The first in-depth look at the astonishing, little-known world of bare-knuckle prize fighting "a terrific historical and anecdotal look at pugilistic practice." The New York Post

In its heyday, which spanned the mid-18th to the late-19th centuries, the bare-knuckle prizefight was a wildly popular sport that, as gloved boxing does now, produced some extraordinary characters and legendary bouts, both in Britain and the United States. With contests lasting hours and going into over 100 thrilling, punishing rounds, the sport drew crowds both common and elite-from royals and politicians to writers like Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope to Dickens and Thackaray, to the middle and working classes all drawn together by the brutal excitement and the spirited wagering the sport generated. Much like gloved boxing today, average men could become superstars overnight and they could lose the accolades and their health just as quickly.

In Bare Fists, Bob Mee shows the fascinating evolution of bare knuckle boxing, from the earliest days when there were no rules, to what was, for bare-knuckle fighting, the beginning of the end-the Marquees of Queensbury Rules, with their call for gloves and timed rounds and their banishment of brawl-like moves and wrestling holds. Rich in rare and exhilarating anecdote, Bare Fists recreates with thrilling immediacy all of the big bouts of the sport, including those of the legendary American champion of the 1880s, John L. Sullivan.

"Mee vividly chronicles the evolution of the sport in its pre-glove days oddly fascinating." San Francisco Chronicle

"Sports history buffs will revel in this anecdote-rich overview of a sport that was hugely popular from the mid-18th to the 19th century." Boston Sunday Herald

"An engaging and thorough account of gloveless fighting [Bob Mee] achieves a literate, fact-packed social history rich in color and detail." Robert Flanagan, The Columbus Dispatch

Bob Mee is currently boxing correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. He has also written for the Independent on Sunday and was assistant editor of the trade paper Boxing News. Bare Fists is his fourth boxing book.