Jewish Boxers

In the late 18th and early 19th Century there were several famous Jewish boxers - also known as pugilists. The most famous was Daniel Mendoza, another was Aby (Abraham) Belasco. They were cousins and friends. Both were relatives of a current Coventry Jewish family. Their fights took place all over the country - anywhere where disapproving magistrates had not yet banned them! They both passed through Coventry.

On Wednesday 9th December 1818, Aby Belasco's fought and beat Joe Townsend in a boxing bout in Coventry. The victory took a total of twenty-four minutes in the ring, and was recorded in Fistiana: The Oracle of the Ring - A brief history of Pugilism, 1841. Aby developed his boxing technique, the 'Belasco System' as a display of science. On that day in Coventry, Aby Belasco won the prize of Ten Guineas.

The same month Belasco and his more famous friend and cousin, Daniel Mendoza, were together promoting the 'Moral Tendency of Boxing' by exhibiting demonstrations of the 'art of self-defence'. Their advertising for this read 'To Gentlemen, it may prove more than amusing, by initiating them into the principles of science, by which the weak and inoffensive are sometimes preserved from the ruffian assault of the powerful vulgar'. Sadly for Mendoza, who was far from being weak, it would be in Coventry where he himself needed to put those lessons into action ...

Daniel Mendoza had a long and successful career, and was the boxing champion of England from 1792 to 1795. He wrote the definitive instruction manual on boxing: 'The art of boxing'. He developed the sport from a rough and brutal fight, into a scientific art form. 

In June 1795 Daniel Mendoza, who never hid his Jewish heritage, was set upon in Coventry and beaten up. In Mendoza's biography 'The Fighting Jew', by Wynn Wheldon, it is described that Daniel Mendoza 'was viciously attacked, beaten up and robbed by a gang on the outskirts of Coventry. ‘They were supposed to be a gang of disappointed bruisers who went down from London on this brutal errand,’ reported the Morning Post.'

In Daniel Mendoza's own memoirs, he plays done the encounter, describing it as 'harassing exertions'. All to often Jewish people play down such anti-Semitic acts to try and avoid provoking anything further. Today it is vital that we all play our part in bringing understanding, tolerance and respect of those who may be different from ourselves. 

See these Links for further information:  (Note: These are external links for which we have no responsibility for the content)

• Aby Belasco Wikipedia page

• Daniel Mendoza in the International Boxing Hall of Fame

• Daniel Mendoza Wikipedia page