought others of their own size, and few gave him much chance against the highly-regarded Harry Paulson. Sayers, however, was undaunted, and in January 1856, a convincing victory raised him to a new level.

Thus it was that the following year he fought Bill Perry, the Tipton Slasher, for the national championship. Although written off by most of the experts, Sayers won comfortably, and went on to defeat several more opponents before accepting in 1859 a challenge from US champion John Camel Heenan known as the Benicia Boy.