Daniel Mendoza
Daniel Mendoza, often known as Dan Mendoza, was an English boxer, who was a popular prizefighter in late 18th-century Britain. He played a significant role in advancing the scientific technique in boxing by publishing two books on the subject and by conducting frequent public exhibitions.
While modern sources often portray Mendoza as the English Prizefighting Champion from 1792 to 1795, contemporary sources from the late 18th and early 19th century do not describe Mendoza in this manner.
Early life and ancestry
Mendoza was born in the Whitechapel area of London on 5 July 1764, to Sephardic Jewish parents Abraham Aaron Mendoza and Esther Lopez.By the time he was born, Jews had been allowed to settle in England for about one hundred years, having been readmitted officially by Cromwell in 1656. They were still regarded by many Londoners with a degree of suspicion and faced significant antisemitism. Mendoza's ancestors came from the Kingdom of Jaén ; they had emigrated to the Netherlands, which had a policy of toleration, where his grandfather was born. The family moved to London, with ancestors living there for a century before Mendoza's birth. Several sources wrote that some of his London ancestors from Spain had earlier concealed their Jewish identity and converted to Christianity, becoming Marranos. According to many genealogical websites, his parents were and were believed to be artisans by trade. Jewish scholar Albert Hyamson wrote that Aaron Mendoza, a shochet who had written a book on his craft in 1773, was his grandfather.
Mendoza attended a Jewish school, Shaare Tikvah, where he was instructed in English grammar, writing and arithmetic, as well as Hebrew. He grew up in London's East End in poor surroundings and worked as a glass cutter, labourer, assistant to a green grocer, and actor before taking up boxing as a profession.
Early career highlights 1780–90
Mendoza's first fight occurred in 1780 when he was 16. At the time, he was working for a tea dealer in Aldgate. The fight was not a prize fight for a purse, but a contest to settle a dispute with a porter over payment for a consignment of tea. The porter had demanded twice the agreed price for the consignment and Mendoza said the porter behaved in a manner unfit for a gentleman. After much arguing between the porter and the proprietor of the tea dealership, the porter challenged the owner to settle the dispute by a duel with fists.Believing the porter was cheating his frail employer, Mendoza accepted the challenge on his behalf. Richard Humphries acted as Mendoza's second. Humphries would later act as a manager for Mendoza, arranging training facilities and securing payment for fights. The duel with the porter took place in the street outside the tea dealership in a hastily constructed ring. The fight lasted for forty-five minutes, ending when the porter declared he was unable to continue. This victory brought a small measure of fame to Mendoza, as stories of the fight spread through the surrounding neighborhoods and portrayed Mendoza as the talented whippersnapper who had not just beaten, but thrashed his larger opponent.
Bout with Harry the Coalheaver, 1784
Turning professional at 18, Mendoza fought at Mile End in 1784 against Harry the Coalheaver. After 40 rounds, lasting 118 minutes, Mendoza brought the larger man into submission.Bouts with Tom Tyne, 1785 and 1786
Mendoza then fought Tom Tyne, a tailor from Bermondsey. The exact date of this fight is unclear. Mendoza himself claims 1783 but other events in the narrative of his autobiography suggest a date closer to 1786/7. Wheldon notes that a report in the Public Advertiser seems to set the date accurately at 7 November 1785. The report read as follows: 'Monday, a pitched battle was fought near Wanstead, between Mendoza, the noted fighting Jew, and a tailor, of the Borough, which after a contest of 40 minutes was decided in favour of the tailor, to the no small disappointment and regret of the knowing ones'.On July 1786 Mendoza fought a rematch against Tyne at Duppas Hill, Croydon, having dispatched a couple of minor fighters in the intervening eight months. The second bout vs Tyne resulted in victory for Mendoza in a fight lasting 27 rounds and almost an hour. Mendoza noted that in the second bout Tyne fought with 'uncommon shyness' and that 'several sporting gentlemen assembled on this occasion'.
Bout with Sam Martin, 1787
After his fight with Sam Martin the Bath Butcher in Barnet on 17 April 1787, which Mendoza won in ten rounds and a total of 26 minutes, he was transported home followed by a cheering crowd who carried lighted torches and sang 'See the Conquering Hero Comes'. After the fight, the Prince of Wales, who would become King George IV, presented Mendoza with 500 pounds, in addition to the 500 pounds he had won in the match, and shook his hand in full view of the gallery. Mendoza used the money to open a boxing school in Capel Court. The recognition by royalty annoyed his second, occasional manager Richard Humphries, who became a rival and planned for a match, but it elevated the stature of Jews in London.With the money he won from the Martin fight, Mendoza is believed to have married first cousin Esther Mendoza around 1789. They would have eleven children, whom Mendoza later struggled to support. Before he married, he promised Esther to quit boxing, but was unable to keep his promise.
