Boxing Skill

Holmes the bare-knuckle fighter.

Sherlock Holmes is an adept bare-knuckle fighter. "The Gloria Scott" mentions that he boxed while at university, and in "The Yellow Face" Watson calls him one of the finest boxers of his weight that he has ever seen.

Quick Facts

Primary practitioner: Sherlock Holmes

Lore & Background

In The Sign of Four Holmes introduces himself to McMurdo, a prize fighter, as the amateur who fought three rounds with him at Alison's rooms on the night of his benefit four years back. The "baritsu" of "The Adventure of the Empty House" is Conan Doyle's version of bartitsu, which combines jujitsu with boxing and cane fencing. Holmes is also described, or shown, as having above-average physical strength, and an illustration to "The Solitary Cyclist" has him outfighting Mr Woodley.

Reader's Guide

Later retellings pick the thread up. In Andrew Lane's novel Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud the 14-year-old Sherlock is lured to a fair and forced to take part in a boxing match, from which he is kidnapped and interrogated by the unseen Baron. Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie, both martial arts enthusiasts, drew on baritsu for the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes.