James Figg (1684 - 1734). James Figg was an English prizefighter and instructor in historical European martial arts. While Figg primarily fought with weapons including short swords, quarterstaffs, and cudgels, he also played an important role in boxing's development. In 1719, he opened a London fighting venue that could seat more than 1,000 spectators and was one of the first of its kind. In 1725, he organized and promoted modern history's first international boxing match at his amphitheatre. He claimed to have won more than 200 matches during his career, and was posthumously considered to be the first boxing champion. Little is known about Figg's early life, except that he came to London from Thame, Oxfordshire. In London, Figg gained a reputation as a skilled fighter and set up a business training students in combat with weapons and fists. He promoted fights with both male and female combatants at his venue as well as bouts of animal blood sport. He also set up outdoor boxing booths and rings at fairs and in fields and parks around London. By the end of his career in the early 1730s, Figg had fought in front of European royalty, including George II and the future Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, as well as aristocrats, politicians, writers, artists, and actors, and was one of the better-known personages in London. Among depictions of Figg in art and literature, art historians most discuss him for his friendship with William Hogarth and his appearance in several of the artist's paintings and engravings. James Figg was born in Thame, Oxfordshire, sometime before 1700, though various sources dispute the exact year. Little is certain about his early life before 1714, by which time he was a student of the defence instructor Timothy Buck of Clare Market. In 1719, Figg opened an amphitheatre and fighting school in London adjoining the City of Oxford tavern in Oxford Road, Marylebone, where he taught bare-knuckle boxing, fencing, quarterstaff and cudgel combat. While boxing had existed for decades, and a fenced enclosure existed in Hyde Park for practitioners of historical European martial arts, Figg appears to have been one of the first people to turn combat sports into a business. His venture was one of the earliest and most noted indoor fighting venues of its time. His students included early professional prizefighters such as William Flanders, William Gill, and Thomas Sibblis, as well as men of the gentry and nobility. Figg was also a fight promoter and hosted boxing matches fought by both male and female pioneers in the sport such as Thomas Allen, John Gretton, Bob Whitaker, and Elizabeth Wilkinson, as well as bouts of animal blood sport, including bear-baiting and tiger-baiting. Though Figg posthumously gained a reputation as a boxing pioneer, he primarily fought with weapons such as short swords, quarterstaffs and cudgels.