The date,

The Date 13th of November 1815.

The place, Donnelly's Hollow, a great amphitheater in County Kildare, Ireland.

Today, more than 20,000 locals have filled the arena to witness their champion boxer.

A brick wall of a man named Dan Donnelly, for whom the arena is named,

as he takes on the English champion George Cooper.

If one were to guess that this bloody, brutal and savage,

bare-knuckled slugfest was a manifestation of the tense history

between two nations, you'd be...

Oh, yes.

Yeah, you'd be faster on your feet than poor George Cooper.

The Irishman finally chopped down the English champ by the 12th blood-soaked round.

It was the crowning achievement of Dan Donnelly's brief fighting career.

It's interesting to note that this sporting hero once a symbol of national pride

fought and won only three professional fights in his entire career before he unexpectedly passed away

in 1820 at the age of 32.

And here's where the story takes something of a macabre turn.

Dan Donnelly wasn't in the ground for more than a few days before grave robbers raided his tomb and took off with his body in a sack.

The surgeon that hired the grave robbers was extremely curious about one particular aspect

of Dan Donnelly's anatomy. His unusually long, sinewy and muscular arms, particularly his right arm,

the arm that was used to destroy his English rivals in the ring. He returned the rest

of the body to the grave site, but kept the arm, preserving it in a thick coat of red lead paint.

...