Jacco Macacco - Record and Fighting Style

Record and Fighting Style

Jacco was reported to weigh 10 to 12 pounds (4.5 to 5.4 kg) and was pitched against dogs of up to twice his weight. The 1821 advertising broadsheet for his match against the 19-pound bitch states he was open to challenges from "any dog in England for 100 Guineas of 24lbs being double his own weight". According to Lennox:

His mode of attack, or rather of defence, was, at first, to present his back or neck to the dog, and to shift and tumble about until he could lay hold on the arm or chest, when he ascended to the windpipe, clawing and biting away, which usually occupied him about one minute and a half, and if his antagonist was not speedily with drawn, his death was certain; the monkey exhibited a frightful appearance, being deluged with blood — but it was that of his opponent alone; as the toughness and flexibility of his own skin rendered him impervious to the teeth of the dog.

Lennox writes that after several fights, Jacco adapted his technique and would overcome his canine opponents by leaping directly on their backs and manoeuvring himself into a position where he could tear at their windpipes while remaining out of reach of their jaws. Lennox reports him as having overcome fourteen opponents in total and the advertising broadsheet states he had already been involved in thirteen matches "with some of the best dogs of the day including his combat with the wonderful bitch Puss of T. Cribbs and the famed Oxford one". Both Berkeley and Lawrence Fitz-Barnard (writing in Fighting Sports in 1922) cast doubt on Jacco's ability to beat any canine opponent in an unrigged match though. Berkeley points to the bleeding of the dogs by Cribb and stresses the tendency of writers to exaggerate their accounts of simian ferocity and strength, while Fitz-Barnard dismisses out-of-hand the possibility of any but the largest apes being able to prevail against a fighting dog. Fitz-Barnard claims that Jacco was a "stock performer and put up a great battle with an indifferent dog. The monkey was given a club to assist him..." Most accounts agree that Jacco was held in a small cage when not fighting and was secured by a short length of thin metal chain during his matches.