Tom Cribb - Britain's best ever boxer by Russ Middleton Jan 11th 2008

BBN welcomes Russ Middleton to our writing team. He immediately puts his neck on the block and argues that Britain's best is a man buried deep in the history books... That old question? Greatest British fighter ever? If it was possible to bestow such an accolade? If one could compare eras? Turpin? Could be. Only champion for sixty-four days though. We need a man beating all comers year after year. Calzaghe? Maybe. Barely a household name in his own country though. We need a man saturated with charisma, a name on the lips of kings and tramps alike. Lewis? Perhaps. Suspect chin some say, scarcely British say others, prone to laziness site the hyper-critical. We need a man chiselled from marble and as British as the Queen (saying Max Schmeling at this point is not witty). McGuigan? Close but no cigar or muesli based energy bar as it probably is these days. Nears the top of my list but… see Turpin. Buchanan? Good shout. Lost to Duran. We need a man who is both Buchanan and Duran. Benn? Possibly. He is my choice, usually. But sometimes, in times of reflection, when considering all the above attributes (and plenty of faults) for sheer adventure and romance, I plump for Tom Cribb. Hear me out. Born in a coal village just outside Bristol in 1781, Cribb moved to London aged just thirteen. He worked in the wharves of Wapping as a porter and coal-heaver. Other than honing his physique the job nearly killed him. Twice he was crushed in accidents, once resulting in him coughing up blood for some time afterwards. There is also evidence to suggest he fought with the Royal Navy against the French, leaving in 1804. Quite an impressive young man, even before he had had his first public fight. That came in January, 1805. He fought George Maddox at Wood Green, London. He was eased into this first public appearance, beating Maddox in just the seventy-six rounds! After those bare-fisted, seventy-six rounds and two hours and twenty minutes, Cribb was back a month later beating Tom 'Tough' Blake to win the highly respectable purse of forty guineas. Fluctuating around the fourteen stone mark, Cribb stood a modest 5ft 10ins, however, between bouts he tended to enjoy his new found, relative wealth and was known to blow-up to sixteen stone. This contributed to his first defeat against George Nicholls in the summer of 1805. Cribb fought this fifty-two rounder in Hampshire, (legend has it) under the influence of alcohol. Whether this is true or a story made up by Cribb's zealous fans later on to explain what is apparently the singular Cribb defeat will never be known. Still within the same year Cribb was to face arguably his toughest task to date, The Black Terror, Bill Richmond. Though advanced in years and the much smaller man, this Yorkshire educated, son of a Georgia slave was a skilled operator and perplexed Cribb for a lengthy spell until the more powerful man came through, taking an hour and a half to do so. Ten fights into his prize fighting career (notable for two fights against fellow Bristolian and ex-champion Jem Belcher which Cribb won in admittedly gruelling contests against his fast-fading, half-blind opponent) the incumbent champion John Gully retired. Cribb was heralded as the new champion of England. Enter Tom Molineaux. Molineaux, a black, American former slave purportedly won his freedom in the ring, moved to New York and from there sailed to England seeking pugilistic fame by beating the best there was(matters were the other way around then it seems). Here the story takes another amazing turn, though no proof exists, legend has it that the young Molineaux was discovered by none other than Bill Richmond. Molineaux duly dispatched of Tom 'Tough' Blake and a match was arranged with Tom Cribb. Cribb declined the challenge initially until the American upstart called Cribb a coward. Much peer pressure ensued and the mild-mannered Bristolian accepted. Molineaux was a ferocious fighter with similarities to Cribb in many ways. They were similar of height (Cribb an inch taller) and similar weight. They had both previously worked as dockers, they shared a love of a lifestyle that was not very good for them and were both, by all accounts disarmingly generous of spirit. There are anecdotes that have Cribb giving all the wealth he carried to beggars and another of him striking a man he happened across being cruel to a pig, Cribb only knocking out the bully after he had taken an ill-advised swing at the champion. On a bitterly cold December day in 1810 the men came to scratch at Copthall Common, Sussex. The cruel conditions may have been alien to Molineaux but the crowd were soon stunned as an out of condition Cribb began to take a beating. The unimaginable sight of a black man administering a thrashing to the Champion of England was a near riot inducing anathema to the twenty-thousand strong Georgian audience. They need not have feared. Two occurrences came into play to swing the fight around. Firstly, a canny and unsporting act from Cribb's corner. His second, Joe Ward, seeing his charge reeling from another heavy blow started to call foul. He made such a raucous protest that the officials were obliged to check his claims that the challenger had concealed some heavy material in his fists, evidently stones or bullets. The incident was so prolonged that Molineaux became half-paralyzed with cold by the time the accusations proved false. The second unaccounted for phenomenon was Cribb's undying and enormous heart. A half-expended champion called deep down to his seemingly endless resources. The scything rain slashed Molineaux as Cribb, taking over began to pound him. In the fortieth round and after nearly an hour, a shattered and demoralised challenger buckled. Cribb immediately announced his retirement only for the reinvigorated American (within a week) to declare himself champion should Cribb refuse him a return. The English sporting public was dumbfounded by this perceived insolence. Cribb, now an unequalled superstar was almost press-ganged into a return. The wealthy Captain Barclay was charged with training Cribb for the return. Pugilists rarely trained specifically for