On the use of “Milling” in Bareknuckle Boxing

Jeremy Brett, arguably one of the best actors ever to portray the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, brings to life a scene from “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” in this clip:

Being a made for TV drama, the fight choreography does leave a little to be desired; but what is interesting is that Brett was clearly trained enough in period pugilism to know about “milling”. All that waving his hands about is not just for show, it is accurate and – perhaps more importantly, it had a purpose.

Most modern fighters tend to think of a guard as a “passive” thing. A defensive posture designed to absorb impact and minimise damager. I have talked at some length about this before; this absolutely has its place in the martial arts canon, but I would argue it is a more important strategy in the modern sporting arena than in self defence or in a bareknuckle contest. The extended guard favoured in the 19th century would be pretty poor at absorbing impact; it gave virtually no consideration to “covering up” at all.

Instead, this guard was more “active”. The hands were constantly moving, disguising your own intentions, creating a tangle of motion through which it should be difficult to sneak a good blow, and deflecting strikes using the sort of forearm blocking now considered to be more “eastern” in style. This practise, of keeping the hands in constant motion, was known as “milling” (presumably because the motion was reminiscent of the sails of a windmill).

This “active” guard is now found in a particular style of Silat called Lian Padukan. Lian Padukan was developed after the Malay riots of 1969 where native Malaysians and ethnic Chinese immigrants fought running battles in the streets and mixed traditional Silat with the Wing Chun style of Gung fu. The core punch, both of Lian Padukan & Wing Chun, shares several technical similarities with the vertical fistpunching favoured by bareknuckle boxers, and in both of these systems, martial artists use a milling style motion to trap and deflect their opponents strikes, before opening them up for a counterpunch, usually to the face.

So; how was milling used in Bareknuckle boxing? The Simple answer is we don’t know. One of the first things Thomas Edison recorded in his Black Maria studio wasthis fight between Leonard & Cushing in 1894. And although some footage survives of James Corbett & Bob Fitzsimmons fighting in 1897, it is grainy, partial and does not show much in the way of milling. Both of these recordings, which are amongst the earliest boxing clips known to exist (in fact, I think the Leonard-Cushing clip might be the earliest. I recall reading somewhere that Edison had intended to have Jim Corbett & John Sullivan spar but couldn’t afford them) are after John L. Sullivan, and well into the territory of Queensberry Rules, which might go some way to explain the lack of milling.

Another alternative is that milling was never particularly widely used. Many boxers and MMA fighters “paw” at their opponents to mess with their guard and create openings for full punches. That is certainly displayed in the early clips, and perhaps milling was simply the term that contemporaries applied to this “pawing” gesture.

There, are, however, no surviving videos from the heyday of Bareknuckle pugilism, and the few photos and illustrations we have offer no clues as to how this concept was put into practise. Our best surviving evidence is footage of John L. Sullivan at the world’s fair in 1908, as he demonstrated his milling with James J. Jeffries. John uses the mill not as Silat practitioners to – to trap arms and throw strikes whilst inside the opponents posture – but instead to confuse his opponent and open them up by manipulating the level at which they are guarding. This would suit his known style as a rusher who preferred to deliver haymakers.

I suspect there might also have been a slightly more scientific use of the mill by James Mace, who was a self professed “Disciple of the straight left”. I know from my own experience and experiments that it is possible to circle out to the left of an opponents jab and use milling to contact their extended left arm with my right whilst delivering my own left either to the eye or the short ribs.

Another point to consider would be Daniel Mendoza, who has a reputation for “milling on the retreat”. This most likely means that Mendoza used his much vaunted footwork to execute the retreat whilst his arms became more active, adding to his defence and unpredictability to discourage opponents from chasing him.

The above image, from magnolia box, suggests that milling on the retreat might largely have been a strategy of smashing down one’s opponents incoming strikes as they attempt to rush. Note the figure on the left has the left hand, which would usually be leading, raised as though about to strike Tettsui, either on his opponents arms or at the bridge of the nose.

There are all sorts of possibilities that milling opens up, however the existing evidence of to what extent and how milling was actually used is frightfully thin on the ground. The fact that it seems to have gradually disappeared as a fighting strategy suggests that the close guard which is now favoured is a better option for modern fighters. But whether this is because of rule changes, different approaches to throwing punches, or simply the impossibility of not getting exhausted from waving large and heavy gloves around for an extended period of time is not something that we can know at the minute.

My suspicion is that it is a mix of all three elements, and I think the only way to proceed is to experiment with traditional pugilistic rules and techniques and establish how it works when interacting with the other known technical facets of pugilism in the period. For example, the preference for longer, straighter punches, body shots and wrestling and the avoidance of looping or power punches. Whilst this cannot give us a definitive answers as to how milling was used, it can give us a good indication of it’s likely uses, and we can then corroborate (or not) this with eyewitness accounts.