Background
Mendoza was born on July 5, 1764 in London, United Kingdom.
Mendoza was born on July 5, 1764 in London, United Kingdom.
Born in Aldgate, London, he wrote in his memoirs that “I was sent, at a very early age, to a Jews’ school, where I remained for some years, and was instructed in English grammar, writing, arithmetic, and... I was also instructed in the Hebrew language.”
Anti-Semitic incidents led to numerous street brawls. After one outstanding performance, Mendoza was persuaded to try his hand as a professional boxer. Barcknuckle victories over much larger opponents marked him as a coming man and earned him such names as the “Star of the East” and the “Light of Israel.” The Prince of Wales (later King George IV) attended one of these contests and personally handed Mendoza his winning share of the purse.
Between 1788 and 1790 Mendoza fought three matches against Richard Humphries, the reigning title holder and public favorite. The much smaller Mendoza (five feet, seven inches, 160 pounds) defeated Humphries in two contests and was considered the champion of England, writing a popular book The Art of Boxing.
After his victories Mendoza was received by King George III. His triumphs, both in and out of the ring, endeared him to the Jewish community. His friendship with royalty and thc aristocracy helped elevate his coreligionists in the eyes of the English public.
He lost his championship to John Jackson in 1795 in seventeen minutes. His financial difficulties began soon afterward, and troubled him the rest of his life. He spent money freely and was usually in debt. Mendoza wrote a colorful autobiography, Memoirs (1816).
Quotations:
MENDOZA ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE RING:
Having in the course of my life fought 33 pitched battles, most of them with antagonists far superior to me in strength and size, in nearly thc whole of which I have come off victorious; being now considerably past the prime of life, and having a numerous family [lie had eleven children] dependent on me for support, I trust it will be admitted il is high time for me to retire from scenes in which my life might be endangered, and the means for providing for my family entirely destroyed....
Quotes from others about the person
In 1790 a boxing writer said of Mendoza, “His blows are given with astonishing quickness, and he is allowed to strike oftener, and stop more dexterously, than any other man.” Another wrote that he was “the introducer of a new, more rapid, and more elegant style of boxing.”
When he took his show on the road he always billed himself as “Mendoza the Jew.” Recalling his tour of the British Isles and Ireland, The Ring magazine said, “He was an especial favorite in Ireland... where he toured and lectured extensively, demonstrating the finer points of the boxing art as developed by him. The attentive Hibernians learned their lessons well and were to be paragons of the Mendoza school.”
Two descendants of his family were lawyer and statesman Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading, and actor Peter Sellers.