The Modern Art of Boxing

Daniel Mendoza, considered perhaps the greatest boxer of the Broughton era, records in this book one of the earliest and most important manuals on English Boxing. In this manual, probably written late 1789, the immensely popular Mendoza details the "scientific" methods he used to successfully compete in a terrifically physical sport for which no weight classes existed, himself being 5'7" and 160 lbs. Herein he stipulates specifics on training, diet, and sleep. He then describes fight strategy and, perhaps most importantly, lays out a series of 6 detailed blow-by-blow lessons for instructing students in the science of English Boxing. He closes out his manual with a description of one of his most famous fights against Richard Humphreys, the first three rounds of which read like the script for a Bruce Lee movie with Humphreys striking out, Mendoza parrying and then returning a single blow which knocks Humphreys off of feet, ending the round.