\n Once home to fishermen, Pyms Gardens was known for its pungent smells, poor sanitation and tough living conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Among its residents was Tom Sayers, a bricklayer who would become one of Britain\u2019s greatest bare-knuckle boxers.\n<\/p>\n
\n This year marks the 200th birthday of the famous boxer.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cllr Jacob Allen marked the occasion by cleaning the plaque on North Road to Pugilist Tom Sayers ahead of his birthday on Monday, May 25.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “I wanted to pay respects to Sayers and make sure his plaque was looking pristine ahead of his bicentennial birthday.\n<\/p>\n
\n “As an administration, we are proud of Brighton & Hove\u2019s heritage, and that includes celebrating figures from our past who made an impact (literally in Tom the boxer\u2019s case!).”\n<\/p>\n
\n Born in 1826 and brought up in the Pimlico area of the North Laine, Mr Sayers worked on the London Road viaduct, which was completed in 1846.\n<\/p>\n
\n By this time, he had already turned to prizefighting.\n<\/p>\n
\n His first bout was broken up by police, as bare-knuckle boxing was illegal and fights were typically held in secret locations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Though just 5ft 8in and weighing between 112 and 154 pounds, Mr Sayers gained a reputation for his skill and tenacity in the ring.\n<\/p>\n
\n He fought for the English Middleweight title in 1853 and eventually won it in 1857, becoming the last English champion before the introduction of the Queensbury Rules.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1860, Mr Sayers made history by fighting American John Heenan in what is considered the first international boxing match.\n<\/p>\n
\n The bout lasted 37 rounds over two hours and 20 minutes before being declared a draw after spectators invaded the ring.\n<\/p>\n
\n He retired immediately after the fight and died of diabetes five years later on November 8, 1865, at the age of 39.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Sayers\u2019 funeral at Highgate Cemetery drew a crowd of 10,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was posthumously inducted into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954, cementing his legacy as one of boxing\u2019s greats and Brighton\u2019s most famous sons from a long-lost neighbourhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once home to fishermen, Pyms Gardens was known for its pungent smells, poor sanitation and tough living conditions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-614001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}