Fencer and pugilist, born in Thame, Oxfordshire, SC England, UK. He gave displays of quarterstaff, fencing, and boxing in Marylebone, and ran a booth at Southwark. He is regarded as one of the greatest of 18th-c sporting figures, and is portrayed in Hogarth's Rake's Progress and Southwark Fair.
James Figg (1695-1734) was a British bare-knuckle boxer. After his rise to fame, he started his own school and taught boxing, fencing, and quarterstaff. Figg was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.
Figg is regarded as being the modern father of the "manly art of self-defense."{1} From his time until 1860, when Sayers fought Heegan (no decision), the list of champions is unbroken.
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