Bouts with Richard Humphries, 1787–90
The next phase of Mendoza's career was defined by a series of bouts with his former mentor and second Richard Humphries between 1787 and 1790. The first, and least known, of these took place on 9 September 1787; Mendoza lost in 29 minutes. This fight was not considered as important by historians, perhaps because Humphries dominated, or because there were fewer persons in attendance.A second Mendoza-Humphries bout took place, after postponement, on a rainy 9 January 1788 in Odiham, Hampshire and was attended by 10,000 spectators.
Included in the audience were the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, who wagered 40,000 pounds on the match. Humphries was a 2–1 favourite to win, though Mendoza had his own followers and was heavily backed by the Jewish community.
The fight was disrupted from a foul called when Humphries' second, the reigning champion, Tom Johnson blocked a blow but, according to Mendoza's account, this did not end the fight. According to his own account, Mendoza slipped on the wet boards of the ring and badly sprained his ankle, preventing him from continuing, and requiring him to forfeit the bout.
At least seven English newspapers of the era, including London's Times and Chronicle, published articles on the Mendoza–Humphries bouts, and United States papers ran stories as well. In one newspaper article to advertise their meeting, Mendoza taunted, "Mr. Humphreys is afraid, he dares not meet me as a boxer … though he has the advantages of strength and age, though a teacher of the art, he meanly shrinks from a public trial of that skill". Humphries replied Mendoza should make the same claim in the ring, and vowed to meet him.
In his third bout against Humphries on 6 May 1789 in Stilton, Huntingdonshire, Mendoza dominated and won on a foul in the 65th round when Humphries was believed to have dropped to the ground without being hit. Mendoza had trained for the bout at the Essex home of his principal Sir Thomas Apreece. The specially built arena had tiered seating and could accommodate up to 3,000 people, a more modest crowd than at his second bout. The battle commenced a little after one o'clock in the afternoon. The smaller crowd may have been due to Huntingdonshire being a long journey for many fans, ninety miles from London. It was clear early in the fight that Mendoza's hand and foot work were vastly superior to Humphries', though both men were accomplished scientific boxers and had studied each other's style.
Mendoza won his fourth and final bout with Humphries on 29 September 1790 in 72 rounds in Doncaster Recognised by many for his previous win, Mendoza was the 5–4 favourite, and he thoroughly thrashed his opponent, ten minutes into the bout. Pierce Egan, English boxing author of the period, noted that many in the crowd were behind Mendoza, and that the "humanity of Mendoza was conspicuous throughout the fight—often was it witnessed that Dan threw his arm when he might have put in a most tremendous blow upon his exhausted adversary".
First fight versus Bill Warr
On 14 May 1792, Mendoza fought a bout at Smitham Bottom, Croydon, against Bill Warr his former sparring-partner. This fight resulted in a victory for Mendoza in 23 rounds, 116 minutes. After his win against Warr, Mendoza is believed to have met with King George III at Windsor Castle. Poems and songs were written of Mendoza, he sat for portraits, and was asked to give boxing exhibitions at London's prestigious Covent Gardens. Mendoza was paid 50 English pounds, an impressive sum in 1790, for several of his boxing demonstrations at Covent Gardens, which he conducted as often as three times a week.Mendoza's style of boxing
Pierce Egan recorded that ‘Mendoza was considered one of the most elegant and scientific pugilists in the whole race of boxers. He rose up like a phenomenon in the pugilistic hemisphere, and was a star of the first brilliancy for a considerable period’. The anonymous work Pancratia noted that ‘In his manner there is more neatness than strength, and it has been said, more show than service; his blows are in general deficient in force, but given with astonishing quickness, and he is to strike oftener, and stop more dexterously, than any other man.’Other attributes considered typical of Mendoza’s style were: ‘stopping and returning with the same hand’, and extensive use of the ‘chopper’. He was also noted for his ability in ‘tiring out a man’s strength by acting on the defensive till the assault in turn could be practiced with success’. Mendoza was believed to have ‘derived his primitive knowledge of boxing from the tuition of his elegant rival Humphreys; but he so rapidly improved upon the system of his master, as to remain several years without a rival’.