5.—Jones, without ceremony, planted two nobbers; he also caught hold of his adversary and gave him a severe cross-buttock, shaking Savage, his nob coming on the grass and his pins in the air. (“There’s a burster!” said the Lively Kid; and the friends of Jones were loud in their marks of approbation. Seven to four.)
6.—Savage showed game to the backbone, and rallying was the result; in closing, both were down.
7.—Jones’s left hand was exceedingly troublesome, but Savage several times made skilful stops. In fact, this was a well-fought round on both sides, until the combatants were upon the ground.
8–10.—The gameness of Savage was the admiration of the ring in all these rounds; and he also satisfied the spectators that he was not deficient in science. Savage’s left eye was in mourning and otherwise damaged, and his face exhibited severe marks of punishment. Jones took the lead, kept it like a master, and finished all the rounds in his favour. The mug of the Sailor Boy was as clear from blows as when he commenced the battle. (Two to one and higher odds on Jones.)
11–13.—All these rounds were decidedly in favour of Jones; and the latter showed himself also the best man in obtaining the falls. Savage was floored by a tremendous hit on his left peeper; and his pimple shook again from the violent effects of the blow.
14.—Savage was under good instruction, having the Pet of the Fancy at his elbow, and Bill endeavoured to profit by his advice; nevertheless, the Sailor Boy could not be reduced, and he, in general, finished the round in his favour.
15.—Counter-hits, but Savage had the worst of the punishment. (“Long bowls,” said Curtis to Savage, “will not answer; you must yard-arm it with your adversary.”) Savage endeavoured to do as Curtis wished him, and he resolutely went in to work; the Sailor Boy hit him right away, enough to floor an ox, but the Welshman was too game to go down. Savage continued the round in the highest style of courage, until he was thrown cleverly. (“Any odds,” and “Jones, it is all your own.”)
Any further detail of the rounds would be useless; enough has been stated to show that the Sailor Boy was completely the hero of the tale, and reduced conquest almost to a certainty. Jones had never lost the lead for a moment, but he now took it most decidedly. If Savage stood out he was jobbed—if he went in he was weaved and thrown. The fine fighting of Jones was the admiration of the whole ring, and the delight of all who had not risked their money against him. But Savage fully supported his character as one of the gamest of the game; though he had not the slightest chance of winning he refused to give in, and continued to obey the call of time, in spite of reiterated cries of “Take him away!” In the twenty-first round Harry planted a left-hander on Bill’s nose, and also threw him heavily. In the thirty-second round Savage fought with amazing spirit, and put in two or three good right-handed bodiers, but Jones finished the round by giving him a tremendous cross-buttock. In the thirty-fifth round Harry was winded and was troubled with sickness, no uncommon occurrence with him in a long fight. Savage, cheered on by Curtis, endeavoured to take advantage of this circumstance and some little alarm was in fact felt by those who were not well acquainted with Harry; but the efforts of Savage were entirely vain. Sick as he was, Harry had the best of the round, and in the half-minute’s respite that followed Jones brought up the troublesome matter, and was soon “all right” again. In the forty-ninth round Jones threw Savage and fell on him, but under the able management of his seconds he recovered sufficiently to obey the call of “Time.” It was clear, however, that Savage could not see his man. Ned Savage entered the ring in the fifty-fourth round and threw up his hat, declaring that his brother should fight no more. Harry capered about the ring for victory, but to the surprise of all present Bill declared he would not give in. He fought or rather groped his way through a couple more rounds, when his seconds, seeing that he had not the “shadow of a shade” of chance took him away, and Harry Jones was declared the victor, after a most gallant fight of fifty-six rounds, in one hour and thirty-five minutes.
Remarks.—Savage showed himself as brave a man as ever pulled off a shirt, and as being able to stop with considerable skill. His blows did not tell in out-fighting, his distances were incorrect, and when he closed he could not punish. He had hitherto been considered a good wrestler, but Harry almost always threw him. Indeed, poor Bill received more than twenty, perhaps we might say thirty, cross-buttocks, each of which was terribly effective. Harry Jones showed tactics of the very highest order. It is difficult to say which we had most occasion to admire—his out-fighting or in-fighting. He was evidently notwithstanding the disparity in size, much stronger than Savage, and, in fact, so fine was his science that he quitted the ring with hardly a mark on his face, and returned to Staines to dine so little “the worse for wear” that a stranger could not have discovered from his appearance that he had been fighting. His brave but unfortunate antagonist, on the contrary, was borne off the ground to the “Cricketers” public-house, where he was put to bed. The fight would have been brought to a conclusion much sooner had not Jones, in the early part of the action, sprained his left arm in one of the falls. The injury prevented the use of his left hand throughout the rest of the fight. Not the slightest dispute took place during the whole of the fight. Jones was often deservedly applauded for his forbearance in releasing Savage when he was entirely at his mercy, and, upon the whole, it was as fair, clever, and manly a battle as the best well-wishers to honest pugilism would desire to witness.
Jones had now given undeniable proofs of more than ordinary boxing qualifications. In fact by many fanciers he was declared to be the best ten stone man on the list. Ned Stockman, however, “the Lively Kid,” at that time a first favourite in sporting circles, strenuously denied this at all times and places, pointing to his early defeats of Harry, twice for purses (of course impromptu affairs), and later for £25 in the regular P.R., at Epping, in 1824. Mr. Stockman, however, had forgotten that Harry had been improving in bone and stamina (he was only twenty-one), while “the Lively Kid” had been “going the pace” in very fast company. Ned soon got on a match for £25 a-side, and, all going smoothly, articles were signed, and he met Harry Jones at Shere Mere, on the 16th September, 1828. A clever fight on the part of Stockman, not without occasional game rallies, almost uniformly to the advantage of the Sailor Boy, in the forty-third round ended in Stockman’s defeat, his chances being quite out some time before the finale.