tv fight

[rachadamsfight]

Hi all

just thought i'd let all the uk fight fans know there's a tv show tonight at 9 on yesterday tv featuring women bare knuckle boxing... enjoy!

[michfight]

thanks rach i'll check it out

[JT Edson]

rachadamsfight thanks for sharing. Too bad I'm not from England. Simcock, thanks for the histroy lesson. It really does sound fasinating and I would love to learn more.

JT Edson

[PaulineG]

The program dealt more with the social issues of the time and why the women would fight. It seems there were two distinct types of women's fighting  bare knuckle boxing where they fought with rules and some degree of professionalism in front of big crowds and the more dangerous type of fight between often untrained women where there were no rules these were known as "catfights!"  The fights often took place in the same unsanitary pits that used for dog and cockfighting, bull and near baiting etc. in the dilapidated rookeries of London. The fighters not only ran the risk of serious injuries in the fights but even a small cut could and often did lead to fatal infections. Contrary to what people think they didn't rip each others clothes as only the poorest in society, often prostitutes, took part in the "catfights" so they would often strip to the waist so as not to get what few clothes they owned destroyed. The topless element then as now was also seen as a way to draw a bigger crowd, more crowd more betting and with luck the winner could earn more fighting than "whoring".

[cjsteph8029]

sounds good wish they had it on here

[PaulineG]

Dont know if this will work outside the UK but its free just sign up http://www.tvcatchup.com/   Fight Club was screened on the Yesterday channel at 9pm GMT (that should be BST British Summer Time but I doubt anyone would believe there is such a thing in Britain) but the show will be repeated tomorrow at 10pm GMT

[cjsteph8029]

nope dont work for the us

[hunter1985]

is there a tape of this program in the internet?

[hunter1985]

http://uktv.co.uk/yesterday/item/aid/654322

[hunter1985]

and is there the whole program in youtube?

[hunter1985]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O_K2tVzVwk

watched it yesterday....oh my just what i fantasise about. georgian women getting down and dirty lol wish it had been me

lady anne x

yes you and me in nasty fight

[parkside]

Thought the programme was pretty disappointing would have liked more facts about actual fighters

[PaulineG]

Thought the programme was pretty disappointing would have liked more facts about actual fighters

Yes it was a little disappointing not be able to learn more about the actual participants but they did make a big point right at the start that the accounts from the time were sketchy at best. Considering the fights took place in places where the standard of literacy was virtually zero its not surprising that written accounts  were few and far between these fights were not publicised like conventional bare knuckle fights it was all by word of mouth. The literate classes would not venture into the rookeries not if they expected to come out again. Also there was no police force in London at the time and most reports of fights from the later Victorian times came from the records of the police force that would have been called to investigate disturbances, the old Police Gazette published daily for the Metropolitan Police from the mid 1800's is a positive goldmine of juicy stories. Daily newspapers were in their infancy and didn't have the same kind of investigative journalists that we do nowadays. Very little history from before the Industrial Revolution was written by the lower classes and to the upper and middle classes the poverty stricken inhabitants of the rookeries didn't exist or leastwise they pretended they didn't so their exploits good or bad passed into history unrecorded.

[uknorthmale]

Was very disappointed in it,i recorded it on Sky so id be able to watch it whenever i wanted but watched it the once and deleted it,so nobody who hasnt seen it has missed much.

[cjsteph8029]

still like to see it i like all docs