page_title: John C. Heenan
section_title: The fight with Tom Sayers
hierarchical_section_title: John C. Heenan / Prize ring career / The fight with Tom Sayers
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting by artist and former boxer Jem Ward of the fight for the "Championship of England and America" between Thomas Sayers and John C. Heenan in 1860.
context_page_description: John Camel Heenan, also known as the Benicia Boy was an American bare-knuckle prize fighter. Though highly regarded, he had only three formal fights in his career, losing two and drawing one.
  Heenan is best remembered for his second contest, when he traveled to England to fight British champion Tom Sayers. The bout ended in chaos when spectators broke into the ring and the police intervened. The referee finally called a draw. The Benicia Boy came home to a hero's welcome, but later returned to England where he had just one more fight, losing controversially to new British champion, Tom King. He died at Green River Station, Wyoming Territory in October 1873, and is buried at St Agnes Cemetery, Albany, New York.
context_section_description: The prize ring was also illegal in England, and by 1859 it was followed only by a small number of enthusiasts. But the Heenan–Sayers contest caught the public imagination in both countries. As Harper's Weekly put it, "the bulk of the people in England and America are heart and soul engrossed in a fight compared to which a Spanish bull-bait is but a mild and diverting pastime."
  On the other side of the Atlantic, The Manchester Guardian observed that "no pugilistic contest ever decided has excited so great an interest, both in this and other countries, as the forthcoming conflict between Sayers and Heenan."
  Heenan's training (unlike that of Sayers) was frequently disrupted by the interventions of police and magistrates, but by the day of battle he was in prime condition, and confident of victory over an opponent eight years older, forty pounds lighter and five inches shorter. The fight came off at Farnborough, Hampshire on 17 April 1860.
   In Heenan's corner were seconds, Jack MacDonald and James Cusick.
  In a fierce and protracted battle, both men were handicapped from an early stage – Sayers by an injury to his right arm after it was hit with a heavy blow in the 6th round, and Heenan by being unable to see through his swollen right eye, an injury he picked up in the 7th round. The action went on for forty-two rounds spread over more than two hours, by the end of which Heenan's face was so cut and bruised as to be virtually unrecognisable (in addition to his right-eye being closed early in the contest, it was observed that his left eye was nearly shut in the 33rd round).
  The defining moment came in the 37th round when Heenan almost illegally strangled Sayers by forcing his head down over the top rope. Amidst scenes of chaos, the ropes were cut, the crowd surged into the fighting area. Although it is generally believed that the police intervened at this point and stopped the fight, this was not the case.
  The mayhem brought on by the ring invasion was brought to near-order and the ring was re-pitched yards away. The fight restarted with neither man able to box proficiently. Heenan was to say much later that he was nearly blind when the second bout began. The fight went on for five rounds until the police were seen approaching, causing the crowd and fighters to immediately disperse.
  The referee had little option but to declare a draw, but the American Heenan complained bitterly that police had colluded with Sayers's supporters in breaking up the fight as soon as it became clear that the Englishman was beaten. Sayers's supporters protested that their man, not Heenan, had actually been the winner. The wrangling went on for some weeks.
  Heenan loudly demanded a rematch, but Sayers's damaged arm made this impossible, and the two men were finally reconciled, each being awarded a championship belt. They then went on a joint tour of the country, but only the relative success of the Irish and Scottish legs of this tour redeemed the failure of the English part. Heenan returned to the United States, setting out on 4 July 1860. He was forced to leave his championship belt behind as it was kept as security against a sum of money advanced to the jeweller who had made the belt. A large crowd of "sporting men" thronged the London station from which Heenan departed on his way to Southampton to catch the steamer to America. When Sayers arrived with his little boy and Owen Swift to bid farewell to the Benicia Boy, there "commenced such cheering as had never been heard before between the walls of that station". 
  On his return, Heenanwas given a hero's welcome and a gift of $10,000 raised by public subscription.
caption: The Sayers–Heenan fight as depicted by ex-boxer Jem Ward.
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