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A print representing the start of a boxing match between Tom Molineaux and Thomas Cribb, on September 28, 1811 at Thistleton Gap in Rutland.
[Public Domain] 
THE GREAT and most famous anti-US slavery abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, railed against the way southern slave masters regularly pitted their slaves against those of other slave masters in boxing and wrestling matches and gambled on the outcome.
Douglass described these bouts as “safety valves, designed to carry off the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity.”
In her magisterial work — Boxing: A Cultural History — Kasia Boddy reveals that “Douglass set up a school to teach his fellow slaves to read, but this had to be kept secret, ‘for they (the slave masters) had much rather see us engaged in these degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings’.”
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In recently published book Baddest Man, Mark Kriegel revisits the Faustian pact at the heart of Mike Tyson’s rise and the emotional fallout that followed, writes JOHN WIGHT
As we mark the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, JOHN WIGHT reflects on the enormity of the US decision to drop the atom bombs
From humble beginnings to becoming the undisputed super lightweight champion of the world, Josh Taylor’s career was marked by fire, ferocity, and national pride, writes JOHN WIGHT
