Rob Colls and the Fight of the Century

Sport in History

In this episode Rob Colls examines the ‘Fight of the Century’ - between the American John Carmel Heenan and the British boxer ‘Brighton Titch’ Tom Sayers - which took place on 17th April 1860. The fight was a landmark in the history of international sport whose staging and coverage encapsulated many of the dramatic social, technological and economic changes taking place on both sides of the Atlantic in the Victorian era. Robert Colls is Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort and his latest book, This Sporting Life: Sport and Liberty in England 1760-1960 (OUP: 2020) won the prestigious Lord Aberdare Prize for the best work of sports history, awarded by the British Society of Sports History.

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