James "Deaf" Burke 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall, weighing 200 lb (90 kg), was one of England's earliest boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 champions. He trained in the area around the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

.

On May 30, 1833, in a particularly brutal fight for the English heavyweight championship that lasted more than 3 hours, Burke defeated Simon Byrne

Simon Byrne

Simon Byrne , nicknamed "The Emerald Gem", was an Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter. The heavyweight boxing champion of Ireland, he was drawn to England by the larger sums of prize money on offer and his hopes of becoming the heavyweight champion there as well...

, the Irish champion. Burke knocked him unconscious in the 10th round and Byrne died three days later.