[3] In October 1816 in Manhattan, Hyer (a butcher) fought Tom Beasley (an English mariner) in what is traditionally said to be the first professional American bout, in that it was open to the public and English boxing rules, specifically the Broughton rules, were observed.

[4] Historian Elliot J. Gorn, writing in the 1980s, states that although Hyer broke his arm, Beasley had been badly beaten, so after mutual friends intervened it was declared a draw.

Gorn also states that the match was not actually the first ring fight in America, or the first open to the public, but that its "significance lay in the perception that it was a historic event worth recording, in its being the earliest American fight kept alive as living memory of a heroic past.

When men gathered at New York's Empire Club decades later, they recounted this battle time and again.... Hyer and Beasley were important because they were remembered as founding fathers.

[4] The younger Hyer's famous victory against Yankee Sullivan in 1849 greatly spurred the popularity of the sport and served to preserve the legacy of his father's pioneering fight.