fights to any degree at the time but Barclay was having none of it. He gently cajoled Cribb into lengthy walks in Scotland and gradually stepped it up until Cribb was sparring away and his weight was down to an unprecedented thirteen and a half stone. It is thought that the good living Molineaux had been enthusiastically enjoying the hospitality of the capital while his nemesis was training hard. Over fifteen thousand made their way to Thistleton Gap in Rutland on the 28th September, 1811. Cribb began the bout by hammering away at the (allegedly beer laden) body of the challenger. After switching to the head Cribb broke Molineaux's jaw and presumably his heart as, soon after, Molineaux went down and could not make scratch. On his way back to London, Cribb paid a battered Molineaux a visit at his lodgings before continuing to a hero's welcome the capital could not remember the like of. He retired again and the boxing fraternity decided that Cribb should be declared champion for the rest of his life. The champion settled to life as a publican in London where the pugilist philanthropist continued his ways by taking in and employing an impoverished German dwarf, even taking legal action against an aggressor who was ultimately fined for injuring the diminutive waiter. Cribb ran into financial difficulties (he was never paid monies he had lent) and his pub in Piccadilly was handed over to cover his debts. He is honoured to this day by a nearby pub baring his name. A benefit by fellow boxers was staged for him in 1840 and he went to live with his son at his bakers in Woolwich High Street, London. Tom became ill at the address and eventually died on 11th May, 1848. He was 66. It scrambles one's senses to contemplate now the extremes of pain and endurance Cribb and those like him suffered in the ring. Fighting in all weathers, bare-fisted, for hours. Fighting on with broken bones and unrecognisable with horrific lacerations. The bouts ended when a man could not raise himself to his feet and sometimes that point could not be reached in just the one day. All that said, Cribb was not reviled. He was not a brutal man by nature, on the contrary, he displayed humanitarian qualities that would stagger even the more genteel environs of today. His fights drew aristocrats, parliamentarians and poets as well as the common man and the fights were not even legal. In 1821, Cribb along with seventeen leading fighters was invited to the coronation of George IV - Cribb was a page. He was a quietly spoken man from the West Country who had left the familiar as a child, had survived two near fatal accidents and who fought the best men who were put in front of him and retired with an almost unblemished record. He has been credited with introducing boxing on the retreat to the ring, with being the first boxer to train seriously for bouts all with sometimes debilitating faults as a fighter (as notably displayed against Belcher). But markedly, he was also credited with possessing a heart the size of Bristol, the heart of a lion. If you ever happen to be in Woolwich, strolling along the High Street take a peak up at 111, where Tom ended his days, maybe doff your cap, perhaps make a quick pilgrimage to St.Mary's Churchyard where, in the corner, a large monument rests with the simple inscription, 'respect the ashes of the dead'. These are the remains of Tom Cribb, the boxer, the gentleman, the champion, the superstar. The stone statue that stands protecting the ashes? A lion.

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thanks for reply russ - heres mine! Jan 15th 2008, 10:51:37 by jbslegend russ, a lot is made of the fact that these men fought for hours on end, 100 rounds etc. what everyone forgets is that a 'round' in those days consisted of as long as the fighters wanted it to - and to get breaks they went down often. so a round rarely went 2 minutes. and if it did go further, they spent most of the time circling each other to avoid punishment. sometimes 20 minutes would go by without a punch being thrown! ive done a bit of bare knuckle fighting as well as gloved, so i know the score here. as for nigel benn, a schooled, highly conditioned boxer - it would have all been over very quickly. interesting article russ. but i think its about getting it in perspective! thanks   Mike Jan 15th 2008, 08:47:44 by rj Thanks Mike, yep, I can never really get my head around the punishment these guys took (and then fight a few weeks later). mind boggling. Thanks again. Russ.   in reply Jan 15th 2008, 08:44:29 by rj I appreciate your comments jbslegend, however the piece was a fantasy land scenario. As I stated when 'considering the faults and the romance' and 'if one could compare eras', which we can't. I state that Benn is my number one but when cosidering what these men went through they deserve a mention. Would Benn have beaten a fifteen stone man in icy rain, bare knuckled for maybe a hundred rounds? A man he couldn't hit with full force to the head should his bare hand break? A man adept at throwing him to the floor should he attempt to hold? Yeah, he probably would but we will never really know for certain, just the way it should be. Cribb, just a brawler? I don't agree but if he was he was playing with the rules he was given, he was of his time and at the cutting edge forefront of it, the best bloody brawler in England. Thanks again.   i dont think so russ Jan 15th 2008, 06:45:12 by jbslegend The 'boxers' from days of fore, right up to in fact, the coming of joe louis, were merely brawlers with very little boxing skill. cribb and his contempories were more wrestlers than boxers. none of these guys would figure even at club level today. its ludicrous to assume otherwise. richard dunn wouldve wiped them out one after the other with ease, never mind lennox lewis! Who's to say that Tom Cribb, if born in another era, would not have been similarly dominant? No one is expecting to transport the same Tom Cribb and put him in with Lennox Lewis, are they? Ed.   Nice 1 Jan 14th 2008, 16:40:33 by bigpunno Those old time fighters don't get the recognition they should. It's total madness the amount they had to endure. Unbelievable mate, well written Russ. Mike Pendegast.