1705 D. Defoe Dyet of Poland 45 This worthy Patriot's Service by Sea and Land attest for him that his Thoughts are above Prize fighting and such Vulgar exercises.

1754 S. Fielding & J. Collier Cry I. i. ix. 171 They spurr'd the wise monkey on with..many more such words of encouragement, as are proper to be made use of at a prize-fighting.

1794 S. Cullen Haunted Priory (Dublin) vi. 111 He has done more good, and got more honour in one week since, than he could have got in fifty years mad prize-fighting about the world.

1807 Times 3 Aug. 3/1 The disputed battle between Dutch Sam and Tom Belcher, respecting a foul hit, is likely to prove a knock-down blow to the practice of prize fighting altogether.

1865 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? I. xii. 96 Though given to sport, by which he meant modern prize-fighting.., Mr Jones was a man who dearly loved respectable customers.

1890 Rev. of Reviews 2 510/2 Prize-fighting in the ordinary sense of the term—i.e., a fight for money with fists, fought out to the bitter end—is absolutely illegal.

1911 J. London Mexican in Sat. Evening Post 19 Aug. 8/3 He despised prizefighting. It was the hated game of the hated Gringo.

1933 S. Walker Night Club Era 7 On this same night Bat Masterson..toiled over the halting prose which went into his column on prizefighting at the Morning Telegraph.

1991 Hist. Today Oct. 38/1 Until the early nineteenth century most betting was on footracing, cruel sports such as cock fighting and dog fighting, and prize fighting.

1700 E. Ward London Spy II. vi. 9 One of the Prize-Fighting Gladiators, from Dorset-Garden Theatre.

1705 D. Defoe Dyet of Poland ii. 45 Prize-fighting Triumphs pass no more Cheap-side, Nor female Champions in their Armour ride.

a1763 J. Byrom Verses Figg & Sutton in Misc. Poems (1773) I. 43 Long was the great Figg, by the prize Fighting Swains, Sole Monarch acknowledg'd of Marybone Plains.

1841 Times 1 Oct. 5/5 The old prize-fighting petty monarchs..were no longer kings de jure after they had lost a leg, hand, or arm in battle.

1852 G. A. Sala in Househ. Words 16 Oct. 104/2 His eminently prize-fighting face.

1869 A. Trollope Phineas Finn I. ix. 73 Nowhere else is there the same good-humoured, affectionate, prize-fighting ferocity in politics.

1919 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 40 27 He hears of a king who has a prize-fighting giant.

1956 Walla Walla (Washington) Union-Bull. 17 Apr. 14/2 (caption) Derek had to learn boxing for his role as a prizefighting priest in ‘The Leather Saint’.

1990 Ring Oct. 71/1 Follow the rhythmic sounds of the speed bags and the grunts of men and boys who dream of prizefighting glory.