Isaac Bitton

Isaac Haim Bitton (29 June 1779 – February 1838) was a Dutch Jewish bare-knuckle boxer who is most famous for a fight which George Maddox that lasted 74 rounds.

Life

Bitton was born in Amsterdam to Isaac and Rachel, a family of poor Jewish street hawkers. Due to difficult economic circumstances in Holland, he moved to London with his father at the age of ten. Isaac was a fencer, before he took up boxing at the age of 22.

On 31 July 1801, Bitton defeated Tom Jones of Paddington, at Wimbledon, Surrey. He next fought George Maddox to a draw at Wimbledon on 13 December 1802, the match lasting an incredible seventy-four rounds. On Willesden Green, Bitton fought another draw with William Wood, a London coachman, that was interrupted in the thirty-sixth round by the appearance of officers from Bow Street, as boxing was illegal in London at the time. On 12 July 1807 he fought in an exhibition with Bob Gregson at the Fives Court, St Martin's Street in Leicester Square. On 16 November 1812 he assisted Jack Carter in his match against Jack Power.

Shortly after 1804, Bitton retired from the prize-ring, and established an athletic school on Goulston Street, Whitechapel, where he gave instruction in boxing and fencing. Married in 1818, he had a large family. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery near Bethnal Green.

He is an ancestor of the EastEnders actress June Brown and was featured on Who Do You Think You Are? in August 2011.