Feasts of Blood: The Forgotten History of Welsh Prize Fighting

Prize fighting in the nineteenth century was a major health risk, frequently fatal and as a matter of course causing disfigured faces, battered bodies and crippled hands. Considered illegal, with everyone involved – even spectators - liable to punishment in the courts, it nevertheless thrived clandestinely, attracting crowds in their thousands and laying strong claim to be considered Wales' first national mass spectator sport.

Wales' earliest remembered ring heroes date from the early twenti...