Isaac Perrins, a Georgian Era Giant
For the masses, life in Georgian England was a mean affair. The squalid conditions of life in the industrializing cities promoted disease and parents struggled simply to keep their children’s bellies full. Not surprisingly, the people of that era were considerably smaller than today. A prizefighter who approached 200 pounds was considered a large boxer during the era. At times during the 18ths and 19ths centuries, the heavyweight championship was held by men who would be welter or middleweights in today’s world.
But Isaac Perrins of Birmingham could step across the centuries and would remain a full-sized heavyweight. He stood 6'2” and weighed in at about 17 stone, or nearly 240 pounds, and was powerfully built and well-formed. At a time when physical strength still had a daily, utilitarian value, Perrins’ power was legendary. The machine shop foreman once lifted a nearly 800-pound block of iron into the back of a wagon. He was widely regarded as the strongest man in England.
Beyond brute strength, he possessed athleticism and a lively intellect. The county choir master had a bright, witty personality and approached boxing with the same studious attention that most masters of the brutal art bring. The result was one of the most dangerous boxers of the era, a powerful giant with technique.
Perrins’ backers had trouble even finding opponents for him. He easily and quickly demolished a few brave souls who dared to challenge him and then published an open challenge to all of England, for 500 guineas, a fortune for the time. The reigning heavyweight champion of England, Tom Johnson, gladly took him up on the offer. They fought on October 22, 1789.
Johnson was the first great champion of the boxing resurgence that swept England in the late 18th century. He was regarded as the greatest champion since the legendary Jack Broughton. A corn porter by trade, a popular story about him demonstrates his innately heroic character. When a fellow porter became to sick to work, Johnson doubled up and carried two bags of corn from wharf to warehouse, in order to continue drawing his friends’ wages to keep his family from falling into destitution.
So obviously Johnson was an imposing physical specimen in his own right, standing about 5'9” and weighing just under 200 pounds. Yet, when the two men stripped down to fight, Pierce Egan writes that
“Johnson, who in other fights appeared as a big man, by the side of Perrins now looked like a boy; the spectators were struck by the difference and even Johnson’s friends began to shake.”
Perrin’s friends from Birmingham were so confident in their mammoth hero that they offered opening odds of 2–1 for his challenge against the champion. As the fight began, Johnson, normally an aggressive, come-forward fighter, was forced to play the evasive role. While landing some heavy shots on Perrins, he was forced to use the tactic of “shifting,” or dropping to the ground unnecessarily, in order to force the end of a round and escape to his corner to catch his breath.
This was a natural strategy to use against a gigantic opponent, in order to fatigue him. But Perrins was a muscular athlete and not easily tired. The fight turned into a drawn out battle. Perrins taunted Johnson: “Why what have you brought me here? This is not the valiant Johnson, the champion of England! You have imposed upon me a mere boy!”
The insult inspired Johnson to dig in and attack with fury. The fight became one of the most brutal slugfests in the history of bare knuckle boxing, with the odds wavering back and forth and more and more bets being placed. Johnson closed Perrins’ left eye and the giant returned the favor by swelling shut Johnson’s right eye. Johnson broke Perrins’ nose so badly that it looked, in the words of Egan, “it split down so completely as to have the appearance of being done with a knife.”
Yet Perrins showed no sign of quit and continued to press hard on Johnson, muscling him all over the field of battle while Johnson gamely evaded damage and banged away at his larger challenger. Perrins’ big frame at last began to exhaust itself and the bout turned into a rout, with Johnson brutally pounding the big man while the big man somehow managed to keep coming forward for more abuse.
Egan writes that “Perrins’ head had scarcely the traces left of a human being” and yet he continued to stay upright, unwilling to concede defeat. After 62 rounds and an hour and 15 minutes of bloody fighting, Perrins’ own friend and backers finally convinced him to retire from the field, even as his defeat cost many of them hundreds, and even thousands, of pounds in gambling losses.
After his boxing career, Perrins moved to Manchester and followed a common pattern for boxers by opening a Public House, which was popular with both literary and music types as well as members of the boxing Fancy.
Perrins’ death provided yet a last example of his heroic nobility. In 1800, at age 50, he lost his life while attempting to save neighbors from a fire
